Radial tires on spoke wheels

D

dennismielke

Junior Member
Can I run radial tires on 34 stock wheels without innertubes? Or do I need special innertubes and do I need to run a liner over the spoke ends?

Any comments appreciated
 
I had 35 spokes on my '33 and ran tubeless radial tires.Won't work with a 17 or 18" rim because of the valve stem hole so you will need tubes.
 

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There aren't any "spoke ends". The spokes are welded to the inside of the hoop. Nothing protrudes through. This refers to Ford welded spoke wheels.
 
Modern rims have an extra bead that helps seal and hold the tire in place. Note how they pop in place when inflated. I think its a safety issue. For that reason I put tubes in my radials on 16" wires. My only worry is that a nail might cause a sudden deflation rather than a slow leak.
 
The old Ford rims don't have safety beads on them so certain situations could cause a tire bead to come off the rim. This would be in hard cornering. I run my front tractor tires without tubes but a tractor doesn't go fast enough to worry about it.
 
Tubeless tyres pre-date safety beads by quite a few years. Lots of miles done by lots of people on tubeless tyres without safety beads.
 
My memory is different about that. We used tubes in our old Fords clear up into the early 60s. The modern tires then weren't radials. They were the old biased ply hard carcass tires clear up till the early 70s when radials became more common. Radial tires were the reason behind the mandate here in the states for safety bead rims. The radial side walls are a lot more flexible and can shift loading a lot quicker in hard turn maneuvering,

Run radials at your own risk on older rims. I'll never say not to, but, recommending it gives a person some liability. We have to be careful what we say in an overly litigious society whether we like it or not.
 
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I found a white paper published by SEMA regarding the use of radial tires on classic vehicle rims. It doesn't address the use of tubes but does caution about the increased possibility of stress fractures. i would imagine that the higher bulging of the radials might also tend to push it away from the outer rim in some situations. They mention that "evidence of cracking may be visually evident or may be indicated by increased air leakage", which wouldn't be evident with tubes. I will be checking my wheels more often now. As mentioned above, run them at your own risk.
 

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Thanks for this information 30Murray.

I read your attached white paper.

I am using Firestone Transforce radials with radial tubes on my '35 and I have the original wire rims.

Anyone know if a visual inspection with wheel on rim is sufficient or does the tire need to come off of the rim to best inspect the rim for cracking?

Wonder about adding more air to reduce the tire bulge?

I am thing of contacting Firestone and asking an engineer if I can get one on the line.

If I do I'll post here what is learned.
 
In the latest EFV8 magazine, there is a story about one of our barn members in Australia finding a crack in a rim on his 34 Coupe. His first indication was a vibration that gradually got worse. I have no idea if it was with a stock tire type or not but a person could clearly see the crack in the photo he took of it. Lawrie would know more than I since it's his car.
 
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