Tires: 195/70 or 75/14

I need to find some new tires for my 69 Valiant. I really wanted white wall tires and after looking high and low last spring I picked up some Futura's from Pep Boys thinking how bad could they be. Welllll, pretty bad is the answer. They are so loud my kids scream for mercy. So I'm back to square one.

Has anyone come across any white walls that are quiet? Baring that how about some recommendations for good quiet black walls or raised white letters?

I don't want to get into painting white walls either.

Car is only driven in dry conditions and at grandma speed so I'm not looking for high performance. It's not a daily driver either.

Thanks for any advice.
Travis

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69 Valiant Sygnet. 273 V-8
You're only as good as your last u-turn.

I've also been looking for 14" whitewalls for my '64 Valiant. Hancook makes a few sizes, but not the one I want. Before I swapped for big bolt pattern wheels, I was able to find 13" whitewalls from Discount Tire in a couple of brands.

The Hancooks I bought were quiet.

I found these on Tire Rack, Kumho Solus KR21. Anyone have any experience with Kumho's? Hankook doesn't seem to have any in my size.

There where Kumhos on my dad's Ranger when he bought it. The tread pattern on the specific tire we had picked up rocks from our gravel driveway, for an ever present "tickety-tickety" as you're driving... Otherwise, seemed to be a good tire.

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EDIT Travis, it's you? Heh, I pulled most of the below from the email exchange you and I had on this very question for these very tires for that very car last September!

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Now more than ever before, it is super important to buy tires very, very carefully. There is an enormous amount of garbage coming in from three-guesses-where, and much of it is just plain flat dangerous. There's always a sale of one kind or another going on, so unless you are ramen-three-times-a-day poor, you ought to be able to find an affordable reputable-brand tire.

As for the questions at hand: Kumho's reputation is decent and improving; like the entire Korean car and parts industry, their tire industry is flying along the learning curve at a pace that makes the Japanese of the 1970s and '80s look like slowpokes.

Seeking whitewalls means scratching probably 99% of the available tires off your list. They just aren't in fashion any more. There are the sky-high-priced ones from outfits like Coker, or you can go ahead and buy the (blackwall) tires that best match your needs and make 'em into whitewalls with this or this or these.

Me, I try to buy the best tires I can possibly afford. The payback is huge in safety, handling, durability, quietness, and ride. A good $50-$60 tire is the BFGoodrich Traction T/A (had 'em on my '71 Dart). A good $80-$90 tire is the Vredestein Quatrac 2 (have 'em on my '73 Dart and they are phenomenal, best tires I've ever owned). I don't have good luck with Goodyears or Yokohamas. I won't have Chinese-made tires if I can possibly avoid it, and even then, they must be the product of a big-name tire company, not a private-label no-name deal. When I bought the '73 last autumn, it had brand-new Chinese no-namers on them. They were reasonably quiet. They were black. They were round. They got replaced with the Vredesteins before I left Michigan with the car!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

hankook makes a nice tire in 195-75r14. model 725 mileage plus. nice riding, nice price, and korean made. white wall been selling them for a few years. ran them on my 65 coronet 195-75 front and 225-70 rear kept even wear with side to side rotation. not a big fan of the kumho's. didn't see the mileage or wet weather performance. good luck. like dan said earlier its getting harder and harder to find nice white walls

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75 dart custom, 225, >10.5-1, hurricane, 500holley, erson cam, 904, 8.8 ford 3.55 or 3.91 aussielocked, 17" steelies, and much more.

I had futuras on my Caravan. Caveat emptor! They never stayed in balance for more than 3 months; good thing I ponied up for the lifetime rotation and balance! I was so glad when they disintegrated.

Now, chinese junk or not, I have a set of primewells on my goin'-to-the-dump-and-store Ford Ranger, and they are excellent!

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

never heard of Vredenstein tires. I may be looking for some 14s shortly myself but for the car I am looking to "re-tire", I am probably looking for raised white letters as I have a nice set of alum slots (14X7); I'm hoping someone like BFG still makes, oh, maybe a 235/60R14. I JUST got this car home as in 2 days ago and have "other fish to fry" before I can even do much beyond look at this car sit in the garage.

I have only ever had 1 good, Goodyear tire; it was Sears' version of the Regatta (I think) it was called a "weatherhandler", had em on the Diplomat; (though that car had 15's on it) only choice was white WALL or turn em the other way for Black walls all other Goodyears (that I have had anyways) have proved as garbage; though my buddy had good luck with their old "Eagle ST" (no longer in prod.)

Didn't know vredestein were DOT approved. Brought some back with me from Germany on the aforementioned Caravan. Can't recall much about them, good, bad, or indifferent.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

Very old well-established Dutch tire company. I went a lot of years happily using their excellent tires on my bikes before I learnt they make car tires, too.
There's no such thing as "DOT approval". The US auto safety regulations do not work on a type-approval basis the way the international ECE regs do. Manufacturers (or importers) self-certify that their regulated vehicles or components meet all applicable regs. That's why we have things like the Chinese-tire debacle of a couple years ago, while most of the rest of the world (where ECE regs are in force) doesn't have that kind of thing happen.

But yes, Vredestein make a lot of DOT certified tires.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Kumhos hook!!!! 1.79 60' 215/75/R14 AS Tourings I think.

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11.02 @ 120.56
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAxRmoDgsdY
Chassis dyno
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd6hFGzLJMc

Firestone makes the FR380 in a 195/75-14 size with whitewalls. It may be a special order item from the retailer these days, but they do make them. At one time I had a set on a Caravan. They were quiet and wore well. I'd buy them again for a non-performance application.

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You can't fix stupid. - Ron White

I've had good luck with Toyo's..Made in China, but lasted very well in my daily 80 mile commute for almost 4 years. They where the Spectra Touring radial's that I had on my Satellite. Not a bad tire..hard compound though they did ok in the rain. I have some Fisk's on my 5th now..Made in USA! I believe they are the "house brand" of Michelin. They may have the size you need in a white wall..the 215/70R 15's have them, I just mounted them in on the 5th. A softer compound, nice and quite. Got mine at Discount Tire. Think they where around $400 or so after the mounting/balancing.

This is a good ebay store for vintage car tires including wide whitewall radials

http://stores.ebay.com/CollectorsAutoSupplycom

ok...gonna piggyback on this thread....

i went and got an estimate on tires today, and i will be getting hankook optimo H724 in a few weeks. good price, decent reviews and a nice little white band on them. cool. looking forward to that.
my question though.... is there an advantage or reason to hang on to these old bias plies? should i just give them up at the tire place or is there any value to keeping them? i haven't looked into them at all, really.

(obviously, i'm keeping the dog dishes)

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-proud new owner of a '61 lancer 170
-previous owner of a '74 dart swinger (R.I.P.)
-coming here for some schoolin'