McCoy Tire Company History

McCoy Tire has been serving the people of northern California for almost 60 years.  It is a business that was built on and continues to operate on quality service, honesty, and fairness, for both employees and customers.  The following paragraphs briefly describe our history.

 John McCoy graduated high school in 1928 from Long Beach, CA and enrolled in business courses at Long Beach Junior College.  After school he worked for Richardson General Tire, a truck tire retreading firm.  During the next six years he learned the tire and retreading business and learned about a new system called "recapping".  This new system used far less casing damaging heat than the previous retreading system.

In 1936, John and his wife Janet moved to Bakersfield and founded McCoy Truck Tire Recap Company.  They used their life savings of $400 as a down payment for the new equipment.  This was the first deployment of this new recapping system in the Western United States.  They started with 1 employee and 2 recapping moulds.  They worked 7 days a week and ran the moulds day and night to keep up with the demand for this new process.  The business was very successful and expanding until a fire destroyed the business in 1941.  With the help of friends, and even competitors, they rebuilt.  When the United States entered World War II tires were rationed and recapping became a very important part of the war effort.  The company grew to 12 recap moulds and 20 employees.  At the age of 36, John decided to sell the business and retire.

In 1946 the family moved to their ranch in Ceres, CA to raise beef cattle.  Even though he was retired and living comfortably, John had the urge to get back in the tire business.  In 1950, John purchased De Lugg's Auto Parts at 1214 Ninth Street in Modesto and opened McCoy Tire.  Shortly thereafter he purchased and expanded into two adjacent lots.  The staff at McCoy Tire included John's sons, Jack and Bob, and longtime family friends Jack Robinson, Marvin Russell, and Les Vick.

In 1966 the McHenry Avenue McCoy Tire location was built far from downtown Modesto and surrounded by orchards.  In 1967, John's son Jack bought the McHenry Avenue location from the family and in the next few years stores were opened in Turlock, Manteca, Sonora, and Santa Cruz.

In 1971, John McCoy sold his interest in the Ninth Street store to Jack Robinson who continues to operate it as well as the McHenry Avenue location.  John McCoy then opened McCoy Truck Tire Service at 1407 Lone Palm Avenue with son-in-law Jim Barnick and daughter Louise.  He worked daily for the next 14 years before finally retiring for good.  McCoy Truck Tire is still owned by Jim and Louise Barnick.