16" Ford wire wheel question

H

Herb Kephart

Junior Member
Have a question for you guys running Ford 16" wires.

Where do you get tubes with enough valve offset (from centerline) for the Ford rim valve hole. Started out with 16" tubes from Macs. Valves sheared off on initial instillation. When I call Macs about this they said that I was using the wrong rims, wouldn't take back the 3 still in plastic sealed bags, nor would they do anything about the ones that failed. Don't know why Ford 16" wires are "the wrong rims", unless they think they are selling Studebaker parts. End of me wasting my money at Mac's. Went to Coker site, and bought 5 tubes (for radial tires--which is what I was mounting) with "offset valve location''. Well, they are offset, but no where near enough. Got all 5 tires mounted, but on initial 5 mile run, valve ripped off, dumped all the air. Was in heavy traffic, and before I could get to a spot where I could pull off the road, brand new tire was trash. Ran the same (type) rims on my every day driver '31 pickup in the late 50's and early 60's, with never a thought about tubes--and if we couldn't find patchable old ones we ordered new from Sears. Top quality, I'm sure.

If I can't get the correct tubes, my only other option is to run the tires tubeless, but not sure if the bead seats are good enough to seal. Rims have been powder coated, which might smooth out small pits, but 80 year old rims are bound to be a long way from perfect in the bead area.

Tubes with enough valve offset have to be available---but where?

Herb Kephart
 
Herb,

Did you receive any 'plastic grommets' with your tubes ??

For my 1935 16" wire wheels, I too purchased radial tubes with offset rubber stems which came with 'plastic grommets' that snapped into the stem hole in each rim and 'isolated' the stem from the rim... 150+ miles and no issues. Also used an internal rim liner to keep the tube from rubbing against the spoke welds.

Jim
 
No help here but a general comment about tubes......good ones are becoming very rare. All are offshore now. Some are thin as paper.

I bought a set of four when mounted on my 16" wires they go flat in a few days......shop that mounted them cannot find a leak anywhere??????????

Like you, sure would like to know who sells good, reliable tubes!
 
You may have gotten the wrong tube from Coker. Their tube description in the catalog is not very clear. They do have radial tubes made for 35 wheels. I have them on my model A and have driven 20,000 miles with no problem. The valve stems are big and fit the hole with no grommet. Also radial tubes are much thicker rubber and are better for bias tires than the thinner regular tubes-all offshore. Radial tubes say radial on the valve stem.

John
 
Check this thread out which I asked some of the same questions " tubed vs tubeless?". The views are split but seem to me more OK than not on the tubeless tire vs tubes. I went with the tubeless and have have no problems for the last two month on stock rims which are in good shape. Probably 500 to 700 miles. There are other threads if you search as well.
Good luck
Tony
 
Coker mounted radials using the tubes from my old bias tires ,a couple months ago.no problems yet.have my fingers crossed tho.Are the rims true 35 wires????Don think mine have any kind of off set where stem fits.
 
I have two sets of radial tires with tubes rated for use with radial tires. Both sets are mounted on stock '35 wire wheels with zero problems on either set. The set from Diamondback has over 22,000 miles. The Coker set has about 2-3,000 miles. I did use little plastic grommets/spacers because the hole on the rims are larger than the diameter of the stems. Not having these grommets/spacers in place could be part of the reason for the stem failures you are having.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys!

The Coker radial tubes that I got had the correct size stem, to fit the rim hole without grommets--which weren't included anyway. Stems aren't being torn off, tubes are ripping at about where the outer circle where the stem is vulcanized to the tube. The rim pulling the stem away from the centerline of the wheel apparently is causing too much stress in the tube material itself. I guess the old tubes stretched enough to accommodate this, but the re-cycled bubblegum Chinese crap can't do this.

Rims are definitely Ford--in fact one or two may be the very ones I was running back when--as I think that I changed the truck over to 19's before I sold it. I always either use a rim strip, or a couple layers of ducktape on the spoke area. And yes, I know all about under-infaltion letting the rim spin inside the tire--we used to run self tapping screws four places through the the outer flange of the rim, into the tire bead (both sides) to stop that happening on dirt bikes and trials machines.

Someone over on the HAMB forum suggested 16" tubes from Tractor Supply--which might be a good idea, as I have seen front wheels on tractors that had the valve stems displaced as much (or more?) than the Ford wheels--but then again, the TS tubes may come from that wonderful country in the East also.

Herb
 
My local tire guys have grommets. I had checked the steel stem option from Coker thinking they would be better tubes. Ya not so in my application. It interfered with the wheel. Local had a new tube (tractor tire supplier) on hand the next morning. Takes a village I guess.
 
"the re-cycled bubblegum Chinese crap"

I think you will find they are not chinese, Most of the tubes avalible nowdays are made in Demark and India and all the ones I have seen are rubbish.

They are very thin and a while ago the Danish ones didn't put enough plasisicizer in the rubber when they were made so when they were pumped up they split and burst.
Contacted the supplier, Sorry no refunds thats all we can get.

It seems the only good tubes avalible are out of England but they are a bit expensive. Here is a couple of dealers listed below but there are others if you google

http://www.classictyres.com/products/tyre-accessories/inner-tube--standard/16-inch
http://www.vintagetyres.com/search?cat=581&qs=550%2F600%2F185-16+
 
Tractor Supply caries no tubes--at least not in this urban area.

47 Merc Should have known India was a supplier-NOTHING any good comes out of that hole--but surprised to see Danish.
Thanks for the two sources--I will look into them--but I'm leaning to going tubeless.

Thanks for all the replies!

Herb
 
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