I need to buy a new set of tires for my 70 Cuda. I currently have BF Goodrich Radial T/A's on the car. I have read recently here on the board that the New BF Goodrich Radials have had some issues with the white letters turning brown so I am considering a set of Cooper Cobra Radial GT's.

From an esthetics point of view both tires look the same. From a price point of view the Coopers are about $50 a tire cheaper so that is attractive as well as I have not heard about any issues with the Coopers having issues with white letters turning brown.

Does anyone on the board have experience with these tires? If so, can you share them, good or bad?

-Thanks

While not lately, but I used to use and ship a lot of the Cobra's to Oz and always had really good luck with them. They were better in the wet than the T/A's a lot of customers would say. (never really rains here so I didn't notice ) and I like how they rode/wore/etc

Haven't used 15" stuff personally in a while so can't comment on them lately. I ship a lot of T/A's now to a customer, but he's a tire shop down there and sells them since it is a name everyone knows and is a common 'look' as well.

It has been a while for me too, but I used to run them all the time. Had great luck with them, no issues whatsoever!

They hook better.

Kevin

After 3 sets of brown Radial TA's on my 71 Vette, I gave up the fight and reversed the tires with raised brown letter toward inside of the car.

This after having happily used TA's for some 46 years on a variety of cars,,,,until now that Michelin purchased BF Goodrich and screwed up the lettering from white to brown of this classic and iconic tire.

Take a look at the black wall of a TA or for that matter on any Michelin tire,,,,the black walls also have a definitely brown cast to them. I correct this with a heavy application of 303 Protectant,,,,however does nothing for lettering defect.

Unfortunately Michelin has chosen to change their rubber composition which is responsible for this problem.

I have started using the Cooper tires in place of the Bf Goodrich T/A's. I've had great luck with both but as you said, for the money, The Coopers are the tires to get. I've got them on my 70 RR,71 Cuda and my 72 Barracuda. I have Mastercraft ( made by Cooper) on my Formula S. Those have performed well also.

I would strongly recommend the Coopers. Love the T/A's too but just too darn expensive these days.

I'm running the Coopers on my 65 300 vert

I just bought a set Cooper GT's last June for my 64 wagon. Saved a lot of money over the T/A's. I'm happy with them so far, but I turned the white letters in.

I bought a Magnum recently that had them on it,I've had no issues and they seem to track good and not noisy

Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/T

Running them on three cars, no problems with discoloration.

those mickeys are made by cooper

No mileage warranty.

In fact what they do have for a warranty is horrible.

I thought I heard that Coker Tire (not Michelin) was now manufacturing some of the popular musclecar sized BFGoodrich Radial T/As?

Is this not the case?

What are your DOT numbers & size on the "brown lettered" T/As?

I have a pair of 275/60/15s here from '08, dirty but not "brown" DOT APR7 NX71 3108 - "AP" = Uniroyal Goodrich in Ardmore, OK

tire DOT manufacturing plant codes

Who cares about a warranty if they are a good tire?

Yes, I knew they were made by Cooper.

Cannot blame this one on Coker.

It appears from what I have observed is that TA's with browning issues are larger sizes, 275/60's and 255's...Have no knowledge on 295's.

I have seen 235/60's that are brand new and lettering is Snow White. I suspect but not certain that 245/60's are ok.

I have a friend who was at recent Goodguys West Coast Nationals who on his 70 Charger had just installed 275's on rear, they were brown in 10 days. Had 235's on front and are perfect. This appears common to all tire's these sizes. Check the tire sizes of the first 2 photos. Older T/A's are almost always as they should be.

The final photo is of a 1 month old T/A on our 71 Vette before I reversed the tire's to inside out.

If anyone has different luck with recently acquired T/A's, perhaps you might post your opinions. Problems seem to have begun some 2 plus years ago, somewhat after the time that Michelin acquired Goodrich.

No cleaning technique will improve the lettering,,,,I have tried them all.

I could show you the brown letters on my Cooper GT s

Bought them from Discount Tire Direct last year summer

The brown seems to bee getting worse as time goes on , and not every Tire

Then to top it off

What's happened to the formula in Westleys Blech White

Doesn't seem to work anymore , I don't know what other cleaner to try

I like the tires

They look great , handle decent at all speeds , great price

I wonder if Discount Tire would warranty them as they have probably less then 2,000 miles on them in a summer and half

They probably don't have sodium metasilicate in it any more. It is still in many of the commercial tire cleaners available to detail shops though. It's the chemical that makes it hard to breathe when you spray tire cleaner on a tire. Probably outlawed in many jurisdictions too.

The Westleys formula changed several years ago. I have bought old bottles of it at garage sales to still have the good formula...

Lay odds it's not Westleys that is letting you down. More likely that tire manufacturers are changing tire compositions to lessen ozone and other environmentals to better preserve the tires themselves from damages caused by the air we breath.

Note what happens to an apple or a pear when you slice them in half and let them sit for a half hour or so. The exact same phenomenon is occurring to these tires when the air hits these changed compounds in the tire.

You will note when you mount a brand new T/A the blue protective coating on the RWL's. When first removed, all is well, the letters are white as they should be.

However within a week of protective blue coating removal, lettering will have turned brown and no manner of cleaning will restore them to proper white.

Examine the inside sidewall of a recently obtained T/A after a few weeks of usage at the black wall. It too will have a ugly brown sheen on it. You will not likely note on outside blackwall of tire because you have been detailing them with various products. If you fail to clean and detail tire, blackwall parts along with lettering of tire will too turn brown. Also note sidewalls of any fairly new Michelin tire that has not been cleaned and detailed. They too will have this browning stain.

I remember many years ago when I first noted the truly gross brown or bronze sheen on tires or vinyl as a result of using Armor All.

I quit using it 30 years ago in favor of 303. Further research I found that Armor All was a Silicone based substance, 303 was water based, therefore did not cause such a discoloration.

Only good use I have ever found for the original Armor All product was to kill recalcitrant crab grass in my lawn that Round Up would not handle. Lol.

I believe that Michelin and possibly others are either adding or increasing the amount of silicone to their rubber compounds for whatever unfathomable purpose that only they currently are privy to. Likely to speed up production processes or rubber longevity is my best guess.

This is the cause of the discoloration not your cleaning products,,,they still work just fine on older T/A's, and most other whitewall and RWL tires.

Take note of the photos in earlier posting above as evidence.

Below is a previously posted photo of a tire on our Vette after having used everyone of the pictured products to zero success.. I have used others including sanding, dremel tool. All products to no help.

It is the Michelin tire rubber compound and nothing else that has been changed.