Montgomery Wards Riverside Tires -when discontinued?

[Neil Mylar LakewoodCA]

At one time Montgomery Wards sold the "Riverside" brand tire for Model A and T Fords and I heard for tractors.
My 1928 Ford has a set of 21" Riverside tires on it.

I looked online, but it looks like Riverside 19" and 21" tires are no longer being sold.

Does anyone know the history of those tires? What year were they first sold and when were they discontinued?

I've had Model A's in the past with Riverside tires.
I always liked the tread design.
I though they wore better and stopped better than the Sears Allstate tires.

Neil

[J Franklin]

Monty wards has been out of business for a few decades now. I think either Lucas Tire or Coker Tire have reproduced Riverside tires at one time.

[Fullraceflathead]

I have Riverside tires on my 1928. They were put on I'm guessing in the late '70's or before 1982. They are holding air and since never stored outside they still look good. I'm sure they are potentially dangerous since they sat flat for 34 years on my truck in the garage. I like their looks.

[Joop]

Neil can you post pictures of the tire.

Thanks

[Marco Tahtaras]

This is a copy of what I posted about 18 months ago:

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They were great tires and very good looking in my opinion. When I was a kid I finally had to break down and by new tires for my '29 Roadster. I ordered a set from Wards. This was 1976. When I was notified they were in I went to their warehouse to pic them up. When they brought them out from the back I was horrified. What they brought out was Garfields which I've always hated. To make it even worse they were white walls! I rejected them but it took some carefully chosen words to get my money back!

I wasn't that fond of Firestones so I ordered Goodyear diamond treads that were made in Brazil at that time but were good quality. They were priced similar to Firestones but the price difference from Wards meant buying them only a pair at a time.

The bottom line is there were no Riversides readily available in 1976 and nobody has made them since.

[SHEC]

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Sorry Sir -

My experience is a bit different and we are both from the Nor Cal - Bay Area.

I still have the 5 Montgomery Wards Riverside (Blackwalls and blackwalls only - please, on a Model A) on our '30 Deluxe Coupe. We went on a 154 mile tour just this past Saturday running on the rubber we are noting here.

Bought them new in 1978, 5 tires and no tubes as the tubes came from Mal's Model A Sales - a long gone parts house in Pacheco Ca.

My Dad and yours truly, ordered them from the Pleasant Hill CA. Wards store and I picked them up at the warehouse in either Hayward or San Leandro. I drove my '71 El Camino over there with my buddy and then we went to Quarter Pounder for a burger. Still remember it and still running on those tires believe it or not. These tires are garaged and still driven on a regular basis. So far they have 19,000 miles on them and not showing any checking or rubber cracking. They are clearly marked POLYESTER if I recall.

I do not know the firm that actually produced the tires for Wards ("Riverside" family name). This was a viable and quality product even in the 1970's.

I do have a set of 5 new Firestone tires that I bought from a hot rodder at the Turlock January swap meet. He had no use for 5 stock 4.75x19 tires. I offerd $250.00 for the 5 and came home with them. Brand new in the wrapper!

Perhaps we got lucky with the Wards purchase, but I still have the bill of sale from Fall 1978.

Be well -

SHEC

[Jon-Ohio]

My first set of tires on my 1930 coupe were Wards Riverside tires back in the 60's .
According to the mfr's code number on the tires, they were made by Firestone for Ward's if I remember correctly.Very good tires and reasonably priced.

Jon in Ohio

[huddy]

My '30 Coupe has MW Riversides, which I suspect have been on it since it was restored in the '70s. The car has always been stored inside out of direct sunlight. The treads are fine but the sidewalls have quite a lot of checking and most likely I will replace them soon.

[Neil Mylar LakewoodCA]

I can't take any pictures of the tires at the moment, but here is a picture I have of the tread.
Neil

[old car guy]

I cannot reply for all of the wards stores but I worked at wards until the late seventies and the store that I was in still had the riverside tires for A's and T's. We sold quite a few of them with no problems. We also had a fairly decent inventory of replacement parts for the same and even a few rebuilt long block engines . The price was very reasonable even then. Wards tires were a real buy for any car of the era and gave extremely good service. But when mobile bought them out everything changed and if tires or parts were not with in a few years from anew car they were not in inventory any more. Infact a lot of the classic or vintage parts were put in the compactor and sent to the land fill. But when you work for a large company you do what you are told even if you did not like it. It was a real shame.

