jpc647

Between the two tire brands, who do you guys recommend?


I've got old old T/A's on my car now, and they are awful around corners and in the rain. They are 235/70's. That could be because they are probably 20 years old though.

The Cooper tire company as a whole seems to have a lot of terrible reviews in the recent future. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/tires/cooper.html

BF Goodrich doesn't seem to have the same level of failure. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/tires/goodrich.html

Even at wholesale prices the T/A's are $25 more a tire. Not that that's a deal breaker, just something to mention. I mean $100 is a $100. I think based on looks I like to Coopers, but that could be because everyone else runs the BF's.

1969w3155

I think the fact that your current tires are 20 years old plays a big part in the handling dept., I had 235/70 on the front, and 245/60's on the back of my '71 Supreme and they did alright. I got caught in a downpour coming back form Homecoming a couple of years ago, and I though because of the width of the rears that I might have hydroplaning, but I had no problems whatsoever.

1970cs

I have BFG's on mine. Not bad, smooth running and quiet, I question the tread pattern for traction in bad weather, but so far they have not ran in the rain since I purchased them three years ago.

Pat

Nilsson

TA's are a hard compound tire, not a good performance tire by todays standards.

72 w29 all green

I've had the BF Goodrich T/A, Uniroyal Tiger Paw GTS and for maybe the past 1/2 dozen years the Cooper GT. I like the BF Goodrich T/A the most. The Coopers and the BFGs handle better than the Uniroyals, which felt mushy when pushing the car some. Also, the BFG's are quieter than the Coopers.

oldcutlass

They are both good tires, I prefer the BFG's.

steverw

I just bought another set of Cooper Cobras for my Vette. The old ones still had at least half the tread on them but were 11 years old. I have used Cooper for quite a long time, but recently found out there now made in Mexico. My old ones were USA made, the new ones... Mexico. I have no idea if they changed the manufacture process, but the guy that informed me of the change to Mexico said he has bought 3 sets before they found 4 tires that would balance. My new tires feel balanced, but theres alot of complaints about Cooper tires with balance problems and sidewall aneurysms it seems.
Kinda worrys me alittle now.

lemoldsnut

I have run T/A radials for many years. I like them. I use 245 60 all the way around. I do remember years ago it was determined that they perform best at about 1/2 tread. I would not run 20 year old tires on anything. When a tire comes apart it can cause expensive damage. It can even cause a bad accident.

TripDeuces

I have 225/60x15 Cooper CS4's on mine and they are just fine. Great handling. The CS4's are their top model though so I don't know how it compares to the Cobra line. I was never a fan of the big lettering on the sidewalls of the Cobras.

zodiacblue442

I have been researching raised white letter (rwl) tires too. The Goodyear Eagle GT II P235/70R15 tires on my 73 442 have less than 14,000 miles on them but are approaching 15 years old. I need to replace them before I drive the car to any future long distance shows. From what I have found, the only rwl tires left on the market are BF Goodrich Radial T/A, Cooper Cobra, and Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/T.

My brother had a set of BFGs on his daily driver 77 442 and they were great tires. He got 55,000+ miles out of them in combination town and highway driving. He used them in all weather conditions including some slush and snow.

Seems like the standard today for older muscle cars is the BFG tire. When the time comes, that's what I'm going to put on my 74 H/O W30.

For my more immediate need with my 442, I was looking at the Cooper Cobra just for something different besides the BFG. It's a good looking tire but I just can't bring myself to put a tire with a bold white "Cobra" name on an Olds. I am looking hard now at the Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/T tires and they seem to have pretty good reviews. The down side is they don't have them in 235/70R15. The closest size to keep the same diameter is 225/70R15. That tire is 0.6 inches smaller diameter. I want to keep the diameter close so I don't have incorrect speedometer/odometer readings. Otherwise I'd go with their 235/60R15. The Mickey Thompson tires would look real sharp on a muscle car.

