1941dodge luxury liner cross ply tyres

[Flatheadgasser]

Hi all my 41dodge luxury liner has standard 16" wheels and at the moment I have 6.00 x 16 wide white crossply tyres I want to run a wider tyre on the standard rims. What is the widest tyre I can run. As I want to stay with the crossply tyres, what are you guy's running on your cars.

[Plymouthy Adams]

finding a 16 tire in the width and height you need to retain the profile of the car and be modern radial...slim, very slim, I am still looking for these myself.....unfortunately you may well be stuck with that off the wall repop tires that do not run smooth based on all the experience I have had with them over all the years....16's are not a tire you can find with high enough sidewalls.  If you find some, I would be interested....I thought I had one once...note to seller found a typo in his ad...

[desoto1939]

I know this topic of radials used onthe older cars has been discussed many times over.  But according to the AACA the reason why they do not permit radials on cars that did not come standard with them is becasue the frame geomoetry and the suspension that were on our older cars is not setup correctly to handle in a safe manner the rolling and corning characteristics of the raial tires eventhought some people promote the safety aspect.

 

i have had the Goodyear Bia Ply all weather 600X16 tires onmy 39 desoto and I just changed to the same tires becsue I was down to3/32 tread and I used the same tire again and I got over 22 years out of a set of these tires.  I feel that since I like to travel around 50 MPH whe driving the car I am not worried about the performance aspect but jsut the pleaseure of driving the older car and the experience.  If this was a daily driver then i might have put onthe radials but it is designed for plesure driving and tours and going to car events.

 

everyone seems to be in a big hurry to go places with these older cars and want to do 60-70 mph. If you plan on going at those speeds then suggest that you convert to full disk brakes and a small block engine in the car and then you now have a hotrod and not an antique car. The body is the same but the car has been changed to a hotrod.  so you can not have both and be an antique car just my opinion.

Rich Hartung

[Flatheadgasser]

What are the standard dodge luxury liner  rims  sizes are they 4.5 or 5.5 x 16

[Plymouthy Adams]

per the book, all D19 'cept the 7 passenger sedan got 4.0 width, the larger sedan got 4.5 the 4 inch wheel was fitted with 16 x 6.0 and the larger 4.5 rims were fitted with 16 x 6.50 the D24 late models got a larger width wheel and wider tire for the larger sedan being 16 x 7.0 on a 5.0 rim.  These may be the wheels you would want if sticking with the 16 and want a tad more meat on the road.

[Adrian41D-19]

On 10/21/2018 at 9:32 PM, Plymouthy Adams said:

finding a 16 tire in the width and height you need to retain the profile of the car and be modern radial...slim, very slim, I am still looking for these myself.....unfortunately you may well be stuck with that off the wall repop tires that do not run smooth based on all the experience I have had with them over all the years....16's are not a tire you can find with high enough sidewalls.  If you find some, I would be interested....I thought I had one once...note to seller found a typo in his ad...

Hello i have a 41 dodge with cross ply tires with a big with wall tire in 600-16 the brande is « lester »

[Plymouthy Adams]

yes, thanks....my comment was for finding a replacement radial equal in diameter and sidewall that is anywhere close...my 16 application is for a tad sportier car of an early vintage and I do not want a bias tire.  The bias ply tires are readily at hand for mounting on the vintage cars but in my experience these are less than road worthy for distance driving at modern highway speeds.

[Redmond49]

I've been looking at tires a lot lately as I've been thinking about replacing the modern radials I put on my '49 P-15 before I knew the nuances of this stuff.

 

If you are running 6.00x16 bias ply tires right now, they are probably 28-28.5 inches tall and they are meant for a 5-6 inch wide rim. The tread is probably 4-4.5 inches wide.

 

Looking at the Coker tire site, there are wider bias ply tires for 16-inch wheels - this one is over 8 inches wide and fits on a 5-6 inch wide rim. The problem is that it's over 32 inches tall. That means your car would be perched higher in the air, your speedo will read slow by a significant amount, and I think it would effectively make your gearing taller. Not to mention possible rubbing in the tops of the fenders.

 

If you want wider, you would probably be best served to put a pair of modern radials on the car. But then finding the tire with the right height becomes a bit of a challenge, and the tires might easily get too fat for the fender wells. I currently have 215/70R15 tires on the '49 P15 and they are an inch too short, causing the engine to turn over higher at speed and making the speedo read way higher than the actual speed. But the width is good for not rubbing, and they handle nicely. 

 

In the end, the 6.00x16 tire size might be the best choice for your car, especially if you want to stick with bias ply tires. Coker has multiple bias ply offerings for this size, and they have radials in this size that look like bias-ply tires. Diamondback Tires (dbtires.com) also has a very nice radial with a bias ply look - I have them on my '46:
 

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by Redmond49

[Redmond49]

@Plymouthy Adams Coker or Diamondback probably have radial tires that look like bias-ply tires in the sizes you are looking for. The Diamondback tire line is called "Auburn". Coker has their own Coker brand and another called American Classic.

[9 foot box]

  If your trying to find a tire  that is the same height as originals , a 205/80R16 supposedly measures just under 30", 8" wide, a 205/75R16 is a bit over 28" tall at 8" wide. The narrow wheels would probably change that. It's hard to guess, you might need a 195/80 for tire clearance on turns. A search for tire size  at Tacoma World gives me that information. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

thanks for the replies...but this is not for an American made car and the wheels are however similar in the fact that they are only 4.5 inch wide which puts me at a disadvantage in finding tires.   There are tires available in Europe (Vredenstein)  but cost of the tire even there much less adding the cost of shipping puts them at too great of an expense for a car that will like sit more than it rolls and any warranty issue will be moot as there is no local dealers for warrant issues.   The tire I am looking for will need to be a black wall.  Like our cars here, the right profile needs be in place for the look of being finished out properly as small tires in a big fender opening is just silly looking, I also have no plans to lower the vehicle below stock ride.  I can always change the wheels and may end up having to do so.  The problem is too much meat on a skinny rim when finding the correct ride height as I also am striving to keep the speedometer ratio proper.  This tire being 16's on a car of 1962 era where major US tires were 14's just no longer a standard with mass quantity tire market so they just no longer available due to prohibitive manufacturing costs due to this low demand.   Heck even some 14's are hard to find.  I have worked the math for a set that will is within 1.2 MPH at 60 but I will need to grab one and mount just to verify it will look and fit correctly.  I am thinking they will look good on the car.  My concern again, bit wider than I feel is safely suitable for the 4.5 rim but being a light car that may not have much sway effect when lane change at speed and yes it must be able to cruise and perform at 75 or its just painted junk.  The extra meat on the road will look awesome however.

[matt167]

Vredenstine has USA based dealers. The Sprint Classic being one that even Coker sells. However the only 16" is a 185HR16 which has a diamater of about 27" which is about right, but a section width of 185mm is extremely narrow.

 

There is little reason to stay with a bias ply if you plan to drive it, a good alignment tech can tweak the adjustments to get rid of any wander and it will drive just the same.  I currently have a 1974 MGB, which is spec'd for both cross ply ( bias ply ) and radial ply tires. It gives 2 different alignment specs in the manuals and 2 different air pressure specs in the glove box but drives absolutely perfect on modern tires. The MGB was introduced in 1962 using very old tech and remained mechanically unchanged basically until it was discontinued in 1980. Uses king pin A arm front suspension with lever shocks all around