Original Tires

[Joe/Ct]

I understand that all ford vehicles left the factory with black-wall tires and that the white walls were dealer installed, but who were the original manufacturers? I am most interested in manufacturers for a 1928 roadster.

[Chuck Dempsey]

Firestone had a LONG (over 100 year) relation with Ford until a scandal several years ago.

[160B]

RG&JS Page 22-2 Revised 2016

TIRES
Tires made to Ford specifications were supplied primarily by Firestone Tire
and Rubber Company, United States Rubber Company, Goodyear Tire and
Rubber Company and B. F. Goodrich Company as well as Ajax and Fisk. Ford
specifications called for a low pressure balloon tire with cord construction.

The standard tire size for the 21" rim used in 1928 was 30x4.50. In 1929 the
size was 4.50-21, except for the Taxi which used 4.75-21 tires. The standard
size for the 19" rim used in 1930-31 was 4.75-19, except for the 1930-1931
150-B Station Wagon which used 5.00-19 tires. All tires installed at the
factory were blackwalls on standard as well as deluxe models.

[Railcarmover]

hell henry and firestone were buds..

[iverson]

I would be curious to know what the diameter of the original tires were I have 3 brands 450x21 all different sizes up to a few inches

[Joe/Ct]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

I was doing a search for Goodyear tires for the Model A and found that Walmart sells them..

https://www.walmart.com/ip/GOODYEAR-...328#about-item

Should I be surprised....and are they the right ones???

[WHN]

Amazing. If your looking for Goodyear Whitewalls could be your source.

[Bill in NJ]

It looks like it is on a 19" rim ? I think it might leak but am not sure. What say you ?

[oldforder]

When I click on the link it says no longer available!

[1931 flamingo]

X2
Paul in CT

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Joe/Ct

I was doing a search for Goodyear tires for the Model A and found that Walmart sells them..

https://www.walmart.com/ip/GOODYEAR-...328#about-item

Should I be surprised....and are they the right ones???

They would buy them from http://www.kelseytire.com add their profit and have them dropped shipped to you.

[Lona]

Originally Posted by Railcarmover

hell henry and firestone were buds..

You are correct. The man on the right in your photo is Thomas Edison. The three would get together at Edison's home in West Orange, NJ. He lived in one of the original gated communities in the US and my grandfather was the gate house keeper and community policeman. I have a small piece of paper with Ford's, and Firestone's signatures as well as other photos of the three of them together that my grandfather passed down. Do you know where your photo was taken? Could have been in West Orange or even in Fort Meyers where they also got together.

Interesting too is a close friend of our family was the chauffeur for Charles Edison, governor of NJ at the time. He drove Edison's Ford Brewster town car, the one with the open front driver's area and the heart shaped Vee grille. A beautiful car we called the Batman car when we would see it parked in our neighborhood.

Didn't Henry Ford give Edison one of the first cars off the Kearny, NJ Model A assembly plant which was only a few miles from Edison's home?

If you are in the New York area, the Edison museum and home are fascinating places to visit and less than an hour's ride from NY city.

Glen

[burner31]

http://www.widewhitetires.com/GoodyearCollector.html

[redmodelt]

You are in the midst of the depression, you buy a good but low price car, the Model A. You are going to spend extra on white wall tires, I think not. Dealer installed or not. People putting WW's came much later in my OP.
A form of white wall tires were available in the Model T ear, they were white rubber tires capped with black tread.
To add, I think if you look at era photos you will see few cars even the high price ones with white walls and probable none with wide white walls, maybe narrow ones.

[todd3131]

Originally Posted by redmodelt

You are in the midst of the depression, you buy a good but low price car, the Model A. You are going to spend extra on white wall tires, I think not. Dealer installed or not. People putting WW's came much later in my OP.
A form of white wall tires were available in the Model T ear, they were white rubber tires capped with black tread.
To add, I think if you look at era photos you will see few cars even the high price ones with white walls and probable none with wide white walls, maybe narrow ones.

The point is you could get them from the dealer and people did put them on. By the way on a model t the tires were completely white and did have a black tread. The black came after one or two revolution s on a street. I spent many an hour scrubbing thoses tires on my father's 12 t

[Frank Miller]

White wall tires were not available until 1934. At that time they were white on both sides. Natural rubber is white and carbon was added to make them black. Search the web for more info.

[redmodelt]

The black cap with white/gray sidewalls came in the later Model T era because it was cheaper to just put a carbon black cap on the white/gray carcass rather then do the whole thing in black after they figured out the white tires did not last. There is debate whether the tires were really white white or shade of gray back in the teens.
Ok so I got to ask, where did you get the information that white wall tires were available from the dealers? It would be interesting to look into this more.

[Ted Duke]

Originally Posted by redmodelt

You are in the midst of the depression, you buy a good but low price car, the Model A. You are going to spend extra on white wall tires, I think not. Dealer installed or not. People putting WW's came much later in my OP.
A form of white wall tires were available in the Model T ear, they were white rubber tires capped with black tread.
To add, I think if you look at era photos you will see few cars even the high price ones with white walls and probable none with wide white walls, maybe narrow ones.

Crash was 1929, but everyone didn't immediately lose their jobs. My Dad lost his in 1932. Found another in 1933 and bought a 34 Chevy. My Mom said it was the worse mistake he made in his life. LOL

[DougVieyra]

Frank #16. Sorry Frank, but you have given out wrong information. White-wall tires were most definitely available in the 1920's onward. And yes, you are quite right, they had sidewalls on both sides of the tire.

The initial query was: "what companies made white-wall tires for the Model A - specifically, 1928." So far I have not seen his question answered. So I will answer it:

Pre-war (as in WW2, 1942 for the US) Ford cars dominated the domestic market, and very much so in the Model A era. The same tire size also fit Chevrolet, and a good many other now long-gone marques. Hence, all tire manufacturers (not just the limited Ford sources) made the Ford-size tires. And the same goes for White Wall tires of those sizes.

When discussing anything to do with the Ford Model T - like tire color - one must remember that in the two decades of production, there were also two decades of change in the car, and more importantly, in the rest of the automotive world, including tires. So what tyres were on a 1909 Model T were in no way interchangeable with a wheel of a 1927 Model T.

The technology and material of tire production changed dramatically between the first Model T in 1909 and the last in 1927. While rubber tires where white in 1909, they were no longer so by 1927 - They were black. It was only in the very early years of tire production that they were all white. By the 1920's technology and materials advancement had brought the color of tires to the black that we know today.

[Larry Jenkins]

A friend of mine has a nicely restored Model T with tires that are all white.