Tire options for Amphicar.

David Chapman · Sep 1, 2006

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As the list is a little quiet and we haven't discussed it for a while I thought I'd ask about what tires everyone is using on their car. 

Over the years I've been using 165 or 175x13 radials and they work very well on road - but look a little too small and are not as good in the water as they loose a bit of "rudder size".

Recently been experimenting with a modern 640x13 bias ply tire. This looks perfect on Amphi and works better in water. On road it is OK but only up to about 50 mph - above that it is all over the place. 

So what I think we need is 640x13 radials - which I think were made by Continental and Michelin (the X range) for the 1959 era Mercedes 190SL. Anyone got a set or other recommendations of tires that work well ? how are people getting on with the Coker and Bridgestones ? Some of theMercedes people are using a Sears Guardsman III which isa radial with a slightly higher than normal profile - anyone tried that ?

David C

rlgreen_55 · Sep 1, 2006

Have been using 13" radial Diamondback Classic's wide whitewalls
(exact # at home) for over 3 years now and they are the best tire I
have ever used on a older car that gets driven. The tires look
correct, handle well and the whitewalls are the easiest to clean plus
they stay clean. I even scuffed one big time when hitting a curb and
simply wet sanded the mark out. Not cheap but zero maintenance.

Some of my other old cars have bias Coker or Universal tires which
are ok but the whitewalls always need cleaning and start turning
yellow almost immediately plus the whitewalls are prone to cracking
after a few years.

http://www.widewhitewalltires.com/index.htm

--- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, "David Chapman" <david@...>
wrote:
>
> As the list is a little quiet and we haven't discussed it for a
while I thought I'd ask about what tires everyone is using on their
car.
>
> Over the years I've been using 165 or 175x13 radials and they work
very well on road - but look a little too small and are not as good
in the water as they loose a bit of "rudder size".
>
> Recently been experimenting with a modern 640x13 bias ply tire.
This looks perfect on Amphi and works better in water. On road it is
OK but only up to about 50 mph - above that it is all over the place.
>
> So what I think we need is 640x13 radials - which I think were made
by Continental and Michelin (the X range) for the 1959 era Mercedes
190SL. Anyone got a set or other recommendations of tires that work
well ? how are people getting on with the Coker and Bridgestones ?
Some of the Mercedes people are using a Sears Guardsman III which is
a radial with a slightly higher than normal profile - anyone tried
that ?
>
> David C
>

John Friese · Sep 1, 2006

Dave,

I run Coker Classics (bias ply)on one of my cars and Diamond Back
Clasics (radial)on the other. My experience has been that the key to
stability at high road speed is the front tire pressure. I set the
front bias ply tires at the Amphi recommended 14 lb and run the radial
front tires at about 19 lb. The rears all run at 30 lb. I find that
if I increase the front tires pressures much above this, the car
"hunts" on the highway and I'm constantly correcting it at the
steering wheel. If I keep those front pressures as Amphi and I
stated, the car is very stable at high speed, even at speeds of 85
MPH. (1296 engine)

John Friese
67 White
67 Red

--- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, "David Chapman" <david@...> wrote:
>
> As the list is a little quiet and we haven't discussed it for a
while I thought I'd ask about what tires everyone is using on their car.
>
> Over the years I've been using 165 or 175x13 radials and they work
very well on road - but look a little too small and are not as good in
the water as they loose a bit of "rudder size".
>
> Recently been experimenting with a modern 640x13 bias ply tire. This
looks perfect on Amphi and works better in water. On road it is OK but
only up to about 50 mph - above that it is all over the place.
>
> So what I think we need is 640x13 radials - which I think were made
by Continental and Michelin (the X range) for the 1959 era Mercedes
190SL. Anyone got a set or other recommendations of tires that work
well ? how are people getting on with the Coker and Bridgestones ?
Some of the Mercedes people are using a Sears Guardsman III which is a
radial with a slightly higher than normal profile - anyone tried that ?
>
> David C
>

David Chapman · Sep 1, 2006

Re: Re: Tire options for Amphicar.

