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Is There A Right Way, Or Just a Cosmetic Way?
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:22 pm
by ModelTWoods
I helped my Dad restore his father's 1927 Model T coupe starting in the mid 1960's, so I'm not new to Model T's, but I have never given this question any thought.
Does it make any difference whether the D.O.T. number on the tire sidewall is mounted so that it shows on the outside, or should it be hidden to the inside of the wheel? If mounted to the outside, its more convenient to read, but if mounted to the inside, its more cosmetically clean.
Re: Is There A Right Way, Or Just a Cosmetic Way?
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:02 pm
by Steve Jelf
Put it on the inside. If you need it later you can have some young person go under and read it to you so you can write it down. 
Re: Is There A Right Way, Or Just a Cosmetic Way?
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 9:15 pm
by Allan
I can think of way more interesting things to read!!! However, unfortunately we do not have access to 1960s quality tyres these days. They wear so quickly or crackup in the sidewalls so that reading the DOT number is a moot point, unless of course you have a complaint about the longevity/ quality of your tyres to take up with the vendors. USA made 21" tyres may be a different story. Either way, it hardly matters.
Allan from down under.
Re: Is There A Right Way, Or Just a Cosmetic Way?
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:08 pm
by Burger in Spokane
This is WAY more thinking than I would put into a blackwall tire on an old car.
Is there some sort of law requiring that intel be faced out ? If not, who is it
that would say it is right or wrong ? And if there is such a person/body, on what
authority are they declaring such an edict ?
Re: Is There A Right Way, Or Just a Cosmetic Way?
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:43 am
by DanTreace
Oh breaking the law!
Just do it, put that dumb mark on the inside when mounting your T tires, let the Feds come after you, if the do, just outrun run them in the ole Ford.
Re: Is There A Right Way, Or Just a Cosmetic Way?
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:45 am
by Jugster
When the front wheels of a Model T are properly aligned, the car will naturally tend to track straight ahead on a dead-level road. Unfortunately, there are very few dead-level roads. Most are crowned in the center for the purpose of drainage. And because we, in the United States, drive on the right side of the road, the right-front wheel wants to obey gravity and head down-hill whereas the left-front wheel is closer to neutral territory and would track straight ahead if not for the fact that it is hooked up to the right-front wheel by a tie-rod. The unfortunate effect is that most of the time, a correctly aligned Model T Ford will want to pull to the right and the driver is always applying a bit of left pressure on the steering wheel.
Why is this relevant to the question at hand? Well, because of this right-hand bias and the fact that the driver is constantly fighting it with left pressure on the steering wheel, the right-front tire is always scrubbing slightly sideways and that wears the tire tread unevenly. The tread on the right side of the tire will wear out faster than the tread on the left side of the right-front tire.
You can most easily procrastinate dealing with the problem by dismounting and switching the front wheels with each other (meaning the entirety of each wheel—tires, rims, spokes and all), but eventually, the "new" right-front tire will likewise wear unevenly, so like I said, this method is strictly procrastination. Eventually, you must either buy a new tire or dismount the old, unevenly worn tire from the rim and flip it so the un-worn part of the tire tread is now on the outboard side of the passenger-side rim. That means the DOT information is, sooner or later, going to flip from inboard to outboard (or outboard to inboard). If you rotate the wheels as described above, you'll have to dismount and remount not one, but two tires (Procrastination always has its price).
Mounting and dismounting tires is just part of the warp and woof of being a Model T Ford owner. But that in itself is another story (Contact me at jugflyer@aol.com if you need info on how to do that).
Re: Is There A Right Way, Or Just a Cosmetic Way?
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:15 am
by John Codman
Methinks that the above post is theoretically correct, but is way overthinking the issue. Our roads here in SW Florida are built with a significant crown - 3 inch downpours are not rare here. My T does not pull and I have not noticed any significant tire wear other then what would be attributed to normal driving. It would seem to me that the previous post would apply to all cars; when we traded our 2012 Chrysler minivan at 94,500 miles, it still had the original tires, and they would have passed state inspection in our previous home state of Massachusetts.