Tire and shock question

[hdkeno]

Hi all,Before i buy,i want the informed opinions of the fellow poster,s on this.

My 81 has 40k on her with the ORIGINAL. yes original goodyear GT II tires.
No dry rot or any cracks whatsoever,and the tread is still decent,more then half worn. So are the shocks.

I dont like to fool around with tires,but they still are 25 years old.

J&M corvettes reccomended going with Dunlop GT qualifiers,in 255/60 15,and said that they are superior to the Goodyears. (The stock tires are 250/60 15).

Also cant see any leaks in the shocks,but should I replace them at 40k?

If so with what (tires and shocks). And should I replace the tires?


Again,thanks in advance. Will await your opinions.


Ken

 

[C3L81]

I still have stock tires myself. I personally think they are fine. Not to mention its a nice thing to say at cruise ins and Car shows, but if its something that you really think is a safety factor, I would go with Goodyears

 

[bill81vette]

I put goodyear eagle gt's on my vette last year,even though I didn't drive it that much, I thought they handled quite well!
255/60/15 size tires.

 

[Tritium007]

I bought mine last year with 55K and the tires (BFG Comp T/A, 255/60R15) were the second set (originals were 225/70R15). They also looked great, plenty of tread and outer sidewalls were not dry rotted. Coming back from the Turkey Run in Daytona last November, the car developed a rear end waddle and I couldn't go over 55mph without shaking the radio out of the dash. Made it home and the next day the left rear was flat in the garage. Upon removal, the inside side wall was dry rotted and had cracked and split about 25% around the tire. I was lucky. I have since put new BFG Radial T/A's (255/60R15) all around and am very happy with them although I don't drive in the rain. That seems to be the biggest complaint about them. I would take your tires off and give them a good inspection of both sidewalls before doing any speed runs on the interstate. New tires will make a world of difference and you may find that new shocks may not be necessary just yet.
Happy motoring!

Mike (Nice Car BTW)

 

[Tom Bryant]

We replaced our originals several years ago. No problem with them, just age. An old tire that looks fine many times will not survive a long distance run at interstate speeds. We used the Goodyear Eagle ST because they had lettering that looked the closest to the original 225/70s that our car came with.

Also kept the original tires in case I want to put them on a spare set of wheels to use in NCRS judging someday.

Tom

 

[smithjw]

Here is what I did. When I first got the car I noticed that the front springs had spacers in them. I concluded that they must have been the original springs and developed a sag. I put in new front springs along with bilstein shocks. In the rear, the steel spring was drooping to one side, so I replaced it with a TRW monoleaf spring and combined that with KYB gas shocks that were supposedly matched to work with the fiberglass spring. The car had BFG T/A 255/60R15 on it when I bought it and they are still in fine shape. The car drives and handles very nicely.

 

[mikejpss]

Original Tires?

Original tires are nice to have for the cruise-ins and meets, but picture this- You're doing 75 mph and a tire slings itself into oblivian- you've seen this happen on an 18 wheeler... Not much of a problem in a metal body car. What do you think would happen in a fiberglass bodied car?
Thats why I ran out and bought a set of new tires !

 

[Peer81]

Imho. If you like the original tire's, take them of and put them aside!
The damage will be much greater when your tire walks off one day.
For the new tire's.
I have BG all around but i feel like they are 50/50.. I also don't like the ofroad profile on the tire's so next year i'm going to buy the Dunlop GT's for all around. For the shocks i have Koni everywhere, but i'm dutch so that's logical

Groeten Peter.

 

[hdkeno]

Thanks all,for the advice. Mike,your reading my train of thought exactly.

Thats my biggest worry,cruising on the interstate,and having a tire let go.

I first was going to go with the dunlop gt qualifiers,but saw a set of them same size as mine 255/60 15,on a 73 vette,and did not like the looks of them at all.

Even though the size was the same,not nearly as wide or nice looking as the eagles.

