VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Radial tire size

I know we have rode this horse to death but I have a question. Is a 245X75X16 radial tire the replacement for the 6:00X16 ? If not what is the radial size that replaces the 6:00X16 bias tire Would this 245X75X16 work on my '41 Coupe. Thanks JIM

No modern size approaches 600-16. 195-80R16 is a good approximation, and were only available in one brand last I checked. Possibly more available in Australia, where apparently it was used on Toyota pickups (or so I'm told).

245 is the approximate section width in millimeters (10 inches). Tires will be four inches wider than 600-16 at the widest point. I doubt you could even cram them on the rims, and if you did, there would probably be clearance problems.

In a modern size, you would have to pick something much narrower, and that would have much shorter sidewalls, causing the engine to spin faster on the highway, and the speedometer to be inaccurate.

I drive a car that uses 600-16 and I am painfully aware of this problem. Even the cheap solutions are ridiculously expensive. Good luck.

Coker sells a 600x16 radial and Diamond Back tires sells one they say is an approximation but I know nothing about it. Either way hold on to your wallet. VERY expensive.

Thanks for the information. I had to find out because I can get a set of 245X75X16 radials. I was pretty sure they would not fit . The CHAT is so great because we have so many well informed members that are willing to share their knowledge with members of VCCA. I am a 50 year plus member and I have made good use of our CHAT site. The VCCA is a great club. The G & D is second to none as far as publications go. Like the ole boy said - I read it kiver to kiver every month. Missouri hilbillies will understand that language. JIM.

Hi Jim,

I just got this off the interweb,

Coker Tire Company, the largest supplier of collector car tires, offers steel-belted radial tires for classics of the 1930s and 1940s. Now available in sizes 550R16, 600R16, 650R16, 700R16 and 750R16, the Coker Classic is a safer, more modern alternative for the bias-ply tires used on many collector cars and street rods.

I've had my 33 coupe for 56 years and never bought a new tire for it until I got a set of 550R16s and mounted them on a set of 16 inch accessory Chevrolet wire wheels.

Roger

It is my underseading that Diamond Back radial whitewall tires can be of several brands and that the side is cut out and white wall volcunized in. Are Cokers radial whitewalls a similar build?

Just wondering.

Charlie

Coker tires are molded, some using vintage molds from the OEM, and not made like the Diamond Back side wall vulcanizing process, which uses a modern casing from one of several brands (the sidewall is not "cut out" on the DB tires, BTW, just smoothed before the new surface is vulcanized over it). Nothing wrong with the Coker process, of course, it's just different than what DB does.

I'm running Diamond Back DB II 205/75R15 white walls on my '53 Bel Air, which are made on a Toyo tire. Their process is interesting: Diamond Back Tire Making Process.

In the case of the Diamondback 600-r16, the size mentioned in the original post, the tire offered is their "Auburn" radial series. That is their own tire, not vulcanized to someone else's modern tire. Nobody else makes an appropriate radial tire to add a whitewall to in that size.

They might be vulcanizing whitewalls on Auburns as well, as they offer different whitewall widths as well as blackwall, but the tire is Diamondback's own made-from-scratch radial.

Coker also has the "American Classic" made-from-scratch 600-r16 radial.

There aren't many reviews of DIamondback Auburns out there yet, but what I have seen is all positive, and they sure do look good. If I were buying 600-r16s today, they would be my first choice. Not cheap though.