Pretty mundane question I suppose, but there are a few options out there. Mainly the Cooper Cobra Radial GT P215/70R14 96T verus the BF Goodrich Radial T/A | White Letter | 215/70R15 which I currently have on the car. Town Fair is telling me the Cooper is a better tire for less money (and incidentally the same as the Mastercraft Avenger.

Any thoughts?

 

Not comparing the two (vs BFG) but Cooper makes a perfectly fine tire. I'd trust them over Mastercrafts. BFG makes a nice looking tire. I had them on my previous car (1979 Trans Am) and they were fine.
For an A-Body I'd look to a 225 or a 215. They fill the wheel well better.

 

"For an A-Body I'd look to a 225 or a 215. They fill the wheel well better."

Thanks for that info. I should clarify this is a convertible, but still A frame. Current BFG is the 215, but what I didn't know is that the wider 225 will still fit on the 14x7 rim. With that said, I think I'd go with the wider tire

 

Before switching to 15" wheels, I ran 245-60-14s on the factory 14x7 SSII wheels, so yes, a 225-70 will definitely fit.

 

My old man ran BFG Radial T/As on his Corvette and one belt de-laminated and he had to limp it home going ka-thunka-thunk in 3rd gear. He now has Cooper Cobras. This was after 8 or so years on the tires. I have BFG Radial TAs on my Monte Carlo with 20k miles on them in 15 years. They look great still, but I will replace them soon and will probably go with Cooper Cobras. My 442 has sat on BFG TAs for 12 years and has probably driven 12 miles on them. Yay for project cars when you have no time.


Either would work for a car show going street car.

 

"Before switching to 15" wheels, I ran 245-60-14s on the factory 14x7 SSII wheels, so yes, a 225-70 will definitely fit."

I'd love t upgrade to 15" wheels but I recently had 14" wheels sanded, primed and painted to the tune of $300.00. Wish I'd waited.
Bet those 245's looked great.

Koda — interesting insight. Makes me really have to consider those Cobras — especially since there about $20 bucks less per tire.

 

I've had 215/70s and 225/70ss on the many 68-72s that I've owned since 1990. I would go with 225s. The 215s look dinky in that wheelwell. Some guys will recommend 245/60 14s, but they look short and fat to my eye..

I have 225/70 BFGs on three of my 70-72 cars now, and 215/70 Mastercraft Avengers on my V Code Supreme since they came on a set of original paint Argent SSIIs that I bought. I've also owned Cooper Cobras in 225/70 and they were very good tires, they just didn't carry the same old school pedigree as the BFGs to me. I'll put up some pics.

I plan to replace the old BFGs on my '72 442 with the new G70-14 Wide Oval radials from Coker in the spring. Can't wait to get that look on it and see how they ride. The SX may get Goodyear Polyglas repros in that same size.

Terry

 

Thanks Vette442. I am committed to the 225/70's after all I've read, which is quite a bit. All seem to agree the 245/60's offer way too much daylight in that massive wheel well and that's the last thing I need, since both front and rear coils are brand new, and I went with factory coils instead of lighter/shorter ones.

I really like the look of the BFG's too, but after looking at the Cobras their hard to deny. Love the tread and will save about $100 too.

 

I purchased my last "radial ta" years ago

over priced inferior tire

I went 15 inch wheels with S/T mickey thompson
largest size that would work well with 15 x 7 rim

 

I understand. I refinished five 14" wheels and it was kinda hard to justify doing the same thing to five 15" wheels when the 14s were perfectly fine, but I went ahead and did it.

 

I have G70-14's on my car now, which are roughly the equiv of a 225/70. They look great but I drive my car a lot. I'm thinking about putting these to the side for show use & getting a set of 17's for driving. 15's are going the way of 14's. You can get a better tire for cheaper in a 17 than a 15.

 

According to the research I've done, tires have a shelf life. They supposedly dry rot from the inside out. Funny the other day I had a set of BFG's All Terrains installed on my plow/driver P/U. Asked them to take the best of one the 3 year old Rugged Terrains and use it for a spare. They said the spare was still brand new. 11 years old and no internal dry rot? They said no problem, yet they told me my 20 year old BFG T/A's that had about 1000 miles on them and stored in a garage for 20 years were likely to be dry rotted internally. When I took them off the rims they were perfect inside and out, but I tossed them. So which is it? Now I'm starting to wonder if the dry rot thing is BS. Was the belt a defect or dry rot?

