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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / June 2005mixing radial and bias tires
I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right rear, so I was without a spare for a bit. I decided to carry an old bias ply tire I had around figuring that it was preferable to no spare in a pinch. Just what does happen when you mix a bias and radial tire on the same axle? Is the steering funny? Can you go slow on the shoulder of the road until you get to a tire shop if need be? I presume that different effects would occur if you put the mismatched pair on the front axle Vs the rear axle. I know the rolling resistance of the radial is lower than bias so maybe on the rear axle it works the differential spider gears a lot maybe. I have always heard you cant/shouldn't mix the two, but never heard the reason why.  Signaturedon paolino > I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right rear, > so I was without a spare for a bit. I decided to carry an old bias ply tire > I had around figuring that it was preferable to no spare in a pinch. Just > what does happen when you mix a bias and radial tire on the same axle? Dangerously unpredictable handling. Don't! > I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right rear, > so I was without a spare for a bit. I decided to carry an old bias ply tire [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > axle it works the differential spider gears a lot maybe. I have always heard > you cant/shouldn't mix the two, but never heard the reason why. Imagine driving down the road with the car lurching back and forth. Ted > I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right >rear, > so I was without a spare for a bit. I decided to carry an old bias ply It would work fine as a low speed spare. The different handling characteristics between the two would make it unsafe for normal driving though. I would be worried about an old bias ply holding up for when put on the truck though. That tire is probably 20 or more years old and likely to disintegrate within a few miles. Steve B. Echo the thought on how old this bias ply tire must be, they went out of common use in the 1970's. Bias ply and radial tires handle differently at the limit of traction - under hard braking or cornering. Driving normally, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. But you can never predict when you will go from normal driving to emergency driving, and mixing the two types of tires will certainly be less predictable under emergency conditions. I would say that mixing the two types will almost certainly be no worse than the effect of driving on a donut spare. Egads - "lurching back and forth" - let's not exaggerate totally out of proportion to make a point. Yes, it's unsafe to mix on a normal basis. It's probably a lot safer to put on this tire and get off the freeway to a tire shop than it would be to wait on a shoulder for three hours for a truck... The real answer is drop into Price C;ub or wherever and pick up a tire for 50 bucks. Brian >> I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right >>rear, [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Steve B. >> I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right >>rear, [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >characteristics between the two would make it unsafe for normal >driving though. It would be at least as safe as putting the little 60 psi space saver spare on a car and probably would actually be safer. >I would be worried about an old bias ply holding up for when put on >the truck though. That tire is probably 20 or more years old and >likely to disintegrate within a few miles. > > Steve B. > I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right rear, > so I was without a spare for a bit. I decided to carry an old bias ply tire [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > axle it works the differential spider gears a lot maybe. I have always heard > you cant/shouldn't mix the two, but never heard the reason why. radials and bias ply tires are built differently. (the cords run differently... look it up on google.) As a result, they grip differently in response to steering input - imagine an offroad tire on one side and a racing slick on the other side. You can drive on it, but I'd recommend going to a junkyard and getting a used radial tire for 10 bucks that looks in decent shape instead of trusting a 20 year old mismatched tire that'll probably have gone flat when you need it. Ray >> I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right rear, >> so I was without a spare for a bit. I decided to carry an old bias ply tire [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >trusting a 20 year old mismatched tire that'll probably have gone flat >when you need it. Skimping on tires is one thing I'll never be able to understand. Considering that the only thing holding your car on the road are four patches each roughly the size of a postcard, I'd want those patches to be as perfect as possible and that includes the structural support for them. The mind boggles at why some people would want to save a few tens of bucks on old questionable tires instead of new ones. Signature/"\ Jan Kalin (male, preferred languages: Slovene, English) \ / http://charm.zag.si/eng/, email: "name dot surname AT zag dot si" X ASCII ribbon campaign against HTML in mail and postings. / \ I'm a .signature virus. Copy me to help me spread. >>>I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right rear, >>>so I was without a spare for a bit. I decided to carry an old bias ply tire [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > The mind boggles at why some people would want to save a few tens of bucks > on old questionable tires instead of new ones. I don't skimp on tires. However, for a spare tire that'll probably spend it's entire lifespan in the trunk, I see no need for a new tire. Tires don't age well... Although, rereading the OP's question with regards to the flat, I'd probably use the opportunity to get two new tires and use the one remaining good one as the spare if a used tire makes him nervous. (I especially don't skimp on performance tires. BF Drag Radials can cut 2 tenths off your 60 foot times at the drag strip. However, for the winter truck it's not the same concern...) >I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right rear, >so I was without a spare for a bit. I decided to carry an old bias ply tire [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >axle it works the differential spider gears a lot maybe. I have always heard >you cant/shouldn't mix the two, but never heard the reason why. as one poster previously noted, the tread belts run differently.... typically a 45 degrees for bias ply, and radials close to or at 90 degrees. This results in different "slip angles" (the angular difference in the direction the rim is pointing and the direction the contact patch is headed). This is something you don't want to mix and match on, you can end up with horrendous "oversteer" and a car that will snap spin on a dime if you are forced into even a medium speed maneuver. Slow on the shoulder straight to a repair shop? Yeah, but the $10 used radial others have suggested, as well as the fact that your bias ply tire is probably a tad old, is a much better option. Missized tires on the rear end *is* another story. Even w/all radials, a missized (diameter) tire on the drive axles will put the differential in to a "constant differential" situation...not really too bad for an open diff but will wear out a limited slip diff pretty quickly. If forced to, I would take the mismatched spare and swap it with one of the non-driveline tires, and then use that to replace the flat, driveline tire.move that one to the flat driveline tire. --Ken SignatureKen R. Dye '67 Bonneville ragtop "Juan": suncar Chicago, Illinois '01 Z28 ragtop "???": funcar www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Track/8746 '82 Chevy Z28 "Jay": racecar dye1146 at comcast dot net '78 454 ¾ ton Suburban "Brian": towtruck >I had to replace an old radial tire on my Dodge Ram 2500 on the right rear, >so I was without a spare for a bit. I decided to carry an old bias ply tire [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >axle it works the differential spider gears a lot maybe. I have always heard >you cant/shouldn't mix the two, but never heard the reason why. The main reason why is that the tire companies would much rather sell two tires then one. Will your car not handle quite as good as with matched tires? Sure, it will not be quite as good. Will it be safe, almost certainly it will be if you drive like a normal person and not a race car driver. If that kind of mismatch made it unsafe, what do you think the safety situation would be, as far as handling, when you use one of the tiny, space saver spares tires that's pumped up to a rock hard 60 psi? That's a much greater miss match then putting a bias ply tire on but no one worry's about it at all as long as you keep your speed down to 50 mph and short distances, and that's mainly because those tires are simply not made to run more then a few hundred miles, not because they make your care unsafe to "handle". |
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