Tire selection for '55 Courier

[Daves55Sedan]

I have two bald 710X15's in the rear of my '55 Courier. Been bald over two years but still using the car often. lately I've been scared to take it on the highway.
The 710X15's on the front still got pretty good tread on them, so I want to keep them and put two new Coker American Classic wide whitewall radials (size 670R15) on the rear.
But I saw a notice that warned against "mixing" radial tires with bias ply tires on the same car.
Is that just some malarchy to get you to buy (4) new tires, or is there really a known problem in performance of the tires if you mix them.
I will be keeping the same old 710x15's on the front and putting the new radials on the back. I think maybe there could be something to their warning if you had radials on one side and bias on the other or mixed any other way.
Anyone had any experience with this???

 

[Alaska Jim]

Although it is not really recommended, you can get by with putting radial tires on the rear, and bias on the front, but DO NOT put radials on the front and bias on the rear. this was common practice when radial tires first came out. When I worked at the local GM dealership back in the early '70s there was a service bulletin about this practice.

 

[wellcraft17]

Years ago I replaced 2 bias tires with radials on my 56 f100, kept the 2 other bias tires as they had plenty of tread left. The result was a terrible driving situation and within several weeks I replaced the 2 other bias tires with radials and the driving problem went away.

 

[paul2748]

The first question is how old are the tires that you want to keep. If over 6 or 7 years old, they are past their prime. How much is your car and life worth to you if one of the older tires go bad and you end up in a ditch

 

[Ole Don]

The theory was, the radials have so much better traction, they may not lock up at the same time as the bias. A quick rain could end you and the car. Buy a set of new shoes for baby.

 

[dmsfrr]

. . . The 710X15's on the front still got pretty good tread on them . . .
But I saw a notice that warned against "mixing" radial tires with bias ply tires on the same car. Is that just some malarchy to get you to buy (4) new tires, or is there really a known problem in performance of the tires if you mix them.
Anyone had any experience with this???

Unfortunately the amount of tread on a tire is not an indicator of it's overall condition.
Example: How good is the rock-hard crumbly eraser on an old but unused pencil?
Because the two types of tires can respond so differently, the warning about mixing tires is real.

The first question is how old are the tires that you want to keep. If over 6 or 7 years old, they are past their prime. How much is your car and life worth to you if one of the older tires go bad and you end up in a ditch

There should be a four digit number in an oval at the end of the DOT code on the sidewalls, it might only be on one side of the tire. That's the date code of the tire.
Example in image #1, the 16th week of 2012.

If the code is only three digits (not four) the tire was made before the year 2000.
The "443" code in photo two is the 44th week of '93.

. . . Buy a set of new shoes for baby.