I'am having a hard time finding 185/70 r13 tires. My car is stock and I wondered if anyone knows what tires were original equipment and where they might be found? If these are no longer available, I would like some guidance on what brands and models work well on a 1st generation. Checked Tire Rack and Tires.com, they offer Yokohama, Falken and others. The reviews listed at these sites gave wildly different reports on the quality and performance of their products.

 

Bought a set of Sumitomo HTR200 205/60-13 HR-rated thru Sears at a 4-for-the-price -of-3 deal - LOVE the tires, tho I should qualify I am no track star, but seem great on the street. Cheap $$ - also avai in stock 185/70-13 too - no fender issues going to 205's on my stock alloy rims either.
Not a lot out there to choose from but these seem to be good ones to own-

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

Ha! I just clicked on Contact Us at Bridgestone's web site and asked them to bring back the 185/70/r13 with RWL tires for us FB owners...that'll get the ball rolling.

Yup...and gas will drop down to 35 cents/litre soon too...

 

I've used several tires over the years on my FBs and the tires I've liked best are Pirellis. To me they seem to have the best stickum in the rain. The current models I have mounted are "P400".

As I recall Bridgestone was OEM, and I even have a couple mounted currently on one car.

I had some Michelins from Costco on a car once and I hated them.

Recently I put 4 Kumho 205/60R14 on my SE and they really seem good (but no wet pavement yet). Tires cost me $150 plus $50 shipping plus $100 mounting and balancing.

 

As someone said, the Bridgestone 185/70R13 RWL tires were original equipment. You can find that size in a few vendors but with RWL the only one I've seen so far is Cooper tires Cobra GT brand (at least I thinks thats the name).

 

Excellent idea. I just did the same. Maybe we should get everyone from the site to do it. They might listen if several thousand folks send the same message.

 

For mileage, smooth ride and overall good traction, I've had great luck with the Yokohama Avid Tourings, reasonably priced around $$65 each (I get mine at discounttire).

This set has well over 100,000 miles on them (they come with an 80,000 mile warantee). I'm no racer either and most of my miles are out on the highway, but in my hands these tires seem to last forever.





Sticking with the stock size will give you the best overall performance for gas mileage, ride comfort, miles per tire, purchase price, etc. The stock sizes aren't that hard to find, Kumho has a nice one out (85,000 miles, good consumer ratings) and people like the Pirelli's, my friend Mike swears by his. If your car is modified to put out more power or you do a lot of racing you might want a higher traction tire (Sumitomo 205's seem to be a popular choice).

About Bridgestone, Bridgestone is the same company as Firestone. Firestone is the company that made the Wilderness XT tire that was on Cathy's Jeep that delaminated at highway speed, coming very close to causing a roll over and very serious accident.

Firestone refused all responsibility, they wouldn't even replace the defective tire. 'Nuff said, I won't be buying any Bridgestone or Firestone ever.

 

But Ray for that real original old school look you need the RWL. So far I've only found that in the Cooper COBRA which isn't exactly what I'd want. Even a bfgoodrich with RWL would be cool. I agree bridgestone/firestone sucked on the SUV tires.

I have a set of Bridgestone RE71 205/60R13 on my SA now. They're great and very sticky but I got them 15 years ago. They're still good, not dry rotted or anything but they're now old enough that I really need to replace em. Today they would be considered D.O.T. competition approved because the UBQG of 160 AA AA or something like that. The sumos are only 380 A A, not as sticky as my old ones.

 

I'm sure Bridgestone tires are just fine, for me it's just a grudge. And a very good example of very bad business practice - they should have accepted responsibility and paid for the damage to the jeep and offered to replace the rest of the tires.

I agree on the RWLs, I'd love to get some myself, they are to die for.





These Goodyear's would be really cool but like your Bridgestone's they are antiques. I have a set of these with great tread but are badly dry rotted.



So does anybody still make the RWLs in the stock size? Gotta be stock to preserve gas mileage and keep the speedometer accurate.

 

Yeah I'm about to do a resto job on my spare waffle rims and I'm thinking of going retro with some RWL 180/70R13 to add to the look (if I can find some I like).

What do you think?

 

205/60/13 Sumitomo HTR200's, front and rear. No rubbing and grip pretty well. Got mine from www.Tirerack.com for about 250$ or 280$ shipped.

 

Hankook, Kumho and Hoosier all make DOT approved R-compounds in a 13". We run the Kumho Ecsta V710 in a 215/50ZR13 on our '80 for SCCA TT's. I don't think they would fare well for the street because the tread wear is only rated a 30. But they are sticky.

 

Heres the response I got back from Bridgestone already:

Tim,

First, I would like to thank you for visiting Bridgestone/Firestone's website. You were inquiring on the availability of the Bridgestone Steel Belted 70 185/70R13.

