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222K views 699 replies 131 participants last post by  Dave7 
#1 ·
Anybody know a good source for some (cheaper) whitewall tires? I can't find any on tire-rack.com. I really like the Kelly Navigator Gold Series, but being a college kid with a movie-theater pay budget, I can't really afford them. They would be for the '84 DeVille. I'm not sure, but the tires on it may be origional. They aren't bald, but are starting to get down there. I was wondering if anybody has had good luck with these:http://www.walmart.com/catalog/deta...isVariant=false&corpCard=false&type=undefined
GOODYEAR VIVA 2
Yes, I know they are a wally world special, but people say they are a decent tire. Middle of the road reviews.
My old whitewalls will go on my '90 Brougham 'till I can get new ones (the fronts on there now are BAAAALD). Any tire input is greatly appreciated.
 
#632 ·
Thanks, I remember the Vitour tires now. They are H rated, which is good. I'll have to find some actual user reviews.

As far as Cokers go, I'd prefer to get Diamondbacks for that price. The CLC forums is pretty down on cokers when compared to Diamondbacks.
 
#633 · (Edited)
I bought the whitewalls on mine from "Simple Tire." They are Firestone FR710s and for a $68 (with free shipping) basic tire, they're fantastic. I've seen some around here don't care for Firestone, I guess based on the old Exploder issue. I'm sure after that they aren't making many more unsafe tires. I'd prefer Firestone over Coker as well.

For me Firestone is kind of a sentimental brand as two of my favorite things are bowling and good singing and there used to be the Firestone Bowlarama and Firestone Tournament in Akron along with the radio show sponsored by Harvey Firestone "The Voice of Firestone" and later TV program of the same name which showcased excellent singing that otherwise would not been broadcast and telecast given the fact it wasn't particularly popular music. I guess there's no point as it's Jap owned now (amazing how we've let them buy and ruin our companies; Columbia and RCA too along with their movie and music backlogs) but just the same I like the old school logo on my tires and have found this relatively cheap tire to be excellent and no air has been lost in 2 years nor any flat spots after being parked a long time and not moved much. After I'm sure at least 12,000 miles the fronts still looked about as good as the rears as I just did a tire rotation the other night. They did well in the snow in the Interstate as well. I'll post a picture tomorrow if I remember as I just cleaned them up good tonight with SOS Pads.

Edit: Here's a few images showing the tires:

View attachment 546460

View attachment 546462
 
#634 ·
Wrong forum, you have an FWD car. this is for the RWDs. That's probably a 16" tire and our RWDs for the most part take 15s.

The whole Exploder / Firestone debacle was ENTIRELY ford's fault. They designed a vehicle with a too high center of gravity so what do they do? They lower the tire pressure to drop the vehicle an inch to pass rollover tests in spite of the fact that the tire manufacture warned that the recommended pressure not go below 30PSI. Ford dropped the recommended pressure to 26PSI - something we haven't seen since the Bias ply days of the 60s. That's right, my 1968 has 26PSI recommended pressure front and rear, but for old 4 ply bias tires. I put 30-32 in the radials - same as the 1996 Fleetwood, which specifies 30.

No wonder the tires overheated and blew up.
 
#635 ·
10 years later now, the kid who posted the original question to start this thread probably owns that movie theater now, but for anyone else interested in the CHEAPEST route for fat white walls......

Tires are like brand new cars from the dealership. Once you buy them and mount them on your car, they are instantly used tires, so for my older cars I often buy used tires. Full disclosure - I have 3 1/4 inch whitewall Cokers on my '90 Brougham, but there was a time when I had a used set of blackwalls and 3 inch Port-a-wall slap-on whitewalls like the vintage VW guys use. They didn't work very well because they are meant for bias-ply tires with flatter sidewalls. The cheapest way to have fat whitewalls is to take a set of tires that either have a skinny whitewall on one side, or raised white lettering on one side, and grind out the outer layer of black rubber on that side that has the white, because that outer layer of black only serves the purpose of framing the white stripe or white lettering and plays no part in the structural integrity of the tire (I've had a retired engineer who owned a tire store tell me that.) Here is a picture my j'62 Chevy truck with tires that I got out of a junkyard and grounded out the whitewalls using an orbital sander and an angle grinder.
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Pickup truck Classic car
 
#638 ·
Looks like 235-70-15 in WW has all but disappeared except for Diamondback or Coker. The Vitour ones on fleabay are now only in 235-75-15.

