Dman sent me this shot of a fleet of early Peterbilts. I’m not going to try to pin down the exact model, as that gets a bit tricky. But what interested me is that these were shot in Eugene. Everts Transport is long gone, but in its heyday, it operated a fleet of 17 Peterbilts that picked up chemicals to make glues in California and distributed them all over the Pacific Northwest to plywood mills.
I did a bit of Googling, and found some more info on Everts (below). Among other things, Everts was an early adopter of Michelin “Metalic” tires, by which I assumed they mean steel-belted radials. But that seemed very early to me. turns out these weren’t radials; Michelin invented the Metalic Truck Tire in 1937, reinforcing it with steel. It was something of a precursor to the famous Michelin radial X, which came out in 1946, but not for trucks until some years later.
I’m pretty sure that’s a 1951 Cadillac.
Interesting that the Michelin ads were only talking about “carcass distortion”, not punctures.
I’ve always wondered why steel-belted tires were so late in arriving. The radial arrangement didn’t matter much, just improved handling a bit. The metal belts mattered HUGELY. I’d put belted tires on the same revolutionary level as electric starters for safety and convenience.
The radial arrangement didn’t matter much, just improved handling a bit. The metal belts mattered HUGELY.
You’ve got it backwards. Radial tire construction was the biggest tire advancement ever, since it changed a number of key issues/limitations with bias ply tires: significantly less heat buildup, much greater longevity, greater comfort, a larger contact patch with resultant benefits in traction and handling, etc..etc..
There were a number of non-steel belted radials back in the ’60s and ’70s and into the ’80s, and they were highly competitive with the steel belted Michelin X. They had all the benefits of a radial even without the steel belts.
As to handling, many/most sports cars back then came with non-steel radials, like Pirellis, Dunlops, etc., precisely because they were favored for their superior handling. Michelins had a rep for having a rather abrupt transition at the limit, which non-steel radials didn’t have.
I’m not sure how steel-belted bias-ply tires for passenger cars would have worked, if at all. To my knowledge, no one built them, and probably for good reasons. The steel belts would probably have been too stiff for the bias ply carcass, resulting in a bad ride, handling or safety. The belted bis tires that were built for a while all used a softer fabric belt.
Another benefit was you didn’t have to drive a car with square tires in the severe cold. I would guess I would drive maybe 1/4-1/2 mile in below zero weather before the bumpy ride settled down. Another benefit was much better traction in the cold and snow. Once radials became the dominant tire snow tires became nearly obsolete. The advent of the dedicated snow radial has been a real plus. These snow radials are really the ticket if you live in a climate that gets lots of snow and ice.
I ran all fabric Pirelli Cinturatos on the VW back then. Worked great with the swing axle rear suspension, no sudden break away. Nice ride, too.
The difference in handling between are car equipped with bias ply tires is simply enormous. Radials track better, don’t blow out due to heat and last a lot longer. Oh and they make the cars use less fuel.
Radial tyres improved handling immensely perhaps you dont have the roads that these make a huge difference on but we do and the poor steering cars that wore crossply tyres when delivered new, I still have one of the cars and had a set of original tyres for it and fitted them on it one day took it for a drive it was still ok, then I took it out in the rain and immediately put the Michelin steel rims and modern tyres back on, the difference is chalk and cheese, steel belts are awesome but not damage proof the fleet of trucks I drive amongst are all on low profile steel belt truck radials our tyre bill for October exceeded 20K but that is job related where they unload is seriously bad for inflated tyres but the rest of their travel is motorway or city streets where normal type tyres are required going around 9 axles and thumping 32 tyres regularly just becomes routine several times per day.
I checked with the guy who had posted the picture previously on a Peterbilt history site, and the trucks are a variety of models, 1949 to about 1953. Probably Model 350 and perhaps 351, aka “needle nose”.
Interesting! Nothing says West Coast (trucking) like a 3 axle tanker towing a 2 axle tank trailer. That combination goes back to the 30’s and is still common today.
Thanks for the truck information. Always enjoy reading about trucks.