If you were buying white-letter radials which one?

Like title says if you were buying white-letter radials today which brand tire and why??

Size in question 245 60-15 and 275 60-15's

Are BF Goodrich letters still turning brown and if so isn't there a product out now to clean them up??
Thanks Ron

I had a bad experience with T/As last time I bought them. Granted, that was in 1996, but they all leaked air within a couple of years and very few miles. The only set of Coopers I've had were on the car a couple of months when I sold it. To me, they're all too expensive for the speed rating.

I think you only have 3 or 4 choices today.


All ugly tires.

I would go with the BFGs . Simply on looks alone.
I dont push my cars hard or race them.nor drive them in the rain.
And they will dry rot before i wear them out .
I just need to look good and not vibrate.on the hiway.

A buddy a mine bought the BFG off a vendor at Carlisle this past summer..
And they guarenteed them to not turn brown for 5 years

I like the Cooper Cobras. No lettering turning brown, dry rotting or any other issues. I have one set that is about 8-9 years old and one that is just a year old and they both look and perform great. I bought mine ebay, and the sizes you are looking for can be bought for as low as $150-$160 per tire with free shipping if you can mount them or have them mounted locally.

I think now it is BFG and BFG made by Coker under licence.
I would get the Coker.
Or Copper Cobras i think they may be a better tire, but I don't think the Coopers look as good.
The BFG look the best and would agree with you as being my choise

I have bf Goodrich. No leak problem but they aren't white anymore.

I’m happy with my Cooper Cobras.

Unfortunately the Firehawk Indy500s are loooong time discontinued… my fav tires profile

Me to. Kelly Chargers used to be my go to, but discontinued. I wouldn't waste my money on BFG. They will turn brown.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/352537028909

Coopers.

I have run Coopers & the BFG T/As.

The BFGs have a harder tire compound, so they do not grip well. Very poor traction if driving on wet roads.

The Coopers are far better!

Either way, black walls out for this kid.

Another vote for Cooper Cobra.

I put a set of Mastercraft Avengers on one of the cars maybe 2 years ago, and for a street tire they've been fine.
Not a prestige brand, but they seem as decent as Cobras, T/As, or my old Indy500s.
The lettering doesn't matter to me as I run them black; I'd run redlines if they weren't an arm & a leg.
My local Cooper tire store sells them.

I like the look of that tire but they don't offer a 245 60-15
Ron

I really want to pull the trigger on Cooper but the letters are ugly IMHO so would have to go blackside out and maybe letter them with GY PolyGlass stick-on letters
Ron

I have used Coopers, and Mastercraft. No problems with either but one Cooper Cobra grew a huge lump while heading to Carlisle one year.

looks like they have 255, too wide??

I heard of an outfit called tredwear that does decal kits. Maybe add those to black walls?

I have Good Year on my Rallye wheels on my Charger to simulate the old Good Year polyglass look. They also brown like BFG's over time. I have Coopers on my Cragar wheels with the RWL inward, my Roached Runner with RWL inward, also have Coopers on my New Yorker with the grandpa white walls out and they have not browned at all over the years. Old school from the 80's BFG's still on project Charger #2 and they never brown.

how old are these?
firestone doesn't even show this size on their site for this tire.

When they turn brown just break out the lacquer thinner and a rag and wipe them off. The BFG's with all their shortcomings is still the best looking tire for our cars IMHO.

I had them (the size 255 60-15 on front of my old Satellite) years back but i feel they look too big in front.
Ron

I have two places bookmarked that sell the letters and a member here did it on his Challenger and they look pretty cool!
Ron

Don't know if all the big places are just selling out all the old stock ????????

Mike I have to agree with you there and yes Lacquer thinner has always been my go to letter cleaner.
Ron

Would be nice to check the manufacture date on them!

In any case, I paid around $70 for each one as far I recall… true around 10 years ago

I have 255/60-15 on 15x7 Rallyes on all 4 corners. For me the best size for B bodies on all corners.

What about Mickey Thompson sportsman S/T tires?

I was under the impression firestone no longer made any raised white letter tires anymore

For the street I run Mickey Thompsons S/T’s on the ‘Cuda, Firestone Indy 500’s on the A100, and BFG’s on the Vega and Mega Cab.

Yes I was going to ask about those also, I know someone that put them on a bunch of years back
Ron

Could you post up a picture of Cuda with them?
Thanks Ron

I like the looks and the ride/handling of the TA radial

Lacquer thinner won't work. The brown is from the rubber leaching through the letters. The brown is not on the surface, it is all the way through. Nothing works to make them white again once they go brown except a paint pen.

The letters do clean up and will look whiter after lacquer thinner but it doesn`t last.

I've been able to get the BFG lettering to clean up even with brown with a can of contact cleaner in one hand and a stiff bristle scrub brush in the other had. Then some Armor All, or tire coat or similar product of choice. They are ten years old at the time of this photo?

Not the greatest picture, but it’s all I have at the moment sorry. What I can do is take a picture of the tires mounted on the rims. The car is currently up on stands with no wheels on it.

I have BFG, GoodYear, and repro Polyglas RWLT's on my toys that all brown......no paint pen needed, Trichloroethylene, a rag and one's finger, whitens the crap out of the letters, but you need to be careful to do only the letters...the plus side is it last about 2-3 yrs before they brown again....the "browning" is nothing new, I recall doing Wide whites and Standard white walls and RWLT's back in the 60-80's on up to the present to remove "browning"...

As for the OP's request, I'd avoid all the crap RWLT's on the market today, invest in a quality black wall performance tire and contact one of the many white lettered applique type letter/number makers and apply their offerings to the surface of a quality tire....some vendors also custom make letter/number appliques to your specs

My Cuda with Mickey Thompsons

This or Cooper Cobra (who happens to make the MT ST). Both have small block lettering similar to BFG. Both are made currently and are not old stock and licensed manufactured. Mastercraft Avenger also has small block lettering.

