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On 2 May 2002, at 7:39, Steven Ayres wrote: > Have you had negative experience with Coker products? I've bought from that > company several times, and found the quality to be excellent. I've driven > cross-country on Cokers in my Stude, so I wouldn't say they're just for show. > And as far as I know, they're the only source for whitewall radials. I've had no experience with Coker at all. OTOH, I had a college roommate whose father worked for Firestone. He told me that his Dad had been part of a Firestone project which was dedicated to trying to duplicate Michelin quality. They worked at it for several years and were never able to reliably duplicate the degree of precision that Michelin demonstrated in EVERY X radial. I think that this project was happening in the mid 60s. They were looking at uniformity of construction, balance, and durability. At that time they could not, even on a prototype basis get even 1/3rd of their tires to meet the Michelin quality level. While I'm sure that everyone has caught up to some extent (Firestone was a respected maker at that time) the making of a good tire is still not an automatic thing. Consider the Ford/Firestone fiasco of recent days. I think segmented molds may have been a big part of this and I suspect these are now universally used. I don't know if Firestone was trying to do this without segmented molds at that time or if they were just trying to develop them then. Rubber compounding is another big if. Note the importance that a small layer of special compound in the Explorer tire failures. We know that Coker has (some of?) the Michelin molds, but we don't know if they got all the details of the internal construction, or, even if they did, would they follow them completely. It really wouldn't make economic sense for them to do all these things for a very small production item. I suspect that they have a rather standard, but modern construction technique that they use on everything and a few standard rubber compounds which they use across their line. It's not at all the same as what a "real" tire manufacturer would do. I think Coker's market is with people who want a tire that looks just right for their collector car. I see them as the suppliers of tires that get mounted on Model Ts so they can be driven in parades. I think it's great that there is SOMEONE out there willing to do this and Coker does all of us a service just by being available. OTOH, I just see them as makers of tires for show cars. I don't see their tires for sale in retail outlets in competition with other brands and I don't see road tests of them in Road & Track or Consumer Reports. Looking at what I've written, I see that it can be taken as simply prejudice. In a sense that's true since I don't have any experience with them, but tires are an important safety item on a car and I don't want to be someone's test site here. I take my car for 400 mile trips rather frequently, so I really want something that I know is well tested. I'll be driving to Parma on a set of REAL XZXs this summer. Since Dave Hall will be with me, I really think this is the best choice. ;-) - Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe? mailto:type3-request@vwtype3.org, Subject: unsubscribe