MTFCA Forum

Hello All, I will (eventually) need to be putting new tires onto my Grandfathers 27 runabout with wire wheels. It currently has Garfield 4.40/4.50 - 21 from 2002 on it. They have very little wear and the car was stored in a garage out of the weather during all this time. One of the tires has some slight cracking on the sidewall, but the others have very little. I am half tempted to run them and mount two new tires on my two spare wheels.

I have two questions:

1) Do you think I should run the tires I have and mount two new tires on my spare wheels? Or completely replace them all with new tires? I have a spare wheel carrier on the car to which I could always have one ready to go.

2) What tire(s) do you recommend given the following. My intentions for the car is it will be driven mostly on regular paved roads. However I do plan to drive it as much as possible on dirt roads up in the White Mountains and elsewhere here in New England. The car is a driver and that is what I plan to do with it. I hope to use it as a fun putt around and camping/fishing car. Love to hear your suggestions.

Cheers, Steve

I would run those tires. Seal the cracking sidewalls with vinal top wax. Mop & glow will work also.
This is how I treat my tires. Cracking has not gotten worse since I installed them 15+ years ago.
Keep an eye out for severe cracking & replace if there is a radical condition change.

Personally, I'd run them at 28 PSI, cold. I'd keep a close eye on them for any sign of trouble. I ran a set of Lester 7.00 X16 tires from 1982 on a Packard for over 13,000 miles on dirt and pavement with no issues except 1 flat. I expected the coarse crushed rock roads here to quickly destroy them, but had no problems. The Lester tires were 4 ply rated polyester cord. I would keep a very close eye on the old tires... they are far older than tire makers now recommend using, but your car only weighs about 1600 pounds, and braking and driving forces are low. Most Model Ts are driven at moderate speeds. The 26 and 27 cars have 5:1 steering gears, 17" steering wheel, and a lower ride height, which makes them somewhat safer than the earlier models if a blowout were to occur. Tires stored indoors in a cool environment typically hold up better than those in stored outdoors or in a hot environment. Your old tires may be flat-spotted, which will cause shaking problems on the road. Some flat spotted tires will recover if driven at low speeds for a few dozen miles, but some do not. I would not drive on flat spotted tires, or tires with any other irregularity. Older, nylon or rayon cord tires may be more prone to flat-spotting than polyester cord tires.

I am of the opinion that tires stored properly will last longer than ten years. I have 19” Garfield tires on my ‘31 Ford. I purchased them from JC Whitney in the eighties and they’re still running well. The Garfields have nylon plies versus the older tires that had cotton. I inspect my tires often and they still run well. I would use the 21”s if they were on my car.

I did buy tires this week. Summit Racing has Coker Excelsiors on sale. They’re 4.50/4.75-21” . They have made in India on the mounting bead where it will be invisible once mounted.

Hi Steve,
How about get two new tires & put them on the front, put the two best on the rear & have the others for spares. I have not had to put a
spare on for many years & never for a flat on the road. One because someone hit my car in a parking lot bent the wheel! & another became
out of balance going down the road. So far every flat I have had came when I was running late for a event & was discovered in the garage.
Knocking on wood!!!
Craig.

I like your idea Craig. Ok so what tires do you guys recommend? I am only interested in black wall tires. Looks like the options are:
Universal
Firestone
BF Goodrich
Olympic

Let me know your experiences and thoughts, or if you have any other recommendations. Please note: I am about quality before price since they will be on the car for years to come.

Lucas offers a VERY good 4.40 /4.50 X 21 tire at a VERY good price.

Craig Leach wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 24, 2025 8:41 pm

Hi Steve,
How about get two new tires & put them on the front, put the two best on the rear & have the others for spares. I have not had to put a
spare on for many years & never for a flat on the road. One because someone hit my car in a parking lot bent the wheel! & another became
out of balance going down the road. So far every flat I have had came when I was running late for a event & was discovered in the garage.
Knocking on wood!!!
Craig.

New tires should be placed on the rear. As for what to use I can say I have good service from the Fireestone ones.

Firsestones.... about $300. each Lucas.... about $130. each.

I have a pair pf Lucas named firestone 21's on my 27 RPU. The sidewalls are very thin/soft. Even with 30#'s they look low.
I bought a pair of firestones from summit racing. Cheapest @ the time. $99 each with free shipping & no sales tax. Very good service so far & they look full.

I got well over 15,000 miles of service out of a set of Lucas tires. Vietnam made. They had nearly full tread when I got the car in 2021. I got 2 extra, older casings with good tread when I got the car. These are now on the rear axle and have about 70% tread left. I wore two of the Lucas tires down to the cord with no issues like separation, breaks, or cracking. I'm going to replace these tires with 4 new, high priced Firestones, which came with Universal tubes that are supposed to be "heavier than previous offerings". I hope the heavier tubes hold pressure better than the ones now on the car, which need checked every week and usually lose 2 to 4 psi every week to 10 days. I blame that on the tubes, since all 4 tires behave exactly alike in this respect.

One advantage of a lightweight tire is that the car will ride and accelerate better with the lighter tires as opposed to heavier ones. The Lucas 4.40/4.50 tires are about 30" OD, and the Firestones are about 30.8 OD and slightly wider and probably a little heavier. Both are 4-ply rated polyester cord.

Tubes which loose 2-4 pounds per week to 10 days are not fit for purpose. Can you tell us what brand they are so we can avoid them?

Allan from down under.

I'll check the old tube info when I get them out, probably after the 1st.