im going with retreads once my current tires wear out.

 

Just bought a set of re-treads for my 04 Dodge. I have run them before without issues and will continue to run them. I look at it this way if re-treads where so horrible the companies would not be in business. The tires I bought are put together so well the tire installer couldn't even tell they were re-treads till i told him.

 

Completely distroyed a trailer fender from a retread.

 

If I was not hauling weight then yes I would use them but only on the rear. Like its been said never use a recap on the steer Axel. BTW, I've had recaps sidewall blow out on a semi trailer in under 500 miles of the tire being put on so you never know what can or will happen when you run recaps and why you never use them on your steer axle.

 

Chris, I ran caps on the back of my '93 for quite awhile. One summer when I was on my way up to NH I had the tread come off the outside right rear tire, take out the exhaust pipe and the diamond plate steel fender got twisted up, enough so that I built a new fender instead of trying to straighten it. After that I decided I'd had enough of the recaps on light trucks.

Ran them on my Autocar without problems tho, and that was hauling 100,000lbs+ most of the time. That's why I started running them on my one ton.

chaikwa.

 

Did any of you guys check your tire pressure before you had the problems? Heat will kill any tire, new or old. The truck company I work for is very very picky about their tires and we run recaps on everything but steer axles, and when you have as we have you use what works and saves the most money. Recaps work when done and maintained properly.
DS79

 

Only time I lost a retread was when the pressure went down without me knowing it. Ran many sets on the rear of a 3/4 GMC back in the 70's when I was young and broke.

 

i ran re-treads all the way around with no issues, lasted a summer driven everyday, they never blew but got flat spots where the treads connected but by that time they were bald anyway.

 

OK, well that is what just ahppened to mine with 'virgin" tires with less than 50K on them.. adn I am picky about the air pressure , check it regularly...

So , if "new" tires will do this also, whats the issue with retreads? I guess that is realy my question..

 

The caps can and do fail. Not always, just like virgin tire don't always behave perfectly. Like anything, there are exceptions.

 

Recaps fail more violently and much more often than virgin tires do. I have spent many a time pulling TT unit out of ditch's because of multiple recap failures. I have also spent lots of time in the breakdown lane cutting treads from blown out caps out out drivelines, axle housings, repairing brake chambers, air and fuel lines, cutting off fenders, etc etc. I have been in the truck repair and heavy towing industry for 27 years, so take what I say as you will.

With all that being said, If it were my truck and I was not going to be hauling anything heavy, and just doing things around the farm or in town, then I would run the recaps for now.



Tim

 

Here in In. they are allowed to run caps, on the rear of school buses , when I was still driveing a school bus, they were useing what were called cold caps, and I never had any problems. When I was a kid, my dad tried them on his 57 desoto, and for some reason they wouldn't last more than 2,000 miles, before they flew apart, and I never trusted crecaps after that.

 

I run caps on my semi rears but not on my pickups.
Pickup tires aren't all the expensive compared to big truck tires, not worth running caps.

 

That is the main reason more people don't run caps on their truck. It just doesn't pay in the long run.
DS79

 

Yeah, hvytrkmech, I've been there all too many times. Nothing I dread more than showing up on scene for a tire call and having to get a gator unwrapped from an axle, thru the s-cam, inside the drum, and everywhere else.

I went to repair a tire for a guy the other day and he said he had some experimental Mich caps on his drives, supposed to be more resiliant and something about the sidewalls, only supposed to run 80 psi max, and they're supposed to last so much longer. Looked like any other cap to me.