Other than wearing quicker, I've never had a bad experience with BFG

 

My BFGs are almost 20 years old on my 442 and 14 on my SX. These are supposed to have a safe shelf life of about 7-8 years, but I've kept them far longer since I don't do much if any high-speed driving.

To the OP, another new RWL option is the Streetsteel line from Milestar @ tireco.com. I've seen them advertised in Hemings Muscle Machines.

Droptopron, do you have the G60 radials or bias ply?

Terry

 

Not sure, but the car is a 71 Corvette, driven by a then 65 year old dentist, who has owned it since it was 6 months old. In other words, it gets driven responsibly with the occasional WOT run. Stored in an enclosed garage under breathable covers in central Florida, where it spends 95% of its time, and the other 5% is usually in the late afternoon and evening. I would say that it is the last tire I would think to dry rot.

I think the belt went while it was sitting on it in one spot for a month or so, then really went at speed.

 

I like Cooper tires, been using them for many years. I planned to put them on my Olds, but when they came in all the lettering, "the print, tire size, date code, everything but the white letters" appeared smeared, from the mold. All 4 tires of two sizes, the black lettering was smeared. All four tires had small circle imprints on the sidewalls. They ordered 4 new Coopers and 3 of the 4 had the same defects. So i paid up and got Goodrich TA Radials. I personally have had better luck with the Coopers but i couldnt seem to get a nice set. Hopefully this problem has been solved.

 

Anyone have any good, close up pictures of 225/70R14 BFG's on 14x6 or 14x7 rims? Curious how much different they will look compared to my 215/75R14 tires on the 70 and the 235/60R14 on my 88. The 235/60R14 actually look good on the 88 but the 225/70R14 will drop 100 rpm, plus being narrower and almost match the speedo gears perfectly, should help hit 30 mpg. Plus I want a set in case they decide to cancel them. I just want to make sure they don't look too skinny on the back of either car.

 

225 70-14 bfg Looks right for the car to my eyes

 

X2, I have them on both of my Cutlasses with no defects.

 

225 70R14 on SS2 14x7

 

G70-14 bias ply. I got them before the radials came out.

When I bought my car it had off brand white letter tires that looked great & had low miles but the date code was 2002. They looked good but I didn't trust them. I'm sure the car always being garaged helped

 

No more Cooper "Crap" Cobras for my cars. Even with fresh baking-date, crappiest grip ever at rain, and not so outstanding grip even otherwise when have had to do few quicker stops, tires squealing like in old American movies.
Yes, my car is heavy, but before those i had old Kumhos, and they were lightyears ahead, even in road-noise. Gonna get rid of them.

 

These are 225 70R 14....These replaced my 15-20 year old BF Goodrich radials after one just disintegrated in the garage.

 

Here are the Milestars. Not real keen on the looks, but pricing is very good.




I have had my BFG's for 7 years no real problems with them except they seem to track badly when on uneven pavement. I do long for my Uniroyal tiger paws gts. Great traction, classic look, but they have been discontinued for about 8-9 years now.

Pat

 

Those other tires in back ground aren't the same are they? If they had the Streetsteel seperated it would look better. What is the tread like? The T/A actually works good in most weather conditions including ice and snow.

 

Which wheel is this? I have the same and am trying like hell to make sure I have the right info. Thanks!

 

Those appear to be 15x7 SSIIs.

 

Thanks!!

 

I thought the SSII wheels were argent and the SSIII wheels were body color.

 

The Wheels on my 68 442 above are 14 x 7 SSlll wheels, painted with Dupli-Color Graphite, product number-chwp10200

 

So, going back to my older, original post in this thread... Just got the cooper Cobras -225/70/14- and had to put one tire on right away, since a BFG failed while in hybernation. That's the second to go, by the way, since late fall... so replacing these in the nick of time I guess. Here's the thing: The 225 didn't seem noticeably wider or taller than the BFG 215/70/14.
Of course, this being with the car mostly covered and still garaged, so we'll see once I get the other 3 on come May....but
I did some math, and, by my calculations the tire is only about .5 inch wider/ and less than 1" higher. . Not sure my math is right though?

 

use this calculator, its easier and convenient.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc

 

Its a modest difference, not a huge change

 

It would be nice if you could get a 235-70-14 or a 225-75-14, but,,,

 

I agree, a 235/70R14 would fit the back end so much better on my 70S. These would be the best fit for our cars in the GR70-14 actually slightly taller than a 235/70R14, if you can stomach the price.
https://www.cokertire.com/tires/bran...adial-rwl.html