Nilsson

The MT's are a very good tire and what I am running currently. I prefer them over the TA radials any day. Glad I broke from the BFG is the only tire syndrome. I won't even consider Cooper anymore.

bccan

Cobra supporter here. To be fair I haven't driven on BFG for 25 years. Got turned onto Cooper (Lifeliners?) back in early 90's on my 71 Cutlass 4 door daily driver & they were much better than other radials (primarily Michelins) that I had used.

I just checked my car & it has 255/60 15 Mehicano Cobras on rear & 245/60 15 USA Cobras in front. Fronts need a balancing but they have been on there for 2-3 years, certainly no problem & I don't remember them having any large weights on them.

Good sidewalls flex wise, stable & predictable, traction is what I would term "as expected." They're great on dry & when caught driving wet they are OK but you have to be very careful w/ the low rpm torque this car puts to the rear wheels.

Redog

I've been looking at the MT's as well. The BFG's and Matsercraft with RWL are good, but on a track, not very good and can spin them up pretty easy

Lady72nRob71

I looked into Coopers as well a few weeks ago for one of my cars and saw lots of bad reviews also. Fast treadwear was no big deal but I saw complaints about out of rounds. This can happen even years later - been there done that (not Coopers though) so not a chance I like to take.

After 5 years, tire rubber hardens to the point traction sux. I have experienced it many times around then. At 20 years, be very careful - they are very hard. I have a set of BFGs on my 86 that are 20 years old also with the same issues you describe. My 72 has newer BFGs that grip fine.

Between the two, I would go with BFG, even though they are too common and cost more. You are buying them for the long run.

Chewie

Hankook ventus is another option, milestar Street steel, contour formula, hercules hp4000, mastercraft avenger, hankook kinergy s/t, firestone firehawk indy 500, mastercraft avenger gt, vitour galaxy gt, are a few options for two radials

redoldsman

I guess it doesn't matter but this thread is six years old. I see it is your first post so don't let it bother you. We have all posted to old threads. Welcome to classic oldsmobile dot com.

slantflat

Glenn I think tire threads are always timely. We always need tires and there's always issues.

I'm in need of a couple sets of tires. I was thinking Coopers for the convertible. I want to keep my 225/70/14's so my choices are quite limited. The Coopers, BFG, a couple others without white letters(which I do want).

olds 307 and 403

Funny how this thread was very much for the BFG Radial T/A's. Later threads kind of swing towards the Cooper Cobra Radials. They are the two best picks, especially if you have 14" rims. Some of the others Chewie mentioned are limited in sizes and who knows if I can get some of them in Saskatchewan. I have ran both, the BFG Radial T/A, they do well in all weather, including ice and snow. They are completely useless at the drag strip, my 2.6 to 2.8 60 ft, was a brutal wheel spinning affair. I tried the Cooper's because they have a more modern tread and are cheaper. Both perform well for most applications and I have either 14" factory aluminum rims or 14" and 15" combination with the Pontiac Ralleye 2 rims for my 70S. So a wide selection of sizes, nice looking and decent performing tire that readily available counts most to me.

oldcutlass

Back when this thread started I had BFG’s. Now I’ve had Coopers for the last 2 years and perform just as well. I run the black wall side out.

Fun71

That reminds me of a conversation I had with a co-worker nearly 20 years ago. He transplanted a 400 into his Formula Firebird that had a 301 and he went to the strip to see what it would do. He said the BFG TAs just spun off the line, so next time in the burnout box he did a "John Force style burnout" (his words) and apparently the tires got hot enough to really grip. I don't recall his timeslip but it was significantly better than when he did "regular" burnouts.

olds 307 and 403

I did this time as well when I went with the Cooper Cobra radials. I may switch them back but really like the etched in Cobra on the tires. The $20 a tire cheaper than the T/A's makes the Copper Cobra's the tire choice for me.

coppertopgmc

My 71 Cutlass has Firestone fire hawks when I bought it but they were very old and 14’s are really hard to find, I looked at the bfg radial t/a but just couldn’t get myself to pay the extra money for them so I went Cooper Cobras, considered the Mickey Thompson to be a little different but considering they are made/owned by Cooper and cost more I stayed with the Cobra GT’s and have been very happy with them.

