Classic Tyres

[david painter]

Crossplies were awful thinks my dad had a New HB Viva fitted with them it was dangerous and were changed to radials in a few hundred miles made it a different car then. He kept it for many years finally changing it for a HC and wanted to swap the HB wheels to the HC but they were 12 inch, the HC had 13 inch wheels
Dave

[ScreamingLordStokes]

The HB Viva was a nice looking car wasn't it David, one the first British cars to have the "coke bottle" waistline. I didn't realise it had 12" wheels though.
Crossplies were still being heavily advertised in the magazines of the late 60s. This ad for Dunlop C41s is from August 1968 Practical Motorist:

[ScreamingLordStokes]

The way I drive, suffice to say I won't be fitting crossplies to mine!

No, same here. But it would be interesting to compare them with radials just to see what the difference would be. In that respect I'm really looking forwards to reading Danny's evaluation of them in Practical Classics.

[david painter]

the old public information film mixing Crossply and Radial Tyres https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTue5HcdSW4
Dave

[ScreamingLordStokes]

Great film David!
That's on a car with good handling too!

[marina1300coupe]

the old public information film mixing Crossply and Radial Tyres https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTue5HcdSW4
Dave

This has reminded me of an incident some years back when I was about twenty which involved my first Marina fitted with radial tyres. A puncture repair was required which resulted in the wheel being left at the repairer for later collection.

When I returned I was informed that they had given my wheel to another owner, would endeavour to get mine back and requested that for the time being I take the other owner's wheel. I noticed that the wheel being offered was fitted with a crossply and insisted that the tyre was changed to an unused radial. I also requested written documentation from them, , which they were reluctant to complete, that in the event of that wheel needing to be fitted to my vehicle I would not be responsible for the tyre being used and refused to pay their bill till my property was returned.

Soon after returning home I received a phone call from the repairer stating my wheel was available for collection. I returned promptly. I felt they should have offered not to charge, which they would not do so I deducted my travelling expenses from their bill which resulted in no charge.

Ian

[ScreamingLordStokes]

Crikey, fancy a tyre centre offering you a crossply shod wheel! They should've known better. Well done for standing your ground, I bet that was the last time you gave them your business.