VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 1950 7.10X15 White Wall width

It appears that white wall tires were not supplied by Chevrolet, yet some of the factory photos and brochures show them. They seem to be somewhere from 2 1/2 inches wide, or wider. I am replacing my tires and want to use buy wide white walls. The car looked great years ago with Firestone 3 1/4 inch white walls. My question is, what size white wall was being supplied for the 6.70X15 and 7.10X15 tires by the dealers and tire stores in 1950?

Thanks,

Jim

As I remember the US Royals on my '50 were at least 4 inches wide. And the bead next to the black was also white....I bought it used in '53 and I assumed the tires were original since the spare matched....6.70 - 15....The tires on the car were regrooved - a common practice at that time for used car lots...

White walls were a factory option in 1950.The most common tire was the US Royal Air Ride....on about 60 percent of the cars (and they were bad).The balance of the cars had Firestones and Goodrich.
The Reproduction Firestones today (DeLuxe Champion Super Baloons) are a good copy of the originals.The wide white is 3 1/4" for the 6.70 ot 7.10.I have a 24 year old set on my '50 (of the 6.70's) and they look much larger than other brands of that size.The Coker book list the current ones diameter at 28.58" and the Goodrich shows the old original style tread with a 3 5/8" W.W. and its 29.42 in diameter.They don't show a 7.10 in the tread design.
The only style that used a 7.10 in 1950 was the heavy convertible with Power Glide.It was not even an option on the others.
In 1953 the W.W. was made a bit more narrow as the curb buffer outter rib was black.
I will say that the Firestones are wearing well.

I am very appreciative of the great mass of knowledge that Chev Nut has remembered over the years!

This is for a tour car, so I want to go with radials. While the 205/75R15 size is the closest to the 7.10X15, I can only get a 2 3/4 inch white wall in it. If I go up to a 225/75R15 I can get a 3 1/4 inch white wall, and a 3 1/2 inch white wall with a 235/75R15. Anybody have experience using 225 or 235 tires on a 1950? Would they look like too much tire for the car?

Thanks,

Jim

Hi Jim,
I've got the Coker 225 75/R15 radials with the 3 1/4" wide whitewalls on my '49. The tires look a little big for the opening compared to the bias ply 6.70 X 15 tires, but like you I wanted the wider white walls and the better handling of the radial tires. (even though I don't drive mine nearly as much as you do yours). If you want we can get together this weekend (I'd like to get the car out, especially since the weather is supposed to be nice) if you want to get a better idea of the appearance. I also have what I believe to be the original spare, which is a 6.70 X 15 U.S. Royal whitewall tire I can show you also.

Bob

Dear Bob,

I had forgotten that you had radials on your '49. I will look at my pictures from the Grand Junction VCCA meet last summer.

Thanks!

Jim

Gene sure has it right on the U.S. Royals, they were dogs. I worked in a service station dealing in Good years and the number of new take offs was amazing. In dealing with the brand it seemed that the number of impact breaks in the face of the tires far out numbered the other two major brands. My best friends father in law bought a new 55 Olds, picked it up at the factory, traveling across N.D. he had two blowouts, or what he thought were blow outs, actually the tire was stretching and seperating from the rim. It is entirely possible that speed was involved.

Jim'
You may want to consider using 215-75 15 radials.I have a set of 205's mounted on a spare set of wheels and they do look wide enough but look and are a bit small in overall diameter.The 215's that I have seen seem to be the happy medium.If you go to a 70 series the 215 is a must because the 70 series is a lower profile tire.

If the 1955 Olds had US Royal tires they would have been the new Royal 8 series that was introduced as equipment fro GM cars in mid-1954.They were better than the old Air Rides but still left something to be desired.The good Royal was the Saftey 8 that was used from 1957 and up.

I have a set of 215-75-15 off brand (Co-Op ) steel belt radials on the 53 and they ride nice, I just don't like them because the white walls are so slim...However at a replacement cost and the good reliability of them makes me not want to pay three prices for a wider whitewall of questionable quality. I know one thing I won't ever go back to bias-ply tires.


I have 215-70-14 Goodyears on the 68, they look a bit small on the large 68.

ChevGene,

Does any of the factory literature say how wide the white walls are on the factory optional tires?

Thanks for looking,

Jim

on my 54 ht i have the 5" 15" wheels after talking to the wheel man this week end he sugested using the later 6" 15" wheels with radial tires does any body have any sugestions or expertiese most say to use the wheel made for the tire ?

Jim,
I have never seen any thing from years ago that stated the white wall width.As I remember the Good Years and US Royals had a little wider WW than the Goodrich and Firestones......so all brands were not exactly the same.You remeber things like that when you washed cars and cleaned WW 's and there was no good way to remove curb scuffs back the.
The only place that I have seen width mentioned is in the 1953 Engineering manual.It just stated the "optional WW tires now have black scuff ribs in place of white, thus narrowing the white wall correspondingly".I always thought that the Present Goodrich WW width of 3 5/8" for the 6.70 and and 3 7/8" for the 7.10 looked most original for pre 1953 cars.(just my opinion)....

Pushrod-The wider rim is much better for the wider radial tires.Keeps the side wall straighter (tire dosen't get pulled in by the rim)...also the later 6" wheels are usually heavier steel, which is stronger for the radils.The down side is that the rim will not have the humps to hold on the wheels cover for some cars.A local member went to the heavy 1969-70 15" wheel on his 1953 and the tires even looked better and the wheel covers stayed on..He ran 215-70's.

Dear ChevGene and the other contributors,

Thanks to everyone for the good information. It gives me a lot to think about!

Jim