by "functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
Published 02/23/2017 at 14:17
by "functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
Published 02/23/2017 at 14:17
Tags: tires
STARS: 3
While the SUPER STINGER tires on my 1961 Ford F100 aren’t anywhere near as old as the truck itself, I’m told that they may predate the first Space Shuttle launch. But the truck lived indoors, and they really don’t have any dry cracking that I can see. And while they do appear to have plenty of tread, I thought it may be wise to put a new set of tires on this rig before doing a lot more with it. Getting a flat with no spare on 35+ year old, somewhat unusual tires might be a huge bummer. Especially as I take my kids places in this truck on occasion.
A quick trip to my go-to online tire shop (Tire Rack): no results.
OK, these are really not passenger car tires, so I’ll just google “truck tires” and visit the first page that comes up. The only tires they offer in my size are Super Swampers and some other absurd bro-dozer shoes that I don’t want or need.
So, what about going up an inch in overall outside diameter? How bad could that be? I think there’s plenty of room in the wheel wells, but I’d have to take a harder look. That way I could get some good ol’
BFG All Terrains
on there, which would be reasonable for my use (mostly street), and perfectly fine when I do venture off the pavement.
I guess it’s been a while since I’ve shopped truck tires, wow. Is this a huge waste of money? Or am I being cheap by not doing it? I’m sure my local shop can order any of these and install them for me - I’m just looking at what’s available.
Here’s where it gets really expensive or difficult (or both)
: I’m considering going the route of finding a set of split-rim wheels and running whatever the OEM original tire & wheel combo would have been on this bad boy. How hard could it be? It would look like this:
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
By the way my truck has only 10,000 more miles than the one in the image. The miles may have been a bit.... harder.
"MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner" (montegoman562)
02/23/2017 at 14:21, STARS: 1
I highly recommend checking out Tirebuyer.com I got a great deal on tires for the Rally Capri
"415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)" (415s30)
02/23/2017 at 14:25, STARS: 1
The BFs lasted so long on my stepside Chevy I used to have, my dad swapped them onto a van in MT that he had on the ranch. The wear was damn good too, I had them in high school, college and then he used them on that van around the ranch!
"RutRut" (RDR)
02/23/2017 at 14:26, STARS: 1
I would never buy Interco for street use, I will say I have the 1st gen KOs in that size on my Wrangler and they have been great with plenty of life left after 40k miles.
"Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
02/23/2017 at 14:30, STARS: 1
Those tires look pretty good. I wouln’t even bother. I’d focus more on the other items you want to fix. If you want a spare just go to the local tire store an buy a cheap 31x10.5 x 15" and don’t worry too much about the diameter difference assuming you won’t have to drive far on the spare.
"benjrblant" (benjblant)
02/23/2017 at 14:31, STARS: 5
Not a waste of time. BFG AT KO2 are great tires, and they’ll perform well in almost all circumstances. Try checking the equivalent metric sizes.
I’d highly advise against going split-rim. Most tire shops won’t even touch split rims anymore. You’d have a difficult time finding one to mount your tires much less fix a flat if you’re away from home.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
02/23/2017 at 14:34, STARS: 1
Expensive stock style tires on a fifty plus year old Ford product, you say. Interesting, interesting.
(1959 Lincoln - requires 14" tires with Load Rating: Beyond Stupid)
"My X-type is too a real Jaguar" (TomSlick)
02/23/2017 at 14:34, STARS: 1
Pep Boys has a Mickey Thompson in that BFG size for 167.00, which isn’t bad but I buy tires for a BMW 535 so my sticker shock is much higher than most people.
"Future next gen S2000 owner" (future-next-gen-s2000-owner)
02/23/2017 at 14:37, STARS: 1
I would get the All terrain as a spare and call it a day if you aren’t worried about temporary mismatched sizes.
"Takuro Spirit" (takurospirit)
02/23/2017 at 14:40, STARS: 2
That’s not a bad price. You could go narrower as well, and open up some more choices.
I found a lot of tires in a 31x10.50R15 for less than $150 each through my distributor, so long as you don’t mind not having a brand name tire.
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
02/23/2017 at 15:07, STARS: 1
Costco has a Bridgestone tire, Bridgestone - Dueler A/T REVO 2 (eco), in 31x10.5R15 that looks much more like a road tire and would be happier on a hard surface than any of the other tires under discussion here. $167 apiece.
As I’ve looked at other sites, it seems the 11.5 isn’t offered and that may be why the tires you found are more expensive.
"That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms" (thatbastardkurtis5)
02/23/2017 at 15:14, STARS: 1
KO2s are fantastic, I’ve got them on my FZJ80 and love them to death. Check 4wheelparts.com, when I got mine it ended up about $100 cheaper all told than Tire Rack was.
