Retreads?

[bones33]

While searching for tires for my truck, I found this site about retreads. www.retread.org. It states... "Tires are basically petrochemical products. It takes 22 gallons of oil to manufacture one new truck tire. Since most of that oil is found in the tire casing which is reused in the retreading process, only 7 gallons of oil are needed to retread that same tire. A fleet using as few as 100 tires a year can save 1500 gallons of oil annually, while substantially reducing the number of casings that end up in the landfills."

Sears used to carry retread tires in all sorts of sizes for passenger cars and light trucks that were about 2/3 the price of new (and also lasted 2/3 as long). Apparently retread technology has gotten much better in recent years but the Sears site and tire rack do not appear to carry them.
Wonder why? Bad reputation from oblivious drivers that don't maintain tire pressures? It seems in these green times that people would be all over this as a cost saving, landfill reducing, terrorist unfunding measure.

Any thoughts on this? Seems like a good idea to me.

[onegammyleg]

Trucks often use recaps.
I prefer not too tho - not because of the recapping itself but more because it is an old carcase which can have belt fractures which will shorten its life.

[Spule 4]

Well, because of limited application on cars, rear only in the US if memory serves? But I have not sold tires for over 15 years, so not sure if that has changed.

Then there is the Iclandic company that makes remould snow tires, Green Diamond. Oh boy, mix and match casings should make for driving fun!

But then, Iceland is the homleand of Björk....

[onegammyleg]

For sure , people that live in extremely cold climates do think differently.
I can see it here , everyone is nuts !

[Lug_Nut]

The difference in OEM casings in the Green Diamond 're-molded' product (they claim the process is neither re-treading nor re-capping) was a concern for me, too. I bought a set of their 'Ultra-Grip' snow tires three winter seasons ago instead of the Nokians I had previously chosen. I was a bit disappointed with the G-D ice traction not being up to the levels of the full studded Nokian Hakkapellitta, maybe 80~90% of the Nokian's original grip, but the traction remained consistent through the tread wear. The studs would gradually shed and result in significantly less traction the second year, yet the G-D traction never diminished. I'm now about to enter my third winter on the G-D when I'd never trust the Nokians beyond two seasons.
The casing issue has never been an issue on my set of G-D. I may investigate a set of G-D summer tread pattern tires when my present, first generation, Goodyears need to be replaced.

[red91sit]

Originally Posted by onegammyleg

Trucks often use recaps.
I prefer not too tho - not because of the recapping itself but more because it is an old carcase which can have belt fractures which will shorten its life.

I was thinking about that too, most of the tires on the side of the road are big truck tires, understandable since they put the most load/miles on their tires, but i'm sure retreading them has some affect as well.

[Spule 4]

Interresting on the G-D observations.

I had some Hakka 09s years ago on a Volvo 144S, almost bald by the time I got rid of them, I used them as the main tires on the car, as it saw a lot of gravel and off road travel. It also had a set of Conti CT21s, good German Contis....

Another tire I have used in the past with mixed success is Vredestein, but I cannot find any RR data on them and the set of Quatrac 2s I put on my Toyota wore quickly and were noisy. In fact, I had to replace two when I blew out one (nearside front) at speed in west Tennessee. Several fistsized holes in the sidewalls.

The last two went to the front of my motherinlaw's Pontiac 6000 sedan that she keeps at her winterhouse and sees less miles a year than I drive in about two weeks. I bet they have some big flatspots tho!

[GasSavers_Brock]

A friend of mine works for an ABS/Traction control company. He said that they never recommend retreads because they are a lot more likely to not react the same and ABS and traction control systems assume all 4 tires are going to react the same way. He also said most of the failures they have seen are due to miss matched front and rear tires, or in some cases even the same age tires but never rotated.

[onegammyleg]

Originally Posted by red91sit

I was thinking about that too, most of the tires on the side of the road are big truck tires, understandable since they put the most load/miles on their tires, but i'm sure retreading them has some affect as well.

I'me sure that the retread factories have realy tried to improve thier processes over the years.
I remember from way back recaps had a very low top speed rating , but i think now it has been raised a little as the bonding has improved.

I dont think people still seeing old exploded truck recaps on the side of the road helps with their image any.

But yeah , I dont like old carcasses.


In Australia you often will get recaps when you buy a small trailer.



For light duty applications they are probably OK.

[Spule 4]

Along with ABS, any AWD car does not like missmatch.