Reply To: Whats the best inner tubes

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Doug,

I had problems for a long time with both our 1601 and 1247 that both use 750-17 tires. I tried tubes from Coker and Lucas with many failures after a few hundred miles. Along the way I went to a succesion of tire shops trying to find knowledge. A couple failures were valve related, but most were splits of varying size longitudinally along the tubes as George had. On the 1247 it had brand new tires and tubes installed by Frank just before I bought the car, but I don’t know what source he used for tubes.

A friend finally steered me to the right shop and the right guy.

Before driving to Williamstown we put all new tubes in the 1601 using 16 inch truck tubes as George mentioned. This was suggested by an 80+ old timer in a largely commercial tire business for 60 years…his grandkids now run the day to day. He also introduced me to these marvelous plastic flange bushings that come in different sizes to prevent vale stem cracks from stems not matching wheel holes. We’ve put on over 4,000 miles since with not a single failure.

His advice was simple and is applicable to all sizes: Always go down in size if the tube has ANY potential to acquire small folds when being installed. And always keep the pressure up to at least 40 lbs!

Use the 16″ truck tubes and the plastic flange bushings on your 1247. I’m anxious to see the results of all your efforts on the road!”