History of 10.50-16 tyres

[gazzaw]

Whilst whetting me appetite on the tyre history does any of you knowledgeable people have any idea or intel on a source for 10.5 x 16s as will be needing a set soon

Regards

Gary

[Bob Carriere]

The size you are looking for are available this side of the pond, as modern 8 ply ratings with the tractor thread made by Specialty Tires of America. They are distributed by Universal tires and Lucas and currently around $340 US $$$
In the last 10 years the cost has gone form the initial $199.99 US to the current price....... do not wait for them to go on sale!!!!

Note: Wallace Wade Tires of Texas, 10:50 tire distributor, has now closed....no reason available.

On the issue of size.....We have accumulated various old tire casings over the years some are original, heavy as hell, run flat casing dated 1940.

Why the different size????. when you stand up the various tires the 9.25 x 16 found on a HUP is the shortest of all..... sort of a low profile.....followed by the regular 9.00x 16 and tallest the 10.50 x16.... which is a few inches shorter than the 11.00 x 20.

We have all read the importance of matching the circumference of tires on a 4x4 but it is unbelievable the differences height we have observed between 9.00 x16 of the 70s to 90s era Dodge tires...... as much as 2 inches difference in height when mounted and fully inflated between known brands such as..... Firestone, Goodyear, Mohawk, General, etc. are all slightly different........ and if extremes are mixed.... big time binding of the power train.

Some one from the UK must know some distributor channels!!!!

Good Luck

Cheers

[rob love]

We used to get the same thing on the 11.00-20 tires used on the MLVW fleet back when we used bias ply tires. The Firestone and Goodyears were close enough that we could interchange them, but then General tires started to show up which were skinnier and significantly taller. A message came out that the Generals were not to be mixed with the other tires, and that in the future the tires would be sole-sourced to one manufacturer only (not General).

We had the same thing with the old 5/4 ton.....Goodyears and then someone bought a bunch of Cooper super traction. The 5/4 ton was especially picky about tire diameters and pressures. If the stresses built on the powertrain, the transfer case would not kick out of "loc" and eventually the front diff (weakest link) would boil the oil out of it.

It is very important on an allwheel drive vehicle that tire circumferences are the same.

[gazzaw]

Thanks Bob I better start saving then

Gary

[rob love]

You could buy them from one of the American dealers ( https://www.summitracing.com/dom/sea...illocation=dom )
and take advantage of the free shipping to get them to someone with a container heading overseas. I think Issah/Jim Burril mentioned today on the forum they have a container about to go over. Toss them a little towards the shipping, and that way the tires will make it over to the Uk, so you are just looking at domestic shipping from there.

I put a set of those onto the C15TA here at the museum. They really look the part.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by gazzaw

Whilst whetting me appetite on the tyre history does any of you knowledgeable people have any idea or intel on a source for 10.5 x 16s as will be needing a set soon

Gary,

Other than the tips provided by our Canadian friends, you could also refer to the earlier posting by Tim Bell. Many vehicles in Europe requiring new 10.50-16 tyres today, revert to the Mitas IM-01. They can be bought from several distributors. This thread is also available in 9.00-16, by the way.

HTH,
Hanno

70FE5DDA-F640-415A-BD93-4A288328FB30.jpeg

[Ilian Filipov]

Hi all,
I want to replace the wheels of my CMP scale models with something more decent and it looks the only right way would be to print them in 3D. Can somebody tell me the outer diameter of 10.50-16 tyre? For 9.00-16 it was found: 905 mm.; but I can't find anything on the bigger size.
Thanks in advance!

[David Herbert]

These are 100% profile tyres so they SHOULD have an outside diameter when mounted of 10.5 + 10.5 + 16 = 37" or x 25.4 = 940mm

David

[Andrew H.]

Doesn't 10.5" refer to their width? If so, it would not indicate height.

[Andrew H.]

The modern equivalent of the original 10.5 X 16 tyres as used in WW2 is 262/75/R16 (10.5' X 25mm = 262mm). In other words, the tyre is 262mm wide and the chord is 75% of that = 196mm deep. Also the rim at 16" X 25mm = 400mm. Therefore the diameter must be 196mm + 196mm + 400mm = 792mm or 31.68 inches.

Thats the arithmetic, but we found that modern 262/75/R16 tyres looked too small on our LRDG truck (based on WW2 photos) and we had to go another size up before we got a tyre diameter that "looked right".

[Lang]

Andrew

The reason they did not fit was all the old tyres were basically 100 height ie height of the tyre is the same as the width. They had various specialist odd-ball heights but you would expect any normal tyre of the period to be equal height/width.

This construction was so standard across the auto industry that tyres used to be measured by height with no wheel size ie 30x3. Everybody knew that the tyre was the same height as width so they knew that the 3 inch wide tire would go on a 24 inch rim (height of tyre top and bottom subtracted from overall height.

When they started with radial they messed with profiles so your 265/75 is only 3/4 as high as it is wide. To match the !0.50 you would need a 265/100 which I doubt is made.

As you found out we are now forced to use over wide tyres to get the original height if we want something off the shelf or go to the few specialists around the world still building 100 profile bias construction tyres.

Lang