I sold a bunch of Atlas tires while working at the Sohio station:
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US Royal also marketed their Laredo Rain Tires in the '60s. A friend bought them, and claimed that they had lousy traction on wet roads. Obviously, he should have bought Armstrong tires, which would have GRRRRRR-I-PPED the road.
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Darn, I had the head sticking out all those years. no wonder I kept getting bit every time I filled up.
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Tire Slogans. some sound like it could be used for a sex ad.
101 Great Catchy Tire Shop Sales Slogans - BrandonGaille.com
My favorite,
Because the streets are filled with idiots.
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Even though, thanks to the link @texases provided, we know who created that illustration, it was done very much in the style of Norman Rockwell.
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The seller of the original of that one says 1910.
I remember it when I was a kid. I think Mad spoofed it.
Did they have the ad in which a hand morphed into a tire?
Or a gun.
I think 1910 preceded Rockwell.
I miss the white-wall tires. Even when I see an old car, which originally came with this type of tire, it very rarely has them today.
Had bud that posted pic of his old 60âs car with whitewall tires, looked great and they are still available he said.
Yes Coker Tire in Chattanooga Tennesee sells classic whitewall tires and wheels.
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Yes the older classic cars especially look much better with whitewalls.
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Goodyear, BF Goodrich, Firestone, Cooper, Hankook, Uniroyal and others still make whitewall tires, they also make them in bias ply whitewalls if thatâs what you want.
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I would certainly prefer a radial, I guess bias ply must be for a perfectionist to the era, for driving I would not go with bias ply. Sure I drove on them for many years, not wanting to go back in time.
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U.S. Royal also advertised their bicycle tires in comic books, two pre-teen boys Roy and Al would discuss bicycle tire needs.
I bought both Gillette and Atlas tires. Many tire brands that may have started out as independents wound up being bought by one of the big manufacturers to give them a tire to sell to independent tire dealers at a lower price because they did not have the advertising costs of the name brand tires. For years Goodyear made Kelly tires for this purpose. I used to pick up loads of tires at the Dunlop plant in Tonawanda NY and the number of âoffâ brands was amazing.
One reason to buy bias ply tires for your classic car would be if it did not have power steering. They steer easier than radials.
The Canadian trucking company that I drove for for 17 yearsbought Michelin radial tires for their trucks. When the standard truck tires were 10.00 x20s we had 11.00 X 22 Michliens because of the extreme overloads we used to pull. THe only non radial tires they bought were for the front wheels. Non of their road tractors had power steering. I did not see power steering on any major freight company fleets until just before I retired after 40 years in trucking in 95.
I bought a set os Atlas Bucron tires for my 56 Desoto from an Esso station. They were guaranteed not to squeal. They were an essentially treadless soft grippy rubber tire that just 2 parallel groves in them to be street legal and they had amazing grip in the rain.
I used to hunt sports cars in the rain on curvy roads. I found out why the were not a success when they wore out after 7000 miles.
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Not to be too nostalgic but Kelly-Springfield, an independent division of Goodyear since 1921, and their advertising model âLotta Milesâ provided a âLottaâ good paying union jobs in Appalachia making Premium tires under the Kelly name and a variety of Private Lables including Sears Silverstone.
Kelly still exists but this plant was shut down in 1994, manufacturing transfered to plants in the Deep South and operations fully absorbed into Goodyear, ironically at about the same time it celabrated 100 years and was the oldest tire company in the US.
Easy to complain about Kellyâs departure but tire building was a tough, hot, dirty, backbreaking job and while it was there, the good wages it paid made it possible for a lotta parents to send their kids off to college and nice, clean, good paying jobs in the cities.
So thatâs how the batmobile could climb buildingsâŠ
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Those tire companies moved to escape the Unions. They paid well, decent benefits and job security because they had to with a Union shop. The southern states had laws that didnât allow a closed shop and the manufacturers busted the unions and cut benefits. Same story in other industries. The states compete with each other for businesses by giving ways to save money (at the expense of benefits for the state as a whole) in order to get any kind of employment for the workforce, and the middle class shrinks as a result.
In the 60âs I sold quite a few Atlas tires at service stations in the National Parks in the West. Atlas called itself âthe round tireâ because they claimed they rarely needed balancing.
A lot of those jobs are well paying in the area these companies move to, and have decent benefits. Even if the new employees make the same money and have the same benefits as the union shop left behind, the changes in work rules without a union shop can cut the labor pool in half and that cuts labor costs in half. The money saved has to pay for the move in a reasonable amount of time, but there are big savings in making the move. Then there are tax benefits from the state and local governments that make the move better for the company. Itâs not easy or cheap to move a company and critical old employees. It is expensive to train new ones too.
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Iâm pretty sure it was Uniroyal that had Tiger Paw.
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