40 series, 50 series, 60 series ???

Do you ever hear people talk about how wide their tires are on their car? Where I come from alot of people will say "hey how big are the tires on your street rod?" and he will get an answer like "I got a set of 50 series on there!" People will ask me if I have 50s on my truck and I answer "no, they are 295/60/15" and then I get a confused looks. Or I will hear someone comment on my drag radials "whoa, 50 series slicks!" Is this just something that was used to determin tire size in the days past or do I just live around a bunch of tarded hicks??
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you live around a bunch of tarded hicks.


Some people only care to talk about side wall profile, I don't know why, but they do. Probally a throw back in the way-back machine to when white walls were 6 inches wide and the first 70 series tire came out and everyone went "WOW"..then it was like...."I'm the badest, I got a set of those new 60 series!" etc, etc, etc.

Just smile when they talk it makes them feel better.
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Thanks for clearing it up. I thought it had something to do with side wall profile but it just dont make sense that all tires with a 50% side wall height to tire width would all be the same tire width. My F-N-L is an older guy (50) and he allways refers to tires as a 50,60,70 series and I asked him if that was something that was used in the older days and he said no, thats how tires are measured, 70-series are 8" wide, 60 series are 10" wide and 50 series are 12" wide. I thought to myself he must have one heck of a time when he trys to buy tires[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

What those idiots are generally reffering to is the 60/65, 70/75, 50/55, & 80/85, are the exact same thing as the "60" in your 295/60/15's, it is the "60" that designates the "series" in your tire line.

But the width your co-worker is talking about is rumor... I ran a set of "old School" rims & tires on a '67 Stang, they were LR/60/15's, printed on the side of the tire, they had 12 & 1/2" of tread touching the ground at 32psi. and did 5,000 rpm 1st gear burn out's that left a 9 inch wide black mark, at 32psi.

Just My "Tue Scents"
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The second number on a tire size refers to the aspect ratio: This is the ratio of its section height to its section width. The smaller the number, the shorter the sidewall and the wider the tire. In other words, a 50 series tire is shorter and wider than a 60, even though they both might be 275's or whatever.

BTW, don't laugh too hard at us older folks bragging about having 50's or whatever. I remember buying my first set of 70 series tires in the late '60s....gen-u-ine Goodyear Polyglas GT's, for my '63 Galaxie ragtop and thinking how cool those raised white letters looked and how much better that the Gal handled with those skins....[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] It wasn't too many years before that that the only tires available had numbers like 8.25/15s and an aspect ratio of at least 80 percent. It wasn't til the musclecar movement was underway that Amercan cars had anything resembling performance type tires.

Jan

Back in the 60's-70's the wide oval tires were marked F60's G70's I50's

These likely aren't the right numbers but that is the way we used to refer to the tire size.

So I'm old sue me. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_cry.gif[/img]
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<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2004-12-22 12:04, custom300fe wrote:
Back in the 60's-70's the wide oval tires were marked F60's G70's I50's

These likely aren't the right numbers but that is the way we used to refer to the tire size.

So I'm old sue me. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_cry.gif[/img]

</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

Yep, I forgot all about that. In fact all tires had a letter prefix for the size from the mid to late '60s until (maybe?) the early '80s when they changed to using metric numbers instead.

Jan

I used to run N50s on my Torinos. So what if they stuck out the fenders 3 inches, that's what air shocks are for.
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<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2004-12-22 12:04, custom300fe wrote:
Back in the 60's-70's the wide oval tires were marked F60's G70's I50's

These likely aren't the right numbers but that is the way we used to refer to the tire size.

So I'm old sue me. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_cry.gif[/img]

</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah and what was a 60 or 50 back then isn't true anymore either. I think they must have all went back one size. Like a 50 today was a 60 yesteryear.

Deb

My '64 T-Bird had G-78-15's on front and H-78-15's on back.

My '46 Willy's CJ-2-A, and '42 Willy's (Chrysler) CJ-2-A and my '41 Willy's CJ-2-A all had 6.00 X 16 tires... and they were the originals when I got them.

FE