BF Goodrich T/A vs BF Goodrich T/A Coker built? What the ?

So anyone know what the deal is with the Coker built BFG vs the regular ones? Summit sells both & I really don't get it. So is the Coker tire going to last as long? Are they using used carcasses or something? I don't get it, is BFG making the higher $ one?

Coker bought the molds and rights to reproduce specific types/sizes of now discontinued BFG tires

Hopefully the BFG tires made by Coker won't have raised brown letters.

Time to start buying other brand tires is what that says to me.

The main difference looks to be Coker 295 is a lot narrower. Probably why they're selling them cheaper.

If they bought the molds I would think they'd be the same size, no?
Doug

Don't look at the generic pics and decide anything

Sharp like stick you are.

Order two of each and compare over time.

A 295/50/15 the same size no matter who makes it

Actually there are slight variations in thread width, diameter and overall width between mfg's

i've seen as much as 3/4" difference in diameter and tread width between manufacturers over many, many years in all sizes. and the charts that are published as guides in catalogs are just that; guides. so measure carefully and allow for extra clearance when deciding what will fit your application.

Why not e-mail Coker and ask?

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ummmm. i'm pretty sure he was joking about the one set of tires being wider.. thats what the little drum guy means..

Coker Tire has been in the tire business for 50 years or so.
Looks like you can buy the real BFGs until they run out but they're not being produced by BFG any more.

Coker Tire specializes in styles and sizes of tires that don't have much demand except from collectors. They buy the rights to a particular tire, including the molds, and make duplicates.
I remember seeing their ads in Hemmings in the '70s.

From their website:
"Coker Tire is the world’s largest manufacturer of specialty tires and wheels for collector vehicles."

While their tires are made for driving, I do not expect them to be suitable for competition. They do sell some racing slicks and front runner types of tires and those I'd expect to be up to the task.

R.

ummmm. i'm pretty sure he was joking about the one set of tires being wider.. thats what the little drum guy means.. [/quote]

Thanks for the rescue cogen80. Yes, I was joking. The whole "this picture is representative and does not show the actual item" is a pet peeve of mine. In the day and age we live in with digital cameras it just seems lazy.

That said, I have actually seen some big differences in the same tire size between brands.

I bought 5 years ago new BFG's for my roadrunner. The white lettering on the rears had turned brownish and I couldn't get them white. the tire shop took them back and replaced them at no charge. here I am 3 years later and they've done the same thing. (keep in mine that there are O miles on both sets). Now BFG told the tire shop there was going to be a fee of $31.00 per tire to take them back for adjustment. I told the tire shop that that's absolute BS and wanted the claim number so I could vent at BFG. After I talked to the customer service and reminded them that their engineers were aware of this problem, they waived the fee's. After finding out that Cooker had the 275-60-15 BFG in stock, we ordered a pair from them that came into today. They said there BFG's aren't having the fading white letter problems. I did but their $10.00 per tire warranty good for five years and does include against fading letters. I'll keep you posted in a couple of years if the Cookers fade.

Westleys Bleach White easily takes care of that browning.

I ended up getting Mickey Thompson Sportsman ST 295/50R15's. These are for my daily driver & I didn't want to chance on the Coker novelty built. The real BFG's were going to be $100 higher because for some reason they also had a oversized shipping charge tacked on them.

Black Magic makes it now, not the same stuff as it used to be.

Nothing takes care of the browning. It is stained from the inside out. I've tried everything there is. Nothing can change the color. It is the rubber bleeding into the letters. I will never buy another BFG tire again.

If I've ever had a tough clean up on white letters, I wet the tires and my brush then load the brush with Comet an have at it.
It works.

Maybe you should just stick to black side wall tires?...

Seriously though, every tire "browns", I have had BFG belted T/A's in the past (70's-80's), they would brown, BFG Radial T/A's, they would brown, Goodyear Eagles ST's/GT's/GTII's they would ALL brown, I have MH Racemaster tires that brown, TSL Swampers, even my Pirelli P Zero black walls that brown, and even a set repro GoodYear Polyglas GT's that brown...white lettered and white sidewall tires have been browning for decades...you'd swear from some of the posts on here, it's a recent event? and only on BFG tires...

FYI, you want to clear up the browning, and keep it at bay for some time, clean the individual white letters or sidewalls with tri-chlorethelene

I don't think people are realizing that the white letter browning on BF Goodrich TA radials is not from normal decomposition, this was an inherent flaw in newer tires produced within the last few years. They are aware of the problem as well. A friend of mine recently got his 18 month old tires replaced for free after contacting BF Goodrich. He was told his nearest dealer happened to be the local Sears. They replaced all four and a few months later the letters remain white. Make sure when you purchase these tires they are New and not within the dates that were flawed.

You obviously have never experienced this particular problem. As stated in an earlier post, this problem is caused from contaminants leaching out from the tire itself.

BF Goodrich are made and owned by Michelin.

Who doesn't know that!

I bought 4 new BFG's couple years ago. The rear tires were definitely different. the raised letters on all 4 would brown but only the fronts cleaned up white, NO MATTER WHAT I TRIED the rears were BROWN raised letters. Cleaning them made them change shade of brown to light brown while the fronts were bright white.

Discount tire replaced the rears this past May no charge.

I think what happens is the black rubber leaches into the white letters and they cannot be "cleaned".

Easist trick to avoid the browning of the bfg white letters is to run the correct tire for your muscle car. I.E redline, polyglas, whiteline....