Coker tire shortage

I ordered mine through Summit racing because the shipping was much less and they have a local retail store. After slipping one month per month they say the estimated ship date was a few days ago. I doubt it. Meanwhile I found that the worn out Denmans won’t fit in the sidemount well let alone getting covers over them. I started looking for Lester’s as they are smaller than any of the others, presumably the dimensions of the original equipment tires. I ran into the same issue on my Packard years ago. Lester’s aren’t available anywhere either, and I worry with the shortages they may never be produced again. I bought four barely used Lester’s on ebay for the sidemounts and now debating whether to use them for the 4 regular road tires. My Pierce is currently sitting on the 35 year old worn Denmans on the front and seriously undersized 650-17’s on the back bought for the Packard sidemounts before I found the Lester’s. The 650’s require about 1.5 inch thick foam around them to fit the sidemount covers. That may be what I have to do. I would end up with emergency only “space saver” spares.

Researching the shortage issue I found there has been a supply chain issue that started before the pandemic that all tire manufacturers are dealing with. It was primarily shortages of carbon black and a lesser extent rubber. It got dramatically worse with the invasion of Ukraine as Russia was supplying about 65% of the world’s carbon black. Not too surprising a boutique mfg like Coker has problems competing with Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear etc for materials.

I suspect that 700-17’s may be low on Cokers priority because so many people with cars using 700-17’s like to put on bigger 750-17’s for V-12’s, so there is more demand and higher profit margin on 750-17’s. My personal experience on my Packard was it handled better on the narrower Lester’s than the Firestones that are on it now, so I really don’t want to put an oversized tire on the Pierce. The increasing width of lower pressure “balloon” tires adopted through the thirties was determined to be a factor in the increased problems with shimmy, which, based on previous posts, Pierce’s are prone too.