I'm ready to put a nice fat set of L-60/15 (275-60/15) Mickey Thompson Indy profile S/S tires on the back of my El Camino.. But these tires are not radial. It even says right on the mickeythompsontires.com site not to mix radials and non radials on the same car. For one thing, this is something I never knew before, I had an old Jeep that had bias and radial mixed, and never noticed any kind of problems.

I want to run a set of BF Goodrich 225-60/15 on the front of my Elky with the 275-60 bias MT's on the back. Why is this not reccomended? Does it have to do with traction, and the possible creation of some understeer conditions if the back end broke loose? The much wider bias Indy SS at 275 will have alot more grip than the radial 225's, so if that is the reason, I doubt there will be a problem in my case. If all the tires were the same width it would make sense not to do this, or to at least mount the bias on the front.

I love the MT Indy SS tire, when I was growing up this was the tire to have on your hot rod.. I really want to get a set mounted on the rear. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I'm pretty sure I'll be perfectly safe with them, and BFG radial TA on the front. But any help, advice, or personal experiences, on the matter is appreciated.

Thanks!

I've done it before,and it makes the car handle a little "odd"

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1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass 350 Olds,TH350
1985 Cadillac Eldorado
Chris Corwel,TC Member 785

I have L-60 M/T sportsman pro I treads on the back and 225/60/15 goodyear HP on the front and dont notice any real problems.Handles better than when I ran 165r15 on 3.5" rims in front.

The thing is that bias ply tires and radials are so different in their characteristics. Radials will really stick to up to high cornering loads until they break away rapidly. Bias ply on the other hand are always gradually losing grip as you push them harder. They break away gradually, whareas radials break away suddenly. There is also an issue of the natural frequencies of tire. Radials tend to have low speed mushiness. Bias ply tires tend more to get high frequency jitters, sometimes they need to roll for a few miles before they settle down. The tires heat up at different rates. They don't like each other. Don't ever put them together on the same axle.
Will they work together? Sure, they'll roll.

Yeah.. I'm thinking this is not a great idea. I'd be better off with BFG Radial TA all the way around. I can buy two 275-60/15 TA's for the price of one Mickey Thompson tire anyway. I'll get better mileage with the Radials too. And not have to deal with getting new tires if the Elky can't handle the bias rear tire setup very well, something I wouldn't know until after I'd installed the tires, at which point they are not returnable.

Looks like BFG TA's all the way around. BFG TA's were fairly new when I was growing up, so nobody had really accepted them yet. hehe.. showing my age here. But I've owned many sets of Radial TA's now on my hotrods over the years, and have always had great results. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif


[This message has been edited by Maddening (edited 05-22-2002).]

I have been on my head before because of mixed radial/bias tires. I was riding with a friend in light rain and he made a left turn at an intersection, when he accelerated the back end of the car spun right around and we hit a curb. Fortunatly it was a nice slow roll, neither of us were hurt until I found what he did and then I beat the crap out of him. He had new radials up front and bias on the rear. The car was a mid-70's AMC and so the back end didn't come around because of the great amount of power it had, it was the tires.

But on the flip side if you know the problems about mixing the differenct tires on your car you could get away with it if you are careful. If you aren't driving in bad weather and you don't try to take corners at 90mph you could be ok. But don't let other people drive you car and don't forget that you have these tires on your car.

I wouldn't do it, but Good Luck with which every you do.

R.J.