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Topic author
ArthurB
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:22 pm
- First Name: Arthur
- Last Name: Babitz
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1927ish Roadster Pickup
- Location: Hood River, Oregon
- Board Member Since: 2018
Post
by ArthurB » Mon Aug 03, 2020 6:29 pm
A friend gave me a T rear end with a pair of hard rubber "Roller Cushion Tires". The tires have these funny round holes with rubber cylinders inside, and lots of small cracks but they both look intact.
I've been cleaning one up to mount in my pickup bed as a "spare" (mostly cosmetic). At least I'll never have to pump it up! But I'm curious if any of you have experience driving on hard rubber rear tires-- especially hundred year old rubber. Is there a danger it will just disintegrate? Will it shake every bolt out of my car? Happy to run an experiment and report back, but thought I should check in first so I know what to expect and look for.
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Rich Bingham
- Posts: 1922
- Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:23 am
- First Name: Rich
- Last Name: Bingham
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1913 runabout
- Location: Blackfoot, Idaho
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by Rich Bingham » Mon Aug 03, 2020 8:43 pm
As a dumb kid who scrounged through the sagebrush to build my first Model T nearly 60 years ago, my tires came from old Hoover wagons and mileage between flats was short and pitiful. Finally, one time 30 miles from home, I was forced to “come in on the rim”. Not so bad on the dirt road, but I dreaded the last five miles on pavement. To my amazement, there was really no noticeable difference in the “ride” whether on tires or the bare rim !
If it were possible to replace pneumatic tires on my current love affair with “hard rubber” I’d do it in a heartbeat. Rather problematic whether 100 year old tires can stand the gaff. Picture you showed looks mighty good to me !
"Get a horse !"
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KWTownsend
- Posts: 1128
- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:51 pm
- First Name: Keith
- Last Name: Townsend
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: late 1911 touring, 1915 runabout, 1919 touring, brass speedster
- Location: Gresham, Orygun
- MTFCA Number: 14778
- MTFCA Life Member: YES
- MTFCI Number: 16305
- Board Member Since: 1999
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by KWTownsend » Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:03 pm
Hard rubber tires are, well, hard. I can remember riding with a guy in an ALF that had hard rubber tires from the 1920's. Driving along, I'd hear an occasional dull "thud" coming from the underside of the fenders. It was chunks or rubber that leaving the tire!
So for parade use, solid rubber tires would be fine. For touring, not so much.
: ^ )
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gelfling
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:39 pm
- First Name: John
- Last Name: Gelfer
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1912 roadster
- Location: Milwaukee WI
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by gelfling » Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:23 pm
If you value your truck, and your life, these tires should be for display only. One of these falling apart under load could do serious damage to both.
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OilyBill
- Posts: 552
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 3:51 pm
- First Name: William
- Last Name: May
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1914 Runabout
- Location: Tucson, Arizona
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by OilyBill » Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:02 am
A friend of mine took me for a ride on his International High-Wheeler, that had just been fitted with new hard rubber tires. (No Air) I thought it would probably ride OK on the dirt road from his house to the paved road, and then would be pretty bumpy. I was wrong. It was almost unnoticeable that the tires were hard rubber on rims. They were a little noisier on pavement, but not much. And on the dirt road, you couldn't tell them from pneumatics. I was most impressed. But those were also fresh rubber, not 40 years old and brittle.
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Susanne
- Posts: 1055
- Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 6:06 pm
- First Name: Susanne
- Last Name: Rohner
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: Late '15 touring, "Angel".
- Location: Valfabbrica, (central) Italy
- MTFCA Number: 464
- MTFCA Life Member: YES
- Board Member Since: 1999
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Post
by Susanne » Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:25 am
Those are Museum tires... We had an antique car carrier at work with these tires, I played it a couple times behind the bosses back, and they were as smooth as glass, but they only lasted 2 trips from the Toll Plaza on the SFOBB to Treasure Island and back (about 10 miles total) before they started to come apart catastrophically...
