tire cracks

rogerkb1936

rogerkb1936

Well-known member
i have some 21" goodyear whitewalls that sat for a long time, weight of vehicle on them, in dry storage. i believe they sat for 25 yrs, maybe more. they have mild to moderate cracks. does this render them useless? they have very little use on them, shame to waste it. but a blowout at 55 mph ain't pleasant either. opinions?
 
rogerkb1936 said:
i have some 21" goodyear whitewalls that sat for a long time, weight of vehicle on them, in dry storage. i believe they sat for 25 yrs, maybe more. they have mild to moderate cracks. does this render them useless? they have very little use on them, shame to waste it. but a blowout at 55 mph ain't pleasant either. opinions?
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I think all of us A owners are notorious for being ch... no, "Thrifty", that's better. But, that being said, what's your safety and your car worth to you? If you are planning on doing 55 mph, I would recommend you pop for new tires and tubes. Good ones. The old tires might be okay for putting around town, but not at high speeds. My opinion...

Richard

I don't know where you are, but a big swap meet is coming up the end of the month in Turlock CA and there are a few new tire vendors there. It might be worth your drive to save shipping costs.
 
Simple answer: Your life is at stake: new tires or no you!

I asked here several years ago about acceptable depth of crask: Answer NOT acceptable. Spare or roll arounds for the shop fine. And spare is scary as well.
 
hopkins_and_boy_with_indian_motorcycle_in_workshop.jpg


Burt Monroe recommends shoe polish in the cracks!
 
To each his own. Folks forget these are NOT tubeless tires and the cars weigh very little. I've NEVER heard of a Model A blowing a tire!

When I was a kid back in the mid 70's I could not afford new tires for my '29 Roadster which was my only car. When I found used tires with decent tread at swap meets I bought them. I paid $5-7 each. They were always old, Some were WW2 era. Because the rubber was typically a bit hard they didn't last all that long. I probably did that for the first 10-15k miles. I commonly drove the car 55-65 mph.

Just before I finally sprung for a new pair (couldn't afford four) I got pulled over one night. I knew I was in trouble when an officer got directly behind me as her headlights would certainly highlight the one inch wide beige "stripe" running about 1/4 around the center of the tread on my right rear tire. Yep, I was down to the cords and knew it! She gave me a "fix-it" ticket.

How many folks here even have experience with a tire blow-out? I have twice with "modern cars" back in the days of recapped tires. Not really a big deal.
 
I'm with you Marco, Unless the car will be used with sustained high speeds for long hours, then it might benefit from new tires.
 
OTOH, why take a chance? A tire failure even at low speeds could affect driving-especially if you are not wearing seat belts, What if you just crumple a fender,bumper, grill shell a little? Wouldn't it be less expensive just to get new tires for your, and other drivers' safety? You're not the only one who might be affected by your Model A not being able to steer as well as it ought to.
 
I had two MW tires from the 50's on my huckster when I started rebuilding it. They had all kinds of thread on them but also had cracks. I used them as rollers for awhile until the tubes started coming out of the cracks. But they were "deep" cracks where just surface cracks may have made them more useful for a longer period of time. I bought another set of rollers from another fellow but when I finally got the huckster finished, I opted for new tires.

So guess the point of this discussion of mine is that they do have uses but like mentioned aboue, it depends on what you want to use the car for and how much you want to spend on it.
 
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No actual knowledge on Model a tires but have been repairing and driving 40's & 50's cars for years. I have to agree with other comments about tubes. The tubes are what hold the air and tires with minor cracks or splits will be ok to drive at least I never had a problem for local driving.
 
Back in ancient history - mid 1990's - our club, Golden Triangle Model A Ford Club was on tour from Beaumont, Texas area to southwestern Louisiana. About a 200 mile round trip. I was in my '28 Pickup and lillian was not with me on this trip. Somewhere close to the Louisiana border I had a flat on one of those OLD, CRACKED tires. As it went flat the brittle rubber of the tire broke and peeled away. With a lot of help from club menbers we got the flat tire off and spare on in record time. One spare down and 150 miles to go. With some forethought I had put an extra spare in the pickup - one on the right fender and one in the bed. Back on the road we visited a Train Museum the on to one of those South Louisiana famous Fish and Crawfish Restaurants. Model A people love to eat.

After eating lunch the group headed back to Texas by the direct route. I on the other hand wanted to visit a friend in Lake Charles who had installed and Overdrive in his car and I wanted to see how he did it. After the visit now about 3 p. m. in the afternoon I headed home with 60 miles to go. I stopped at the Louisiana/Texas border Tourist Information Station for a potty break. BTW the only way to cross the border at this point is be on Interstate 10 - UGH - but necessary for several miles. As I left the building and returned to the little truck - oops she had another flat. Tire not torn up this time - just flat and thank goodness I was still in a parking lot. Jack her up. Remove lug nuts. Put on last of the two spare tires. And now I was ready to head home - the last 30 miles- no problem - guess again.

As I entered from Feeder Road of the Interstate to the Main Highway there was a 2" or more difference in concrete level. YEP. That edge of the concrete split my old CRACKED tire wide open. BLOWOUT. Traveling on my own, 30 miles from home, now with no spare left it was time to swallow my pride and call for help. Lillian had to get her neighbor to help her hook up the trailer and come get me. One of those rare times when my Model A could not make it home by herself.

Two flats and one blowout in one day is more than enough for anyone.

Have an "A" Day. ken
 
How do you define useless?

... and how are you defining moderate cracks?

Over the years I have been intrigued by this "old tire" question.

Many have claimed they have driven "thousands of miles on my old Brand X tires and they still have lots of tread". But there is more than than treadlife to be considered.

Consider the size of the contact patch of the Model A tire, probably only a few square inches of rubber on the road. Fresh rubber is bound to give much better traction (steering, braking, etc.) than old hard rubber.

Cracked/compromised sidewalls can lead to uneven/unusual flexing of the tube inside, this can cause heating or wearing of the tube, and possibly create a blowout. I have seen old tires lose chunks of tread, probably due to old cracked rubber.

If your car is ready to drive, please buy fresh rubber.

Peace
 
Had a catastrophic blow out at thirty on an old alstate tire the tread roped of in one pice and the side wall blew out at the same time
 
How's the braking with old tires? I get the tires on my company car replaced every 50,000 miles because the compound goes hard. When every stop requires the ABS to kick in, you know it's time for new silicone/rubber. In newer tires it is a function of heat/cool cycles and cost cutting in production. Plenty of tread, but hard as a rock.

With our "metal from pedal to road", can you tell when the old tire, cracked or not will be so hard that it won't grip on braking?
 
I had a set of Goodyear tires from the 60's on my coupe untill last year. They were really getting hard and cracked. I replaced them and after they were of the rim, you could squeeze them and look at the cords. Maybe I wouldn't have had any trouble with them but it sure feels good to me to have new tires!
 
My father and I have 2 firestone and 2 Pennsylvania tires on our sport coupe. They are slightly cracked and hard but still do fine at 45 all day. The braking is also fine never had a problem. Might I add that the tires are originals from the late 1940's.
 
When you run the tires the get warm from the road friction and it will "loosen" the rubber. The more you run them or park it in the sun on a warm day it should soften them up somewhat.
 
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