<table style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" bgColor="#ffffff">
John that's great info, I had forgotten you had one car with bias and one with radial. 

You are right about pressures, they make a huge difference on the front, first time I tried bias on the front I ran them at 25 - well at least it made the steering light !

Some questions, 
What exactsizes are the tires and what difference is there in theoverall diameters? I think the radial are smaller as the bias have a taller sidewall.

Which are quieter

Which do you prefer ? I know you drive at Euro speeds on the highway - that is where I noticed the biggest difference, would you agree ? 

There is an excellent guide to tyres here 
http://www.mbzponton.org/valueadded/technical/tireguide2.htm
with much talk about radial equivs to 640x13 but the 185 they suggest whilst fine on an old Mercedes I always think looks too wide on a little Amphicar with 43HP.

Thanks - and any other input welcome. 


David C

ps. Anyone using 14 inch wheels or wider 13 inch wheels ? I think a 14inch wheel with a 155 radial tyre might be the ultimate combination.

glennyrosa@comcast.net · Sep 1, 2006

Re: Re: Tire options for Amphicar.

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I'm running the P185/80R13 BFG radials from Coker. It's a mud and snow tread of all things. The trouble that I had was that my lt rear tire was rubbing heavily against the rear brake line attach bracket. I was kind mad that the tire shop didn't catch that. Had to grind the bracket down a lot. The rt rear is very close to the bracket also. So, just a warning if you change to a wider profile tire: check your clearances. May save you some grief.

glenn in oregon

<blockquote style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">-------------- Original message --------------
From: "David Chapman" <david@manbus.com>

<div id="ygrp-text">

John that's great info, I had forgotten you had one car with bias and one with radial. 

You are right about pressures, they make a huge difference on the front, first time I tried bias on the front I ran them at 25 - well at least it made the steering light !

Some questions, 
What exactsizes are the tires and what difference is there in theoverall diameters? I think the radial are smaller as the bias have a taller sidewall.

Which are quieter

Which do you prefer ? I know you drive at Euro speeds on the highway - that is where I noticed the biggest difference, would you agree ? 

There is an excellent guide to tyres here 
http://www.mbzponton.org/valueadded/technical/tireguide2.htm
with much talk about radial equivs to 640x13 but the 185 they suggest whilst fine on an old Mercedes I always think looks too wide on a little Amphicar with 43HP.

Thanks - and any other input welcome. 


David C

ps. Anyone using 14 inch wheels or wider 13 inch wheels ? I think a 14inch wheel with a 155 radial tyre might be the ultimate combination.





</blockquote>

Larry & Nancy Solheim · Sep 1, 2006

Re: Re: Tire options for Amphicar.

I've got the Diamondback Classics, P185/80R13 w/ 2-1/4" WSW. Great tires (Daytons originally) w/ really supurb whiteside walls as Ron Green noted. I think the tire profile looks good on the Amphicar and like the radials much better than the Coker Classic bias tires that I used for the first 10 years or so of ownership. Mine didn't rub the bracket, Glenn, but the emergency brake cable rotated a bit horizontal and THAT rubbed the tire. I added a spring to the cable shealth, similar to the flex brake cable spring and added 1/4" wheel spacers between the rims and the drum toinsure no recurrance. --Larry I run the same pressures that John Friese stated with excellent results.

glennyrosa@comcast.net wrote: <blockquote class="replbq" style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"> <div id="ygrp-text"> I'm running the P185/80R13 BFG radials from Coker. It's a mud and snow tread of all things. The trouble that I had was that my lt rear tire was rubbing heavily against the rear brake line attach bracket. I was kind mad that the tire shop didn't catch that. Had to grind the bracket down a lot. The rt rear is very close to the bracket also. So, just a warning if you change to a wider profile tire: check your clearances. May save you some grief. glenn in oregon <blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">-------------- Original message --------------

