MTFCA Forum

I was trying to search the forum regarding smooth tread tires. I could find, generally, when whites ended, but couldn't find a date that smooth tires ended. I know that I have seen pictures of cars later than the teens that were running smooth but I doubt that they came from the factory on any cars that late. Also, if anyone knows did Ford ever run grey tires? I think that others ran them early on. I know that as early as the 1880s some Victor bicycles had grey and some pneumatic tires on safety bicycles in the 1890s were grey as well.

If I remember correctly, this shot from the assembly line is dated 1925. I would guess that tire is light gray. It certainly isn't black.

The transition from smooth to treaded tires was a long one. Official records (I myself don't have copies of) and era photographs indicate that Ford began using treaded tires on the rear wheels early in 1915, if not shortly before. Treaded tires started showing up in the front wheels soon after that.
However, not all cars got them anywhere near that early. Most good era photos with enough detail to tell, showing new 1915s, appear to still have smooth tires at least on the front. Smooth tires continue to show up at least as late as 1919 on some apparently new Fords.
In many cases, the question becomes whether the tires we see in a photo are the original tires or later replacements. Given some of the photos I have seen over the years of truckloads of new tires being delivered to tire stores, I would say a lot of cars were running around on replacement tires.

Thanks for the info. I have thought about trying smooth on my 17 but wanted to be sure that it was correct.

Here is a rather new 1921 and it has smooth tread tires on front, and anti skid tires on the rear.


And catalog from 1919 listing smooth clincher tires.

Dan:

Your photo shows a 1917 Ford. Note the 1917 Michigan license plate. It also has the 1915/16/early 1917 windshield hinges so it may have come off the assembly line in 1916.

The 1917 "Rip Van Winkle" Model T touring had smooth front tires. They were black and white hand brushed 2 tone tires giving it a double white wall look. The rear tires were not with the car when it was examined back in the late 1970's. This is a picture I found of it on the web, probably from the cover of The Vintage Ford.

Erik

Thanks for the correction on the year of that new like Ford as a 1917, my quick error.




Jeff

As for white and black wall tires, many types were made before 'all black' became more popularity accepted by car owners.

Some of these tires were still with gum rubber, and many tire mfg experimented with different fillers to reduce the percentage of gum or to add cosmetic look or strength when laying up cords or fabric in building up the tire casing. So there were many different looking tires then.


Note the tire on the far left in the window, gray tread with white wall, and the tubes hanging, some gray, some red, as red rubber tubes and some red wall tires were deemed higher strength.