Anyone find any recently??
You'll get what you pay for. I have recently posted my new Coker American Classics that I purchased from Summit Racing. 235 75 15. They were a nightmare. They were terribly warped and required two balancing attempts with no success. Then I replaced them with Vogue Classic Whites that were brown under the blue soap and Vogue admitted that they stop selling them because so many came back. Now, in just three months time, I had to go with the Diamondback Classics Auburns with the correct 2 inch WW for my Eldorado. So unless you're not concerned with the quality of the tire or the WW being a struggle to keep white, then buy the cheaper chinese made brands.
 

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#641 ·
American Classics are absolutely big car correct and beautiful looking!

BUT

I’m having big trouble with two sets of 1.3” whitewall 215/75-15 American Classics purchased about two months ago for my 1979 Sedan deVille d’Elegance and 1982 Buick Electra Park Avenue diesel. Both cars aligned when tires installed, and both cars mechanically tip top.

The first day both cars rode magnificently! The next day after installation the Cadillac mysteriously had a wild wobble on one of the front tires. As of today the one very problematic tire is puzzlingly a little less wobbly but now all of the rest of the tires are unsatisfactorily unsmooth. I think I’ve driven the car less than 300 miles total with these tires.

The Buick isn’t driven as much, and today I took it for a 90 mile round trip and ALL of the tires were shockingly much more wobbly than the Cadillac's, and one of the tires was wobbling so bad I stopped on the side of the road and put my handy cordless impact wrench on the wheel to be sure the wheel wasn’t going to come off! They were not loose at all. I have put less than 200 miles on the new tires on the Buick.

Until I read this thread today I was about to get both sets of tires rebalanced, and check the alignment again, and whatever other hoops necessary to jump through to get to the bottom of this annoyance.

I will call the tire dealer tomorrow and we’ll see what happens. All part of the fun!

Oh, by the way...

Cadillac was previously wearing a set of narrower whitewall Kuhmo tires which were on the car for NINE years and about 50,000 miles and were still glass smooth riding.

On the Buick I took off a fabulous silky smooth riding set of 4 year old and under 5,000 mile Runway Enduro 1.3” whitewall tires which I only replaced because the American Classics whitewalls are spaced more similarly to the OEM tires I see in the sales brochures. Luckily I still have these Runway tires!

I am coping with this situation this evening with many cocktails, hopeful for a satisfactory solution. :)
 
#642 ·
I think the newer tire balancers do a better job than the older ones that vibrate while spinning the wheels. My usual shop has the old style and I had to get my tires balanced at another shop with a newer balance machine. There is always the Hunter road force balancing for problem cars. I wonder if your tires were balanced on an older machine.
 
#643 ·
Proper tire balance is a must.

I just bought a new tire from a tire kingdom, a "house brand" whitwewall in 235-75-15 S or T rated. WW is the same size as my Hankooks of the same size (it is for my 1968DVC). There is a little red and yellow dot on the tire and you are supposed to put that yellow dot where the valve is. The mounter didn't do that and the weights were excessive. I brought this to the manager's attention and he confirmed what I stated, and they remounted the tire properly, only 2 small weights ended up being needed.
 
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#644 · (Edited)
A few choices are now available in size 235-70-15 for our beloved Fleetwoods:


These guys have several options in our size. Check out the red links at the bottom:


Also available from amazon:


NO MORE EXCUSES. CHANGE OUT THOSE FUGLY BLACKWALLS!!!

One last thing. Vitour is a South African company. I was worried that it was chicom, but its not. A couple good reviews, no bad ones. They make that Galaxy in a variety of sizes, some even to fit vw beetles!
 
#645 ·
I just got new tires for my 96 Fleetwood Brougham. I got a set of four Hankook H724 all seasons, size 235/75R15, 108S white walls delivered right to my local Firestone for $64.61 each off Amazon. I realize they aren't 70 profile but the difference is not worth getting a Chinese tire IMO. Plus they have a 108 load rating. They aren't old stock-they are date coded sometime mid year 2019 (I'm not right by the tires and I can't remember exactly but it was early in the latter half of 2019). The white wall is the perfect size. I still can't get over the price-I think that's a great deal for any set of tires with delivery (free for Amazon Prime members).
 
