[Staowners] bias ply pressures ?!?

Sat Feb 17 07:10:17 MST 2007

Hello all- waiting for a break in the deep freeze to thaw out my sunbeam!

I have a set of bias ply tires on my sunbeam, and am fairly happy with them.  I keep them at max pressure, around 32 psi on the sidewall.  Radials should normally be around the max, else you get a sidewall bulge and high wear. Corvairs, VW beetles and porsches are a different story of course.  When I was 18 I drove a corvair, and kept the front tires at max pressures, resulting in poor road manners, wandering at speed in a crosswind, etc.  Well, it was long after corvairs were gone (the 80's) and there was no internet, so I was on my own and did not realize the fronts should be 10 psi less than the rears! Things are much better nowadays with the internet, forums like this.  Can anyone tell me if bias tires typically should be at a lower pressure, or a difference in pressure from the front to the rears?  Are lower pressures safe on bias plys, to smooth the ride?

Thanks-

Bob Deja
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Captain Ian L. Moist 
  To: raymead at comcast.net ; staowners at sunbeamtalbot.info 
  Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 4:59 PM
  Subject: Re: [Staowners] Rookie says: Whitewall Tires + "Bulletin Board"

  Ray,

  Exciting days ahead for you with that Alpine.

  The original  equipment was  550 x 16   Dunlop Fort Covers - Cross Ply.

  Because of the weight and  speed of the car they were a 6 ply tyre (tire).

  The Sunbeam Manual  had  three recommended  pressures. The wording

  On the third one was " For high speeds and speeds approaching Maximum"

  30 lbs per square inch pressure !!!!!!!    -    Hang on !!. 

  The cars I had drove well enough on cross ply tyres,  but in the seventies in 

  The UK  ,  16 inch tyres was very hard to come by. 

  Some people chose to overcome the problem, by  fitting  15 inch wheels straight

  off  a Humber Hawk, or  Super Snipe, some of which provided a wheel slightly wider

  than the standard  4 ½  J   Sunbeam wheel. 15 inch tyres were much

  easier to obtain at the time. There were two drawbacks:  1. you lost  a couple 

  of inches in rolling circumference, and 2. the replacement wheels did not have 

  the cooling slots that the Sunbeam had. The wheel stud spacing is identical

  though,  and the MK IIA  &  MK III hub caps  will fit.

  One day, when in London, ( about 1975) I found to my utter amazement, that every London 

  Taxi was fitted with  16 inch wheels & tyres. On enquiring though it seemed

  that Dunlop produced them for the Taxis only , and they were not readily available

  To the general public.  I eventually acquired a set of  very  175 x 16"  steel belted

  taxi  radials, but Dunlop totally refused to give the tyres a speed rating. They

  were manufactured for Taxis - full stop. 

  I ran an Alpine with cross plys on the front, and radials on the rear at one stage.

  You were allowed to do that at the time. The idea was to keep the steering

  light,  and to have more rubber on the road at the back end. 

  You could play around with tyre pressures, but unless you pumped them up

  To about 40 psi  when the car  then  bounced along the road like a ping -pong

  Ball, the tail tended to slew out. 

  Well you probably have a much better choice these days as tyre technology

  Will provide you with   performance  tyres   that do not  destroy  the looks

  And originality of a fine car.  

  Someone in Australia actually widened a set of 16"  x 4 ½ J Sunbeam wheels, taking

  them out to about  5"  , I think,  and thus  achieving an original radius wheel 

  that  would take  a steel belted radial . 

  Good luck 

  Ian L. Moist. 

  .

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  From: staowners-bounces at sunbeamtalbot.info [mailto:staowners-bounces at sunbeamtalbot.info] On Behalf Of raymead at comcast.net
  Sent: Saturday, 17 February 2007 12:38 AM
  To: staowners at sunbeamtalbot.info
  Subject: [Staowners] Rookie says: Whitewall Tires + "Bulletin Board"

  Hello everyone,

  I guess I'm probably the newest Sunbeam Alpine owner -

  just bought a 1954 out of New Jersey (from ebay).  (I'm

  so new to Alpines that the car hasn't even been delivered yet)!

  1.  I went out to inspect it (I am near Scranton, PA) and noticed

  that it needs new tires.......  (in fact, it seems to have oversized

  tires on it)..............   In any case, I want to put on a nice

  set of 2+" whitewall radials - anyone have any suggestions????

  2.  When I joined staowners I received an email that directed

  me to the Bulletin Board - this is what the email said:

                  Also, please visit our new Bulletin Board at

                  http://sunbeamtalbot.info/phpbb/index.php for 

                  discussions on topics related to our cars 

      I've tried that site and it doesn't come up.................it

  keeps telling me that webpage cannot be found...........?????

  tks much,  Ray Mead

  '54 Sunbeam Alpine

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  _______________________________________________
  Staowners mailing list
  Staowners at sunbeamtalbot.info
  http://sunbeamtalbot.info/mailman/listinfo/staowners_sunbeamtalbot.info
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://sunbeamtalbot.info/pipermail/staowners_sunbeamtalbot.info/attachments/20070217/a95b2627/attachment-0001.html 