"asenna" (asenna)
02/23/2017 at 15:45, STARS: 1
Really cool truck!
"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo)
02/23/2017 at 15:48, STARS: 1
Still lusting after the truck, man. It pains me not to have a driveway.
"garagemonkee" (monke)
02/23/2017 at 16:32, STARS: 1
throwing these into the ring, too
http://us.coopertire.com/Tires/Light-Truck/DISCOVERER-STT-PRO.aspx
or, the tires on my suburban which seem to be doing OK
http://www.multimiletires.com/tires/Detail.aspx?lineid=238&application=SUV-LT
"Pickup_man" (zekeh)
02/23/2017 at 17:56, STARS: 2
If by split rims you’re referring to what are generally known as widow makers, I’d strongly recommend against that. For one, finding a modern tire to fit will be a pain because the lip is completely different, and diameter isn’t the same as modern tires. Two, good luck getting a tire shop to touch it, because they’re pretty dangerous.
I learned this the “hard” way with my 1950 F3 before I even knew split rims were a thing. I bought a tire from the junk yard to throw on the rim just so I could roll the truck around the yard, thinking it would be a simple swap. After the first shop couldn’t even get the old tire off the rim, I took it to a place that exclusively does tires. They knew pretty quick what it was and there was a lot of bitching and moaning and plenty of warnings of how unsafe the wheel was. I told them all I was doing was rolling the truck around the yard and asked if they could at least get the new tire on the rim and I would air it up later. After a good 10-15 minutes of more swearing and hammering, that modern radial was just not going on because the tire diameter, and the wheel diameter where not the same, even though they were both 17.5" tires/wheels. I eventually told them to not worry about it any more and I’d find another option. I offered to pay them something for all of the trying/attempting that they did and they told me not to worry about it, but I still felt bad.
Long story short, split rims bad, There are a lot of other options out there for steel wheels that will be the same as, or very close to the original size, look the same, and accept modern tires.
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
02/24/2017 at 09:06, STARS: 1
Interesting, and good advice. I’ve got a friend who buys and sells these things all the time and I think he’s even got a 1960 F100 4wd in his yard with decent rims and tires on it. But he’s had trouble getting the tires, too.
My only inclination in that direction is if I were going for a more original look. But I do actually really like the “stance” (forgive the term) of the truck with the existing setup, I’ll probably end up just getting different tires for these rims.
Option A, however, is still to do nothing. I drove it all last summer - about 1000 miles total - on those tires and never put a single bit of air into any of them. I’m just concerned about the age and the fact that I can’t get an exact replacement....
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
02/24/2017 at 09:07, STARS: 0
I’m sure a 10.5 would fit on that rim, right? I can’t imagine it’s that sensitive with a truck tire and a 15" rim.
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
02/24/2017 at 09:09, STARS: 0
Hmm, thanks for the tips. I think the second one would be more appropriate for my needs, I’m really not doing hard-core off-roading with this truck at this time. The question now is really whether to do anything at all, or keep rolling the dice with the existing tires....
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
02/24/2017 at 09:11, STARS: 0
That’s not a bad idea, then if I did ruin a tire somehow, I’d just run the spare until I got 3 more like it...
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
02/24/2017 at 09:16, STARS: 0
haha, thanks! I miss it, and I may actually get to drive it to work every day this summer. So this may also give me an opportunity to deal with a handful of things on it. Top of my list: shoulder belts, get the choke working, brake master cylinder... tires may or may not make the cut - that’s partly what I’m trying to decide.
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
02/24/2017 at 09:16, STARS: 0
Thanks! I just picked it up last year around this time. I had a ‘72 for a long time before that, but always wanted a 4 speed and 4wd.
"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo)
02/24/2017 at 09:21, STARS: 1
I know the feels on tires...I just started looking at replacements for me and lets say I’m not excited.
"Takuro Spirit" (takurospirit)
02/24/2017 at 11:20, STARS: 0
How wide are they?
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
02/24/2017 at 12:44, STARS: 0
No idea how wide the rims are. I’ve never even had one off the truck!
"Censored" (chrisbrown2992)
02/27/2017 at 11:04, STARS: 0
10.5 and 12.5 wide tires are much more common and easier to find. That 11.5 is going to be hard to find and have very limited selection.
31x12.5's are also a bit rare, 31x10.5 is the common size then once you jump to 33's 12.5's become common.
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
02/27/2017 at 11:08, STARS: 0
Hmm, thanks for the info. That seems to be the case, and I suspect I could get 10.5's on these rims without any trouble.
One reason I want to look into new tires is just the noise. Which is why I also don’t want something with super-aggressive tread, because a) I don’t need it and b) that defeats the purpose! I think All-Terrains are pretty good road tires that also have some off-road credibility where I would want it.