New Tire Road Report

[James_Douglas]

Hi All,

I purchased a set of Diamond Back wide white walls for the Desoto. They are 700R15 LT tires. They are 8 Ply and can be run from 35 PSI to 60 PSI. Max load is around 8000 Pounds.

http://www.dbtires.com/2009_catalog/hi/19.htm

The tires are almost 2 to 3 inches taller than a basic 225/235 radial tire. They have a side wall that would fool 90% of those looking at it into thinking it is a bias ply tire.

They look very good and fill up the tire well.

The one thing I noticed as soon as I started to drive off is that the car felt like I had power steering. The contact patch is almost identical to the factory tires. The low speed steering is a blessing in city traffic and parking.

The tires run a little bit harder than the radial touring tires. No doubt to the fact that they have 8 ply's.

On the highway you sense a little bit more vibration transmitting through to the body, but not to bad. The tires tract a little bit more on concrete grooving than the touring tires, but it is subtle difference.

In my case with the ability to carry 9 people and luggage on the 139.5 inch wheel base, all things considered the tires are fine. The trade-offs are worth it.

On a lighter car, I would think hard about using them as the ride may be too harsh. The set of tires I got from DB Tires are Yokohama although I guess they also get the identical tire from Sumitumo:

http://www.yokohamatire.com/tires_commercial/spec.aspx?tire=RY215

The whitewalls look nice with the beauty on the outer edge of the whitewall.

Best, James

[aero3113]

I run the same tires from Sumitumo and love them

[adam_knox]

Thanks for the review. In two years or so I'm gonna have to decide if I wanna switch to radials or not. Gonna make sure I bookmark this thread!

[BloodyKnuckles]

Thanks alot for the info! I'm not a radial fan at all. I have a set of DBs on Heather's DeSoto and they are OK. They look like radial WW.

Aero3113's tires and the whole car looks great!

James could you post a few pics of yours?

BloodyKnuckles

[claybill]

i jst put a full set of COKER american classics on my car..havent driven it yet, working on brakes.

note; coker makes 2 forms of WWW radials..one is made in mexico,COKER CLASSIC, the other is made in Pennsylvania,AMERICAN CLASSIC. i have the pa. made American Classic. i also noticed that they look like a vulcanized WWW to a black tire. liek diamondback..BUT I AM NOT SURE OF IT.

bill

[Uncle-Pekka]

Thanks for the review, James!

D.B. tires do look very good, nice to know they also ride well.

However, they are pricey.

What about Sumitomo or Yokohama - are they really the same tire?

(I thought D.B. are U.S. made, special design)

Is there a price difference to D.Back?

[claybill]

diamond back is a re-issue tire..if that might be one way of saying it. they take a new blackwall tire of your choice and vulcanize (heat attach) a white rubber band onto the sidewall. so it is attached, and not an integral part of the tire structure. when you look at one you can see as it sticks out about 1/4 in or so. i would imagine ALL tires are going to be the same price.

they MIGHT have a deal on one or 2 brands that they can offer lower??? dont know.

coker makes a WWW tire from scratch. the white is under the black as regular.

i am in no way expertise on this tire thing...did a little research when i bought mine, that;s all. i opted for the pennsylvania made tires from coker.

havent driven them yet...fixing brakes. that may take awhile!!

bill

[claybill]

JAMES...did you buy the Sumitomo tiresWWW from Diamondback or did you get them from a different tire store..? good price?

bill

usually about $210.00 ea. plus delivery

[Plymouthy Adams]

Bill ..on your Cokers, how much weight is on each tire for balance...this alone will give you a good idea on how these guys may ride and wear...especially wear..

[TodFitch]

Bill ..on your Cokers, how much weight is on each tire for balance...this alone will give you a good idea on how these guys may ride and wear...especially wear..

Good point. The tires I have on my car were manufactured in a Denman plant in Pennsylvania. And they took between 2 and 4 ounces of weights to get statically balanced. I checked the rims prior to mounting the tires and they were true, round and balanced without the tires so all that weight was just to compensate for the tires and tubes. I'm not real happy about that but am not planning on replacing them until they wear out.

(I did static balancing because I could borrow that type of balancer and because my narrow 17 inch wheels can't really be that far out of dynamic balance if the static balance is okay. I don't believe they are wide enough for that to happen.)

[Plymouthy Adams]

These tires should be static balanced using the 4 wight system in order to get the better smoother ride, half way compensate for wear and have fewer transisitions across the spectrum than normally found is a two plane balance