I can get a set of Goodyear GT 2's for not much more money,and right now am leaning towards them

Anyone have them or know how they look,or if they have the same wide profile as the GT's? Thanks Ken

 

[bill81vette]

here's a couple of pics I just took of my vette w/the goodyear eagle GT 2's

 

[John Ulrich]

My 81 has 40k on her with the ORIGINAL. yes original goodyear GT II tires.

Ken,
Original 255/60/15's were "Goodyear Eagle GT" raised outline letters.
GTII's were introduced if memory is correct when the GT+4's (outline letters) were discontinued in 1997.....I played havoc finding the +4's to replace my original GT's that starting shedding thread!!!!

Later,
JU

 

[hdkeno]

Right JU,I meant to say that the tires are the original Eagles,not Eagle 2's,

I may change them,do the eagle 2 tires have the same wide footprint as the original Eagles? Ken

 

[John Ulrich]

Tire Rack has a great tire rating guide from customer feedback. The Firestone takes the top spot and If you surf the specifications it has a 1/2" wider thread then the Goodyear.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=PAS

I do not buy any tire before consulting their guides and have not regretted a purchase yet.

Later,
JU

 

[Evolution1980]

Ken,

You didn't mention what your driving style is or what is your intent besides simply "replacing old items". Like any change to your car, ideally it should match your driving style. Is your car just a street cruiser that rarely gets pushed hard or taken to a track? Or do you run your car aggressively, such as going through corners harder than most people on the street? Your choice of tires and shocks will factor into this ability and ride quality.

If you simply cruise your car around and only do the occasional heavy throttle on a straight area of road, you can go with basic tires and shocks. In terms of tires, if you want White Letter Radials ("WLR"), your choices are quite limited. However, the current crop of WLR tires available are all equally suited for everyday driving. For this, it basically comes down to what you like the best in terms of looks. Probably the biggest factor in the looks department is the tire height/profile. A 60 series tire will give you a more aggressive look and slightly better handling. A 70 series will present the older, stock look and slighty better ride comfort.
If you are looking for performance and don't require a WLR tire, your options are much greater across the entire tire spectrum. I'm running the BFG Radial T/A's on mine only because I require a WLR tire for looks. They have about the best performance of the WLR group by a narrow margin, however...they are not really a performance tire at all. In fact, they are very near the bottom of the performance spectrum when compared to all the different tires available.

I don't know as much about shocks, but I figure for everyday cruising around town, they will all offer about the same ride-quality without having to spend beaucoup bucks.

Post-Edit: I was checking that link above from John Ulrich. Interestingly, the survey shows the Firehawk's as having the best traction of the group. However, when I talked to my salesguy at TireRack (the same one for years and years now), he said he and others preferred the Radial T/A's by a small margin. Then there's the person that posted in the TireRack reviews about "not believing the survey results". So that kinda confirms to me my choice and statement above. ...that's my less than $.02...

 

[fatboy]

I have had alot of bad luck with Goodyear,my Dunlops have been perfect.

 

[C3L81]

God damn. Ever since I read this thread I been scared to drive. I have orginal Eagles on the car, never had a problem, but since I read this I been thi8nking about it. After Washing the car today I noticed my first crack on my back passenger side tire, now Im scared ****less and dont have a penny for new tires, How bad does this look? Should I avoid driving it?

 

[Peer81]

If you could post a bigger picture then 1 x 1.5" that would help
In the States your lucky to pay less then $100 for a tire, here in europe you just get started at 150 euro's for the same tire

Greetings Peter.

 

[C3L81]

I will get a new picture up tommrow.

 

[C3L81]

Bah, bigger picture but you can barely see the marking. Sorry, i do the best i can with a cameraphone.

 

[snk1994]

Les Schwab

There is a large tire chain out here on the west coast called Les Schwab. They have a tire called Grand Am. I'm running 225/60 R-15 on the front and 295/50 R-15 on the rear. They are a little bumpy on the road but stick like hell in the corners. I Auto Cross in the summer and need something that sticks on the track but cant afford to show up wit the car on a trailor with air and a set of race slicks. SO I run what I brung. Looks nice also and they are white letter tires (i run mine black out). They dont stick that well in the rain though...but the car doesnt get out in the rain so doesnt matter to me.