Egg Shaped Tires

QGolden

QGolden

Well-known member
I have seen something I have never seen before. I recently purchased 4, 33/34 17 inch Rims to use on my project. They had nice looking tires on them. Older Sears Allstate Nylon 4 ply's. A few weather cracks, but have clearly never been on the road. Still have the nubs on the tread from the molding.

When I installed the wheels and gave them a spin by hand, they very visibly are out of round. Way out of round, but a couple of Inches! Not a flat spot, but egg shaped.

When I spin them the rims are round, and the tires clearly wobble on the rims.
I put 50 lbs of air in one to see is it would change it, and it did not.

In the photos below the gauge is on the top of the belt line on each side of the tires, as you can see the distance from the rim to the belt line is different between the top and bottom (read that 0 degrees and 180 degrees apart)

Have you ever seen tires so bad? What would cause them to "Shrink" on one side? All 4 seem to have it.
 

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It looks like in pic #2 the tire bead is not seated on the rim all the way. This will cause a wobble for sure.
 
Check the tires to see what size they are, and measure the wheel (rim) diameter. It looks to me as if someone put 16 inch tires on 17 inch wheels.
 
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1931 flamingo said:
Try dismounting them and remounting. "Older Sears...", How old??
Paul in CT
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I dunno how old, I don't know how I could tell. I will try to dismount and re mount, at least that would let me see the tires without the rim to measure them. I could check for Johns comment too.,

Rock Hornbuckle said:
Check the tires to see what size they are, and measure the wheel (rim) diameter. It looks to me as if someone put 16 inch tires on 17 inch wheels.
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The tires are 5.25/5.50/17 and the rims measure 18 1/2 from outside of the rim.
 
Rock Hornbuckle said:
Check the tires to see what size they are, and measure the wheel (rim) diameter. It looks to me as if someone put 16 inch tires on 17 inch wheels.
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The tire will have the size listed on the sidewall.

You say that the tires are old, but how hard is the rubber? You can try breaking the bead and remount the tire to solve the out-of-round problem. They may be good for moving the car around, but unsafe for street use even if you fix the out of round problem. I know that is not what you want to hear.

Be safe, Bill
 
Older tires are hard and can be tough to seat on the rims. Use plenty of soapy water or other lube on the beads to help them seat.
This is why the red line was on the original tires, to give the installer a visual reference that they were seated all the way on the rim.
 
Bill in SoCal said:
I know that is not what you want to hear.

Be safe, Bill
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If I always heard what I want to hear, I would hear my Wife say, "remember that Lottery Ticket I bought?..:D.."

I mostly bought them for the rims, they are really nice. And I paid what the rims are worth, so the tires were "free". Although I was going to run them, I can accept the loss.

I think I will dismount them and take a look, but I suspect a trip to Hershey to pick up some Lesters is in my near future. Anyone ever run the LUCAS Olympic's They look nice.

http://www.lucasclassictires.com/17-525-550-x17-LUCAS-Olympic-Tread-BW-240p.htm
 
I have the Lucas Olympics on mine. Look good, cheap, seem to work just fine...although I only have about 100 miles on them.
 
I was helping a friend get his tires to seat correctly. I finally had to let the air out and spray the bead with WD-40, then inflate them. Slick as snot, they slipped right into place.:)
 
Iff'n I could line 'em up just right, they would ride smooth as silk! Otherwise she will go down the road like Archie's Jalopy.
 

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I broke the worst one down and John was pretty darn close to right. They are not mounted right. The "high" side is on the bead where it should be. The Low side is down inside too far. It is beyond me how someone could have mounted four tires and not caught it. I was able to remount one and get it within a quarter inch, but they have been on the rim for too long and "memory" has set in. The tires are misshaped now, even if I could mount them right they would never be right, or safe.

Guess they are going to the dump.
 
QGolden said:
I broke the worst one down and John was pretty darn close to right. They are not mounted right. The "high" side is on the bead where it should be. The Low side is down inside too far. It is beyond me how someone could have mounted four tires and not caught it. I was able to remount one and get it within a quarter inch, but they have been on the rim for too long and "memory" has set in. The tires are misshaped now, even if I could mount them right they would never be right, or safe.

Guess they are going to the dump.
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Wish you were closer. I'd run them. Someone closeby should want them, if only for shop rollers.:)
 
I'll bet if you can get them to mount properly they will come back round in due time. Nylon tires were well known for getting flat spots just sitting parked overnight. I had a set of nylon tires on a Camaro that would rattle your teeth for the first 2 miles every morning, after that they warmed up and were smooth.
 
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You would never get a 16" tire on a 17" rim.but you may have a 17" tire on a 16" rim or a 18" tire on a 17" rim.the rims in the pix don't even have the edge the wire spoke wheels have.the 17" wheels have a pronounced rim where the tube comes through the wheel while the 16" don't.you may have a mix of 16"17"18" wheels and tires.i do see the number "15" in 1 of the pix what the hell is that? .as a previous barner said i would measure rim diameter and check the number on the tire. i worked at a tire shop for many years and it sounds like someone put oversize tires on the rims.very dangerous when inflating. Good Luck ,Larry.
 
QGolden said:
I broke the worst one down and John was pretty darn close to right. They are not mounted right. The "high" side is on the bead where it should be. The Low side is down inside too far. It is beyond me how someone could have mounted four tires and not caught it. I was able to remount one and get it within a quarter inch, but they have been on the rim for too long and "memory" has set in. The tires are misshaped now, even if I could mount them right they would never be right, or safe.

Guess they are going to the dump.
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Run them on a hot day. The nylon will warm up and reform.
 
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