[Jeff/Illinois]

Originally Posted by Neil Mylar LakewoodCA

I can't take any pictures of the tires at the moment, but here is a picture I have of the tread.
Neil

That be them Neil . We had a set on the Tudor, LOVED those tires if someone made them in that tread pattern today I'd be in line to buy them. Good looking tire.

A good friend just bought a '30 Coupe out of an estate last fall. Car been in storage for 30 years, had an early 70's restoration and guess what, GENUINE MW Riversides that still look like new. No cracks. No separations. Always were aired up in storage by the ladies' son but they never drove the car after the father died. I offered to buy them but he declined, said after seeing Garfields and Bedfords and Allstates on so many cars (all the same funky zig zag tread) he was keeping these

[Tom Wesenberg]

I agree that the downfall for Wards was when Mobile bought them. I never could figure out an oil company buying a department store and shutting them down. It must have been a big tax write off for Mobil Oil.

[mrtexas]

Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

I agree that the downfall for Wards was when Mobile bought them. I never could figure out an oil company buying a department store and shutting them down. It must have been a big tax write off for Mobil Oil.

I worked for Mobil and the engineers in the trenches wondered as well. But at the time the price of gasoline were controlled by Uncle Sam. So the oils wanted to buy unregulated businesses. It looked good on paper I'm sure. Exxon bought some office supply chain and eventually lost all the money. Mobil was lucky to find a sucker to buy Wards. I used to get a 10% discount at Wards but didn't buy much as the stores were awful. Next time you think the Oil companies are great business people, control the market, and can predict the future just remember Mobil owning Wards and Exxon selling office supplies! The future predicted was always the current year projected out to 5 years.

[5window]

Mobil

[Ron in Quincy]

The first set of tires I purchased in the early 60's were MW Riverside; as I recall the tires were $18.00 each and the tubes were $2.50 ea. I liked the tread on the Riverside, it looked more era in comparison to the Sears tire. Of course everything was much cheaper in those days; you could go to a swap meet and find lots of NOS parts for the A.

Ron

[Jeff/Illinois]

Originally Posted by Ron in Quincy

The first set of tires I purchased in the early 60's were MW Riverside; as I recall the tires were $18.00 each and the tubes were $2.50 ea. I liked the tread on the Riverside, it looked more era in comparison to the Sears tire. Of course everything was much cheaper in those days; you could go to a swap meet and find lots of NOS parts for the A.

Ron

Ron, and even back then probably plenty of NOS Model A owners to talk to

[Keith True]

I'm still running a set on my 30 roadster.The car was parked in 1971,with those tires on it,and I have no clue how long before that they were put on.A few years ago I bought a pair from somebody here on Fordbarn.I paid the seller,then got held up by weather or something.I think it was going to be a two hour drive for me.The seller was going somewhere for the winter and I said no problem,I'll see you in the spring.By spring I'd forgotten his name and lost his contact info.I still can't remember who I bought them from.My fault,not his.I hope somebody got some use out of them.

[Jeff/Illinois]

Originally Posted by Keith True

I'm still running a set on my 30 roadster.The car was parked in 1971,with those tires on it,and I have no clue how long before that they were put on.A few years ago I bought a pair from somebody here on Fordbarn.I paid the seller,then got held up by weather or something.I think it was going to be a two hour drive for me.The seller was going somewhere for the winter and I said no problem,I'll see you in the spring.By spring I'd forgotten his name and lost his contact info.I still can't remember who I bought them from.My fault,not his.I hope somebody got some use out of them.

Either that or the guy re-tired

[marc silva]

My car has a set on it and the spare has never been on the ground. They are wearing like iron! I have to say they are hard as a rock but no cracks. I constantly am on the lookout for them at swap meets. I dread the day they wear out. I am not too fond of Firestone...because EVERYONE has them. If I have to ever buy new, I am leaning towards the Good Years although the original ones I have seen do not say "balloon" on the sidewall like the new ones do.

[DougVieyra]

Marc - all of the original tires that I have seen (and collected) from the late 20's - early '30's, say BALLOON in large letters on the side walls. It was a type of construction much heralded at the time, as evidenced in all of the print ads of the time.

- Doug Vieyra, Eureka, Calif