Stock tires for a 1974 Dart Sedan

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Hi Guys,

I'm going to be putting new tires on my 1974 Dart sedan. The manual, I believe, recommends DR78-14's.

Being a young guy, I have no idea how that translates into tires these days. I'm not looking for anything fancy, just some nice stock tires.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Rick
 
welcome to the site...a 205 or 215/70/14 would be a close match. what tires are on it now? surely it doesnt still have the DR78s on it... where are the pics, we LOVE our car ****
 
73AbodEE said:
welcome to the site...a 205 or 215/70/14 would be a close match. what tires are on it now? surely it doesnt still have the DR78s on it... where are the pics, we LOVE our car ****
Click to expand...

This is why I come to you guys. The tires were torn up, but between 3 of the 4, I've found they are 205/75R/14's. I know very little of what those numbers mean, but it is progress.

Is there anywhere particular we can or should post pictures?
 
74DartDriverSide.jpg


Ta da!
 
I was thinking DR would be closer to 185, 195 too. Tire store will know whats closest to stock. A 215/14 fills the wheel well and rides good but wont fit in your spare tire well.
Good luck
 
Back in the day of when we had a choice of a D78-14, 6.95-14, or 175-14, I copied a chart of equivalences. In terms of tire section width, the 175-14 is the closest to the D78-14. However, at the same section width, the bias ply tire had a greater load capacity than a radial. To recover the lost capacity, many recommended going up a size on the radial. Your stock rims will handle a 185/75-14 radial with no problems. IMO the stock rims are too narrow for a 205 section tire of any sort.

By all means put good fresh rubber on the car. The photo is what happened when I had an old tire give up on me one night.
 

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on the stock rims a 185/75-14 or 195/75-14 are all that will fit
205/70-14 or 215/70-14 are WAY to wide for the stock narrow rims
you can force them on but they will not work well, they will wear out quicker and have anadverse effect on handling

the numbers on the side of a tire decode like this


the first three numbers (185, 195, 205, 215, 225, 235, etc) are the cross section width, this is how wide the belts are measured in millimeters and so effects how wide the tread is
the second number (75, 70, 60, etc) is the aspect ratio, this is the side wall height measured as a percentage of the cross section width, for instance a 205/70-14 would mean that the side wall is 70% of 205 mm so as you can see, the lower the number the shorter the side wall height
the last number (13, 14, 15, etc) is of course the rim size, hope this helps take some of the mystery out of tire sizes
 
Pre-1964 1965-72 80 series metric Alpha Numeric 78 series P-Metric 75 series Radial P-Metric 70 series Radial
5.90-13 600-13 165-13 A78-13 P165/75R13 P175/70R13
6.40-13 650-13 175-13 B78-13 P175/75R13 P185/70R13
7.25-13 700-13 185-13 D78-13 P185/75R13 P205/70R13
5.90-14 645-14 155-14 B78-14 P175/75R14 P185/70R14
6.50-14 695-14 175-14 C78-14 P185/75R14 P195/70R14
7.00-14 735-14 185-14 E78-14 P195/75R14 P205/70R14
7.50-14 775-14 195-14 F78-14 P205/75R14 P215/70R14
8.00-14 825-14 205-14 G78-14 P215/75R14 P225/70R14
8.50-14 855-14 215-14 H78-14 P225/75R14 P235/70R14
5.90-15 600-15 165-15 A78-15 P165/75R15 P175/70R15
6.50-15 685-15 175-15 C78-15 P175/75R15 P185/70R15
6.40-15 735-15 185-15 E78-15 P195/75R15 P205/70R15
6.70-15 775-15 195-15 F78-15 P205/75R15 P215/70R15
7.10-15 825-15 205-15 G78-15 P215/75R15 P225/70R15
7.60-15 855-15 215-15 H78-15 P225/75R15 P235/70R15
8.00-15 885-15 230-15 J78-15 P225/75R15 P235/70R15
8.20-15 900-15 235-15 L78-15 P235/75R15 P255/70R15

Your DR is between sizes of currently available tires so you will have to step up or down to the nearest available. The "R" in DR designates radial construction.
 
Rick, I have a set of 4 Beautiful NOS Goodyear DR78-14 Tires just as your car would have had when it was new. These are NOT REPRODUCED by anyone. I have one complete set that Ive had stashed away and they are as nice and soft as the day they were made. If this is of any interest to you then feel free to PM me and I will give you a really fair price on these NOS Goodyears. Thanks and all the best... Tony
 
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