Old School Mud & Snow Tires And Vintage-look Radials

So I'm running 7.00x15 's on my 65 Gladiator.New STA Super Tractions.They look great, a little noisy but it adds to the vintage feel to me.Bumpy til the y warm up.No tubes. The place that mounted them suggested i go with beads-8oz I think.
They add them inside the tire just before they seat them and add air.No outside weights.I was skeptical at first but after the first drive they were great.The beads just roll around and balance as needed.I 'll do it to all my tires now.I think a whitewall added to this tire would look awesome.
Limited sizes thou.I'm currently running 215/75/15's on my cj,which are whitewalls,I find them just a tad small.

 

215's on my 66. For reference.

 

Wade, I love seeing the Tux hubcaps on both your Jeeps. Yes, they were offered by the dealers as an accessory, including a 16" version. To me, they add more of a "period" look to the '60 s Jeeps. I just recently picked up a very nice set of these hubcaps, finally!
-Donny

 

Hello Donny. Congrats on finding a set. They are quite rare as you know. I love the look on the truck and my cj. I even had a set on my Wagoneer for awhile.

 

And 215’s on a 67. Kinda wish Coker would’ve pick up these molds from Goodyear/Kelly/ Wintermark.
And.... I Wish I would have picked up 235’s but the price was sooooo right I couldn’t pass them up.

 

Update 4/27/19:

Over four months later, my CJ is finally back together. I got the Yokohamas installed and drove the Jeep with the new tires on it for the first time this week. Even though I'd anticipated some noticeable improvements, I was shocked by the degree of difference between these new radials and my previous bias-ply tires.

The Jeep's ride is much better with the Y742S tires. They transmit an appropriate amount of "road sensation", which I would describe as controlled and firm yet without ever feeling harsh (as the bias-plys often tended to feel). The handling and cornering characteristics are likewise far better with the radials than with the bias-ply tires. It doesn't drive like a completely different vehicle with the Yokohamas, but it definitely seems like a significantly upgraded one.

To sum it up, in my personal opinion the Y742S radials are simply superior to the bias-ply tires in every respect that matters, given when and how I drive my Jeep (mainly in decent weather and on-road).

I will definitely not be going back to bias-plys on my CJ.

Incidentally, I started out using 35 psi of pressure in the new radials, and then dropped it to 30. Brian (BJHitson60) was kind enough to share with me that he runs his Yokohamas at 27 psi. Having now tried 35, 30, and 27 psi, I find that I concur with Brian's preference.

 

These peeked my interest after your review.
Just heads up, these Y742S in the 7x15 are on clearance over on Tirerack. Yokohama only lists the 235/85r16 on their website now, which tire rack doesn’t seem to show.

 

I got my 46 project rolling out of the shop under its own power today and pulled it up on the dirt pile out front. I wanted to check flex and bump stop clearance.


Thats when I noticed the similarity in tread design of my new Power King Extra Traction's to my favorite tire from days gone by...


The outside tread pattern of the Power King's is exactly the same as an Armstrong Trutrac. Armstrong put a diagonal rib in the center of the same pattern.
Yippie!


Mike

 

I would like to have these beautiful hubcaps, looks nice.
I spent some time looking for new tyres.
I found few choice in my place, so I decided to get radial reinforced tyres for small trucks. Riken...
The advantage is that I use my Jeep on roads, small country roads (as in the song) and it is nice to drive, no sound, no shock.
I use them also in land tracks but I don't try crossing wild land or fields.

 

Just for reference these are some Goodyear Workhorse mud and snows that I picked up years ago from Nebraska tire, bias ply 700-15. They have served me well. The good old days.

 

Nice vintage looking tire

 

i still have the original spare wheel and g-y suburbanite polyglas tire with my cj, but i no longer have the sub mounted to the rim. instead, i’ve got an unused interco super swamper ltb mounted to that rim in 34x10.5x15. i run a narrower tsl ss on the 4 wheels - 34x9.5x15 - and like the look of this tall, skinny tire on the cj.

below is a picture where i was running the LTBs (spare is an ltb).

i’ve run radial swampers, too. they work decent off-road. but no comparison to the bias swampers like the LTBs or the narrow ss i now have. i typically run these at 3 to 4 psi off-road, and 10 to 15 on-road. no bead locks, either.

 

Interco is making some great tire, right now!

 

Hey Mike, wondering how these tires worked out for you? I'm looking at the Deestone 7.5/16 as well. It looks like the diameter is around 32" from what I could find online, is that what yours measure out at? Any rubbing issues? Ive got a couple inches of lift so I wanted a tire a little larger than 30" to fill out the wheel wells but I want the old school skinny look. Thanks!

 

They're working out just fine. I measure them at around 32"...not rubbing, but I'm using CJ5 body mounts with CJ5 springs so I have a bit more than stock clearance. I will replace them with the same thing when they wear out.

FWIW,
Mike

 

The Armstrong Norseman was the best tire I have ever used on A Jeep.

Last Set I bought Cost Me $ 35.00 Per Tire , L78-15.

That was about 1974 .

 

Agreed. Another great tire from days gone by...

Mike

 

So for those of us who admire old tread patterns but are young enough to want to live long enough to reminisce about the tires of today, what are our choices?
I really do want a radial tire, the added control is exciting for me as someone who lost control on the highway once...
Let's face it, it's at least 50% beauty pageant. For me this means I'm considering what I'd usually consider junk tires because most of the top-shelf tire makers have moved on in tread design. Hoping for the "old Jeep" look so I did some searching and found these in 235/75R15:

Nexen Rodian, Korean tire,6PR, $122/ea

Nankang N889 is 28.9" and seems pricy for what it is at $175

Forecum MT is 6PR, 29.9", at about $75/ea

Firestone Destination, $190/ea

Centennial Dirt Commander $104/each, 6PR tires, 28.9"dia

Accelera M/T at 29", $80/ea
The Toyo is decent looking as well and already well documented here, I'd really rather have a 6PR tire but I'm open.

Anybody have thoughts about the look? It seems like a simple-clean sidewall is a feature of older tires so a lot of the stylish sidewall protection used these days is an issue. I included the best price I could easily find just for reference.

215/75R15 has some other very vintage looking options, but dang that's a small tire.
If a stock height jeep with nice narrow tires is your thing, it might be worth looking at the Crosswind M/T, the BFG KM3,

 

7.50/16 power kings... look good but the bias ply a bit bumpy till tire warm up.