#654 · (Edited)
Cheesehead

Nice looking car!! The whitewalls and tires look great. I think that is the best solution. Whitewalls are a must on Caddy's. Like you, I have a problem buying those Chinese 70 tires. The only place that sells them are in CA and on ebay. What am I going to do in NH, 3000 miles away, if I have a problem? I am also not paying $700 to $800 for the high end tires. I have a set of Caddy chrome wheels that I plan on using.

My 94 is also white, but not a Brougham. I bought it in October, good body and engine. I figured it would take me till the end of the summer to do the little things that it needed and go over it head to toe.

Here is the link to my posting when I bought it.


thanks

Tom
 
#647 ·
Here’s a picture of the tire on one of the rims. I was in the middle of doing a full brake job and more (calipers, rotors, pads, front wheel bearings, shoes, drum brake spring kits, brake cylinders, drums and other stuff) when the tires were delivered to Firestone so I don’t even have them on the car yet. Once I get them on the car, I’ll post a few pictures of that too.
576989
 
#651 ·
I agree, it is a sad subject but at least there is something available that is a known brand name that comes close that is not either $1,000 for a set of tires (like the brands you mentioned) or some obscure brand. Milestar, Nexen and Vitour tires might work just fine but until I started looking for white wall tires for my car I'd never heard of these brands and I'm not going to be the guinea pig to try them. I had Hankook tires on a 2012 diesel Jetta I used to have and put just over 100,000 miles on them (the vast majority highway miles-but I still thought that was impressive). I would like to point out that, at least from a well-known brand name perspective, white wall tires aren't even common in the alternate size I just purchased. I don't know of any other common manufacturer of tires besides Hankook that makes a white wall tire in 235/75R15. I hope I'm wrong-please tell me if I am. Either way, I hope they don't stop making them.

I did my research concerning tire size by going here and comparing the measurements and how much it will throw off the speedometer: Tire Size Calculator.

It appears that the ideal size by diameter is actually a 225/75R15 but these are large cars. I personally place the proper width and load rating above outside tire diameter (within reason) from a safety aspect. I will provide pictures once the car is on the ground with the new tires-hopefully this weekend.
 
#657 ·
I never thought to check Walmart, Tom-you make a great point about the service availabilty. I'm in a unique situation where I've known my Firestone manager and tech (actually a wife and husband) for almost 20 years on a personal level so I never go anywhere else. It's nice knowing you have two trustworthy Master ASE Certified mechanics as such good friends. Extra bonus points-they only live six houses south of me so I've been able to lean on them quite a bit over the years! I suppose I'm among friends here too so I may as well introduce myself; my name is Adam and it is a pleasure sharing this interest with you all.
 
#659 ·
Does anyone have any experience with Suretrac Power Touring tires? Came across them on a '90 Brougham in a youtube video and they have the 1.5" WW plus come in 235/75R15. I currently have 225 75R15 Runway Enduros on my car but they are about 6 years old. Also I've heard talk they are discontinued but I haven't yet tried to replace them.

Here's an amazon link I found:
Amazon.com: set of 4 new 235-75r15 suretrac wide white walls 1.5" classic touring: Automotive

Thoughts?
 
#661 ·
A buddy and I tried Suretrac, between us we receieved 8/8 tires with blems. I sent mine back, he opted to get his installed and in addition to the coffee staining that all whitewalls besides the super expensive ones develop now, the white stripe started cracking. Shame because they look almost totally identical to the OEM whitewall.

225 is probably the best width for 77-92. 235 is really wide.
 
#664 ·
I much prefer the 235/75R15 over the 235/70R15 size for both the 1994-1996 Roadmasters and Fleetwoods. I currently have 235/70R15 Vogues on my 1996 Fleetwood, and I can't wait for the tires to wear out in 50,000 or so miles from now so I can put those Hankooks on it! The Hankooks wear out much sooner. But they fill the wheel wells better than these diminutive Vogues do. On my Roadmasters I run truck tires. Michelin white letter 235/75R15. They are a bit too wide as it is not easy to squeeze them between the brake drum and the rear fender, especially in the passenger's side. I have owned 4 1994-96 Fleetwoods and 4 1994-96 Roadmasters and ALL of them have slightly less space between the brake drum and the right rear fender than the left.
 
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