Bridgestone/Firestone does not offer a raised white letter tire in this size.

I checked on Cokertire.com as they sell tires for older vehicles, and even their website does not offer any tires in this size.

We appreciate your feedback regarding this segment. I have passed this email on to our corporate planners. We are always looking at ways to improve our product offering. We will take your suggestions as we look at future product offerings.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Thank you and have a great day.

These are your benefits for shopping with Firestone Complete Auto Care:

* Buy & Try 30 Day Guarantee on selected brands
* Installation in 60 minutes or less
* Nationwide warranty honored at over 2,200 locations
* Free courtesy inspection
* Service 7 days a week
* Firestone Complete Auto Care Credit Card / 90 days interest free
* Free Alignment Check with tire purchase

Jim Boswell
Tire Pricing Analyst
Merchandising/Inventory Management
BFS Retail & Commercial Operations, LLC
Work: (630) 259-9187
Fax: (630) 259-9220

 

Definitely not close to the stock size tho. The OP wanted to find OEM tires I think.

 

Any tire that is over 6-8 years old, regardless of tread depth, is a ticking time-bomb. Even one that has never been mounted on a wheel. The rubber compounds start to degrade from the minute the tire leaves the mold.
Also, you cannot compare treadwear ratings between 2 different manufacturers, as their is no set standard for treadwear ratings. Brand X with a treadwear rating of 300 may outlive brand Y with a 550 treadwear rating.
Traction and Temp ratings, on the other hand, have a more universal standard.
Raised White Letter tires were very common 10-20 years ago, even in 13" sizes. Since the current trend in tires/wheels is now having the lowest profile tire on the largest diameter wheel, RWL tires are becoming a thing of the past. If you only have 1-3" of sidewall area, there's not much room for RWL. Add in the factor of many tires having a directional tread, and they would need to have RWL on both sides.

 

i run sumitomo 215/50hr13s they are great tires for autocrossing, but i have a 7in rim, so you cant go that wide, but mine were only like 60 bucks a tire and i have to try if i want to break traction

 

Falken - stickier and much better than the slippery when wet BFG.

 

I think our 13's are so cool. lol.. Actually are more comfortable than thins when hitting bumps and pot holes.

Old School

 

when did SA/FB become an old school???

 

I've been running Sumitom HTR 200's, 185/60R13. Worn pretty bad in the rear from a few nasty burnouts, almost to the wear bars and the fronts aren't far behind. I have about 20,000KM's on them, but I drive pretty damn hard most of the time. This is also after a 3000KM trip to Deal's Gap, where double the speed limit and tight hairpins are par for the course. They performed famously for what they are, which is only a step above an all season performance tire. They were the closest thing to a street legal performance type tire I found near the stock size. They will probably be replaced with a wider set of the same, unless I can pony up the cash for some better wheels before April next year.

 

Heh, same as mine, now if we could just get a couple thousand more inquiries fired of to these guys:

Greg,

First, I would like to thank you for visiting Bridgestone/Firestone's website. You were inquiring on the availability of the Bridgestone Steel Belted 70 185/70R13.

Bridgestone/Firestone does not offer a raised white letter tire in this size.

I checked on Cokertire.com as they sell tires for older vehicles, and even their website does not offer any tires in this size.

We appreciate your feedback regarding this segment. I have passed this email on to our corporate planners. We are always looking at ways to improve our product offering. We will take your suggestions as we look at future product offerings.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Thank you and have a great day.

These are your benefits for shopping with Firestone Complete Auto Care:

* Buy & Try 30 Day Guarantee on selected brands
* Installation in 60 minutes or less
* Nationwide warranty honored at over 2,200 locations
* Free courtesy inspection
* Service 7 days a week
* Firestone Complete Auto Care Credit Card / 90 days interest free
* Free Alignment Check with tire purchase

Jim Boswell
Tire Pricing Analyst
Merchandising/Inventory Management
BFS Retail & Commercial Operations, LLC
Work: (630) 259-9187
Fax:* (630) 259-9220

 

60 series tires on our stock 13-inches look absolutley horrible!!!! Even when lowered you get massive gapage.

I wish someone made some 205/70/13's, or even a 205/65/13.

 

The 60s series will also change your speedometer reading, for those who care about knowing how fast they are going. For example the 205/60/13s are about an inch shorter than stock with a correspondingly small circumference (you Euclidians can do the math).

Also, the bigger footprint of the 205s is better for traction but harder on gas mileage and steering responsiveness.

I just love this discussion.

Anybody find some stock RWLs yet?

 

Just get the white pens from a Harley Davidson shop. They let you "write" over the area you want, and even fill it in. IIRC someone on here was doing that?

 

I am getting 18mpg average, so thats pretty good for me