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I am looking for an affordable alternative to Coker radials. I need the 660r16. I have 5 different desotos that all need tires. So I need something affordable. Any help would be great
@Carl Nutaitis just did a bunch of tire shopping for his '41 and while he opted for the correct ribbed bias-ply whitewalls, he may have input from his shopping for something more economical.
My own experience with collector car tires suggests that the words "good" and "cheap" rarely, if ever, are used in the same sentence. In the size you are needing there are likely only a handful of manufacturers making those tires so your options are likely limited. Coker may be your only and best alternative.
Basically I have been seeing that the antique car tires dealers such as Universal Tire that had a warehouse near Hershey is now owned by Coker Tire. It seems as if Coker might be trying to be the sole supplier of these types of tires.
I have the 600x16 Goodyear ribbed whitewall bias ply tires on my 1939 desoto which were the original style tire that came from the Desoto factory. The only 2 things that are different is that the original tires had whitewalls on both side and they had two different tread patterns. The front tires had a straight tread because of the steering and the rear tires had a cross pattern to help with gripping the road and to provide traction.
Todays prices are around $325 each for the 600x16 white wall tire and the 650x16 is more.
You might beable to find a local tire dealer that can get you a set of non specific general purpose tires for your car and since you have 6 cars that need tires you are going to be spending a good amt of cash. Might pick the one car that is you car that gets judged and shown alot and get the authentic tires and then put general running tires on the others.
Most antique car owners car are driver car and the general people looking at these cars can not even tell if they are the correct tires or not.
Rich Hartung
Desoto1939@aol.com
I am looking for an affordable alternative to Coker radials. I need the 660r16. I have 5 different desotos that all need tires. So I need something affordable. Any help would be great
Try Diamondback tires out South Carolina. They ride better than my old Cokers but none of these type vintage tires are inexpensive.
I have Diamond Back tires on 2 of my vehicles. They do a better process in applying the whitewalls and they don't turn brown like Coker's are known to do.
