New Tires 1969 Charger RT Options?

[Fishtaco1969]

Hey all! Newbie here. After searching the web site for several hours, it looks like I have two options to replace my 30 year old Firestone FR480 F-70/14 white wall tires on my 69 Dodge Charger RT. Coker & Diamondback. They both look to have good reviews, leaning towards Diamondback since they are using BFG tires. Any other options for me? And I am worried about who will mount these for me here in Phoenix? Never had tires shipped before. Thanks for your input. Tim

 

[Richard Cranium]

I just bought a pair big redlines from Diamondback a couple weeks ago. No problemo with having them shipped Go to an independent shop/garage to mount and balance. Some of the big box stores, such as Town Fair Tire, don’t want to mount tires if you didn’t buy them there.

Nice looking Charger. Tell us more about it.

 

[Fishtaco1969]

Thanks Richard for the feedback. I purchased it from my Dad in 1974 with 33K on the clock, T7 440 Automatic center console with air. He purchased it new off the showroom floor at Valley Dodge in Van Nuys, CA. in May of 69. All stock except Mopar electronic ignition. 2nd paint done 40 years ago, now has 100+K miles. Next step is new tires and an engine refresh (original engine). Thanks again for the reply.

 

[chargervert]

Cool car! My parents bought a 70 Charger R/T SE new too when I was a kid! It was great growing up with a Charger in the family! I bought a set of Dynacorn 15 inch magnum wheels. They look close to the 14 inch wheels with trim rings,but the trim ring is part of the machined wheel. There are a lot more tires available for 15 inch wheels.

 

[WileE]

Thanks Richard for the feedback. I purchased it from my Dad in 1974 with 33K on the clock, T7 440 Automatic center console with air. He purchased it new off the showroom floor at Valley Dodge in Van Nuys, CA. in May of 69. All stock except Mopar electronic ignition. 2nd paint done 40 years ago, now has 100+K miles. Next step is new tires and an engine refresh (original engine). Thanks again for the reply.

Psst... "Richard" is not his real name. You know, like "Clark Kent" is you-know-who's alter-ego. Same here. Keep his secret identity... a secret.

 

[chargervert]

Richard Head of the department!

 

[Demonic]

You may want to consider 15"s for wheels. My car is mostly original like yours, but when I went to 15's, the ride and handling improved a good bit.

 

[33 IMP]

I have heard horror stories about Coker redlines.
I WOULD buy from Diamondback.
(and yep, Dick Head [Richard Cranium] is a alias).

 

[Fishtaco1969]

Thanks to all for responding to my post! It was very helpful. Going with Diamondback. I myself at a car show here in Phoenix heard about major issue with Coker with vibrations that could not be resolved. Going to 15" wheels also sounds great but keeping it original is the goal. Thanks again.

 

[chargervert]

Put the original 14 inch Magnum wheels away for safe keeping and go with 15 inch Magnum wheels. The car will drive and handle much better.

 

[Dave6T4]

From my experience, you did the right thing by going with DiamondBack. I bought a set of Cokers for my 1967 R/T. Around 4000 miles, the cords separated on one of my front tires. I bought a pair of DiamondBacks to replace them, and still have Cokers on the rear. The Cokers all took gobs of weight to balance. The DiamondBacks were OK. Coker buys old BFG molds and make their own tires (they are not very good at it). DiamondBack has BFG make their tires with a blank face on one side, so they can apply their sidewall.

 

[68BabyBlue]

I've heard the horror stories about Cokers, but personally I've had good results with them. I ran their radial version of the Firestone red line (with bias ply tread pattern) on my '68 GTX which I drove to Carlisle for many years, five years until I sold the car, never had a problem. I put Coker Firestone bias plies on my current car, but it sees a lot less driving, and the radials were back ordered. I've run both 14" and 15" wheels. Current car I have an originality obsession, because I test drove it back when it was new. Maybe you want to have one set of each for your Charger, and the Diamondbacks have gotten good reviews consistently on this site.