Kinda depends on what you want the side of your tires to say to make a selection as none of these are better performers than the other. Performance for any of these is typical street cruiser. These all fall into the "cosmetic performance" tire category which means they look good and perform like an average street tire.

I wish someone would reproduce the Super Stock Formula 1 tires.Coker? Please!!!

The redline radial tires I got from Diamondback for mine are a Milesteel carcass.
The lettering is blacked out , otherwise look like so on the other side

https://cdn.discounttire.com/sys-ma...t-product-default-format_dt-product-Zoom


I have no complaints with ride or handling

Is there a specific brand that you use ?


How about this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Trichloroethylene-Purity-Solvent-500ml-Model/dp/B013P3OL30/ref=sr_1_6?

I've tried everything on my BFG's

Brake cleaner, lacquer thinner, bleach white, goof off - tried all with a rag, paper towel and red scotchbrite.

The best I've been able to achieve was a light tan color.

Turned sh*tty brown again in just a few days, not being driven-just sitting in the garage.

When mine was built back in 2010 I went with the Mastercraft Avengers...

I needed/wanted a very tall wide 17" tire on the rear and a normal sized 15" tire on the front...

Back then there were no other options to have both raised white letters and a matching tread pattern...

When these wear out or have to be changed I don't know what I'll do...

Bought cooper cobras to replace the BFG radial t/a’s on my car recently.

Has anyone tried the Vitour Galaxy Radial G/T?
They have 7 different 15 inch sizes and have a V rating on the 60 series and an H on the 70 series.

https://www.prioritytire.com/vitour-galaxy-r1-radial-g-t-255-60r15-102v-as-a-s-all-season-tire/

When you scroll down on that link, there is the 'customers also viewed' area. There are 9 different options for 15" wheels, including the Firestone Firehawks... Pretty good selection, but some I've never heard of.

I have them on my Charger in 235/60R15 (front) and 295/50R15 (rear) and they are waaay better than the BFGs and Coopers I had previously on the Charger. I see in your link that the 275 and 295 tires aren't listed - they are available though, maybe they can order them.

Nice thread pattern!

Can you post any pics of them on your Charger?

@DGS Thanks for the feedback.

I was checking around local shows this past year and had yet to run across anyone using them. .

I'm not a fan of BFG radials (S rating), browning of letters, and real bad when wet out. Been there and done that.
The Cooper Cobras have S and T ratings and Mastercraft Avenger have M and S ratings.
So far the Vitour's are the only ones I found with a V rating (60 series)

Mickey Thompson SRs and Maxxis Marauders are both H speed rated. The Maxxis has a pretty high UTQG rating. The SRs have no UTQG rating but MT is claiming they are only good for 20-25k miles which would mean they are somewhat soft. Neither of these come with white letters.

I didn't see a UTQG rating on the Galaxys. With the closed should tread block, I wonder how they do in water? Also, is it my imagination, or is their tread lettering not equally spaced on all tires?

It sure looks like the front tire is off on the spacing. I didn't notice at first, because I was drooling over the car. That's a beautiful Charger!

To me there is only one choice for white letter tires.

B.F. Goodrich TA's

Tom

I think they look great in the pictures above but up close I think the lettering is too big. I found this image online.

BFG Radial T/A. Pictured here on my old '68 hemi RR.

I would like a RWL radial in like a 305 60 15 but that doesn't exist in RWL. The 295 50 is not tall enough in my opinion. I like the letter paint but my hands would not be steady enough for perfect results.

You are correct, the spacing of the lettering is different on the fron an rear - rear is opposite, front is off (in the "empty" section it says Vitour but you can't really tell cause the lettering is black). No clue why they did it that way (the offset lettering is on the small width tires - I think 255 and up have it on the opposite side).
Performance in rain is good (better than the BFGs or Coopers) but you still have to be careful with a high hp RWD car in the rain - nature of the game I'd say.

On this thread I found very interesting two deals…

1-it seems Indy500 tires are available again?
2-radial RWL tires on 15” with a modern thread pattern and V speed rated are available now!!!

I can’t find anywhere on Firestone’s site that the RWL Indy 500’s are being made…..odd

Also, has anyone ever tried these? Hankook ST tires? They are available in all kinds of 15” sizes. I don’t think they look all that bad?

yeap, weird, but it appears available from some sellers around thought.

to make it even weirder... Priority Tires shop is not offering Indys on their website, but thet are selling throught the ebay account.

I remember Dunlops G/T qualifiers Tires ( my very first RWL tires in Venezuela ) was not available into the USA market so none dealer offered, but Dunlop SP Sport GT which later were also available in Venezuela ( was my second set of tires ). Soooo maybe is about the market ?

Indys are being made in Mexico


the thread pattern on those Hankook look very similar to Indys, just the font looks odd

I only see them on ebay. I contacted the seller and he said the tires will be no older than 2021. I guessing that was when they were discontinued. Also I only see 275 and 295 15`s available, All other sizes are showing out of stock.

I edited my reply while you quoted me... found them on Priority but just 275 and 295 for 15"s as you mention, but I have seen 255s on ebay

https://www.prioritytire.com/firestone-firehawk-indy-500-295-50r15-105s-sl-as-a-s-all-season-tire/


Last time I saw indys being sold it was maybe 10 years ago... couple of years after I got mines... on those days it was hard to me to get mines in fact. I think on those days were discontinued already. But... maybe a new batch?


Editing: Nevermind... 255 I saw were on a mexican website ( also Colombia )

https://radialllantas.com/products/255-60-r15-firestone-firehawk-indy-500-102s

also 70 profile available around