w-30dreamin

Hello,
Does the G70x14 Firestone bias ply fit a 14x6 rim properly. Getting ready to buy some tires for my 14x6 rims and dont want to suffer any ill effects in the handling department because of a bad sizing choice.

Also, I was reading somewhere that bias ply tires will flat spot after just a couple or few weeks of sitting in the same spot.Is this true?

thanks

Oldsmaniac

The rims will work but I am pretty sure that when GM went to the 70 series tires on their A bodies they increased the rims to 7 inches wide.

orange442

The 1970 GS 455 I just got has original 14x6 wheels and shows on the build sheet I found in the upper part of the back seat that the 14x6 are original per the sheet and it also shows G70-14 raised letter wide ovals as the tires that came on it originally.

jaunty75

Any tire will do this, not just bias ply. For the most part, the flat spot will disappear after a few miles of driving if the car hasn't been parked too long. The worst thing you can do is drive your car at highway speeds for a while in cold weather until the tires are fully warm and then park the car in the cold and leave it for several weeks. The tires are softest when fully warm, and the colder it is, the faster they stiffen up and the stiffer they get.

The best thing you can do if you are going to park it for several weeks or more is to put it up on blocks. One person I know puts his cars up on jack stands at a low height setting. He just wants to get the weight off the tires, but he leaves them just barely touching the ground. This way the wheels are not hanging by the suspension and putting strain on that, either.

Good article about the issue here.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=42

w-30dreamin

Thank you much for the replies.
Sorry it has taken so long for me to respond,I have had a very bad week,as a result my tire purchase is on temporary hold.Still planned though.

Olsmaniac, That is the reason for this post,I was unsure if the factory teamed up the 14x6 and g70-14.Not much clear cut info about this on the web.Or maybe Ive just been looking in the wrong places.

Orange442,This would prove the factory did approve of the fit of 14x6 and G70-14.Good news for me,cause this is the combo I was hoping for.

Jaunty75,Thanks for the link,great info there. This stinks for me cause I park in a 2 car garage along with another car.Have to park my cutlass passenger side within about 6-8 inches of my shelves,to leave room on the other side for entry into both cars.Not much room there for installing the jack stands under the car safely.

hurst68olds

Factory usage of G70-14s started in '68 at GM on the a-bodies.
Oldsmobile used them on the '68 H/O mounted on 14x6" SSIIs. They returned to Olds for '70 on 14x7" wheels.
Pontiac GTO used them mounted on 14x6" wheels until '71 when their 14x7" wheels were introduced.
Buick didn't have a 14x7" wheel until '72, not sure when G70-14 use started ('70?).
I don't believe Chevelle used the G70-14.

Lady72nRob71

If using jack stands are not an option, tire flat spots can be kept to a minimum by keeping the tires properly inflated at all times. If it will be sitting a long time (like being snowed in for the season), you could maintain the maximum pressure as indicated on the sidewall (like 40 or so) for storage, then reduce it to 34 or whatever when the car is ready to drive.

My '86 has sat for a year on its 15 year old radials and when I went to drive it 250 miles yesterday, I did not feel any affects of flat spots. I kept them at 34psi year 'round.

jaunty75

Hmmm. 15 years is kind of a long time, regardless of the number of miles on them. Have you checked for dry rot?

The '73 Custom Cruiser I bought about a year ago had a set of radials on it that were purchased in 1994, so they were about the same age as your tires, and they had dry rot in some areas of the sidewalls as well as in the tread itself. They were not safe to drive on even though, mileage-wise, they were nearly new with only about 7,000 miles on them.

Generally speaking, I would be concerned about any tire that's more than about 10 years old regardless of mileage.