Rear tire question (kinda long)

I bought 4 tires at an auction last summer. All are Armstrong 18.4 x 34 but 2 are radial and 2 are bias. The radials looked to be the best set & I planned on putting them on my 656. Last night I mounted the first one up no problem. On airing up the second I heard a couple “ting” “ting” sounds just before one side blew off the rim! Fortunately it was lying down on that side but still raised the tire off the floor 6” or so. Had less than 8 lbs in it at that time. Scared the hell out of me!
On inspection it seemed the cord in the bead broke and split the tire in half at that point. I had looked the beads over when I lubed them up to mount them but noticed nothing unusual. The steel cord in the bead is as big as my finger but obviously had been broken somehow in the past as the break was all rusty except for a few strands. The rubber around it looked like a fresh break for the most part. Not sure how that would have happened.
Anyway that tire is totally shot. The Bias tires look identical to the radial to my eyes. I’m sure if I put one radial and one bias on the tractor it wouldn’t be a good thing but how bad a problem would it really be?

i dont see too much trouble with doing it, i would
just adjust the tire pressure in the bias tire down
a little so it squishes like the radial (traction
should be the same that way)


NOW if you run these at hwy speeds you better ask
somebody else first.....because running a bias tire
low on air at fast speeds aint good

Rather than running the bias at lower pressure, I'd run the radial at higher pressure. Low pressure will ruin the bias...especially if you have heavy draft or 3-point loads. Armstrong raidals earned a reputation around here for developing sidewall cracks - maybe higher pressure would help aleviate that.

When I changed the inside to radials on one of my
tractors I had the bias put on the duals. I
thought when they ware out I will buy another set
of radials for inside and rotate old radials to
duals. Then I will have radials all around
tractor. Been 35 yrs. and I'm still waiting for
them bias to ware out. Oh and they were only about
20% when I mounted them on duals.