69CSHC

I couldn't agree more. (I literally could of written your exact post down to the years.)

Cobras are less expensive and lighter to boot. What I will give the Radial T/A is an edge in the looks department.

Inline

Then theres the Vitour Galaxy R1-tires. I think theyve sold in the USA aswell. I have those- but i cant comment about them. I can only comment about Cooper "crap" Cobra radials i had, they were utter crap.
Around here people keep Vitours the best of these three. But as said, i cant yet comment about them. Just bringing another option which has odd sizes available.

sysmg

I recently bought the MT Sportsman S/T slightly more aggressive tread than the Cobras, but probably doesn't make much of a difference. They replaced very old BFG Belted TAs. They seem fine handle really well although a little bit of a soft ride. I am happy with them.

75 W-30 H/O

The reviews at BFG are horrible, all complaining about the RWL's turning brown. Too bad, IMO they're the better looking of the two...
https://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/tire...adial-t-a.html

olds 307 and 403

I really like the look of the Milestar white letter tires in the other thread, almost like flags on the edge of the tread. I think the Cooper Cobra look better than the BFG black wall out, the etched Cobra is really cool. White letter out is really close. There are only of couple of people who really hate the Cobra's, recently people like them over the BFG's. I have put extensive miles on my BFG's in some awful weather and they have been good. I haven't put enough miles on the Cobra's to really tell but they seem just as good, I plan on buying more Cobra's and getting the body straight so it doesn't rub the 275/60R15 tires in the back anymore. More options is always better.

BangScreech4-4-2

I've had three sets of Coopers on my daily drivers. Fine tires, but they tend to develop leaks more frequently than other tires. Have had several sets of BFG T/As, two on my current Olds and more on past muscle cars. They're okay and given what else is available in a 14" I will probably continue to use them.

EDIT: Yes, I do have trouble keeping the white letters white -- I might get them mounted blackwall out next time.

71 OLDS

Love the look of the BFG T/A's so much (especially with SSIs) I glued the letters on 18" x 305 Nitto drag radials in the rear and 18" x 245 Michelin Pilot 4S front. I have the high performance tires I want with the RWL look.
AwZDMLw.jpg
mlQRsdi.jpg
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My son has the 15" BFG T/As on his Supreme. They just look so good mounted on SSIs in my opinion.
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BangScreech4-4-2

Never mind the tires ... look at the fit on that convertible top! It's beautiful! I wish mine looked that good.

BangScreech4-4-2

Update: Now one of the Coopers on my truck has developed a leak. I can now say that out of any set of four Cooper tires, one is sure to develop a leak once they get a couple of thousand miles on them.

oldcutlass

I've had them on my car for over 2 years now with no issues. Where are yours leaking from?

COBRA2000

I like the cooper because the letters are bigger...Fresh new set about a month ago....

COBRA2000

In the PITS... LOL

BangScreech4-4-2

How many miles?

I'm not yet sure where this one's leaking from but I'm thinking valve stem area as that's where the others went. The leaky one on our Mazda SUV has already been repaired on warranty once but continues to leak.

BangScreech4-4-2

Nice car, but you might as well take the "product placement" signs down. They lost. Besides, we don't come here to hear about your political views.

COBRA2000

Was not making a political point or view.The signs just happened to be in the picture when I took the picture..I did this off the cuff...So just block them from your view..

BangScreech4-4-2

One sign maybe, but two? Yeah, surrre.

COBRA2000

We will be just fine...Back to tires now....

BangScreech4-4-2

Sounds good, but I'll just remind you that I'm not the one who put a political commercial in my post.