From: "David Chapman" <david@manbus.com>
<div id="ygrp-text"> John that's great info, I had forgotten you had one car with bias and one with radial. You are right about pressures, they make a huge difference on the front, first time I tried bias on the front I ran them at 25 - well at least it made the steering light ! Some questions, What exactsizes are the tires and what difference is there in theoverall diameters? I think the radial are smaller as the bias have a taller sidewall. Which are quieter Which do you prefer ? I know you drive at Euro speeds on the highway - that is where I noticed the biggest difference, would you agree ? There is an excellent guide to tyres here http://www.mbzponton.org/valueadded/technical/tireguide2.htm with much talk about radial equivs to 640x13 but the 185 they suggest whilst fine on an old Mercedes I always think looks too wide on a little Amphicar with 43HP. Thanks - and any other input welcome. David C ps. Anyone using 14 inch wheels or wider 13 inch wheels ? I think a 14inch wheel with a 155 radial tyre might be the ultimate combination. </blockquote> </blockquote>

<hr size="1">Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/postman7/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39666/*http://messenger.yahoo.com"> Great rates starting at 1?/min.

antique459@aol.com · Sep 3, 2006

Re: Re: Tire options for Amphicar.

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I had purchased these same tires at the recommendation of Coker. Both of my rears were rubbing and I was ticked because I spent a fortune powder coating my wheels and having the tire shop mount the tires with their scratchless machine. I had a lot of trouble returning the tires to Coker. They lost 2 of the tires on the return trip and I spent way too much time chasing them and FedEx to find out where my credit was. The fortunate thing was that I paid for the replacements instead of waiting for them to receive the old tires, issuing a credit and then sending out the replacements. I now run bias and they work just fine.

Keith- "Samantha's Junk" '62 Blue

John Friese · Sep 14, 2006

Dave,

The radials look to be a smaller diameter but there's almost no
difference between the rolling diameter of the two types of tires.

Tire noise is something I'm very aware of and generally it is a
function of the tread design. The Coker Classics have a very bland,
street tread. The Diamond Back radials that I have, have a rather
aggressive looking, all weather pattern but surprisingly they aren't
very noisy either.

Although I'm a very opinionated guy and many folks have shown biases
for radial tires, I actually don't find much difference between them
at all. Both types drive just fine at all speeds including those
above 75 MPH. About the only difference I suspect is that the Coker
bias ply tires "pull" at the steering wheel slightly when changing
lanes and crossing over dis-similar road surface heights. I don't
think the radials do that as much but I'm not really sure since it's
not really a big problem.

I think the Coker Classics look "right" for a car of those years. To
me, the more important thing is that a spare fits correctly under the
trunk floor. I had to fool around with making up a special fastening
nut to get my radial spare to fit correctly under the floor. It's
also possible that the shape of the Coker Classic tires cut through
the water better, which might add a bit of speed to Amphi on water and
may even make the tires better rudders.

John Friese

67 White
67 Red

--- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, "David Chapman" <david@...> wrote:
>
> John that's great info, I had forgotten you had one car with bias
and one with radial.
>
> You are right about pressures, they make a huge difference on the
front, first time I tried bias on the front I ran them at 25 - well at
least it made the steering light !
>
> Some questions,
> What exact sizes are the tires and what difference is there in the
overall diameters? I think the radial are smaller as the bias have a
taller sidewall.
>
> Which are quieter
>
> Which do you prefer ? I know you drive at Euro speeds on the highway
- that is where I noticed the biggest difference, would you agree ?
>
> There is an excellent guide to tyres here
> http://www.mbzponton.org/valueadded/technical/tireguide2.htm
> with much talk about radial equivs to 640x13 but the 185 they
suggest whilst fine on an old Mercedes I always think looks too wide
on a little Amphicar with 43HP.
>
> Thanks - and any other input welcome.
>
> David C
>
> ps. Anyone using 14 inch wheels or wider 13 inch wheels ? I think a
14inch wheel with a 155 radial tyre might be the ultimate combination.
>

Tire options for Amphicar.

David Chapman

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rlgreen_55

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John Friese

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David Chapman

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glennyrosa@comcast.net

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Larry & Nancy Solheim

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antique459@aol.com

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John Friese

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