Alright UY - Retreaded Tires - What do we think?

[04 Rocko Taco]

ever see treads/rubber bits all over the highway?
mostly from 18 wheelers that have had one seprate at speed.

See Above Post....

Well, I dont have a family rig....and it doesnt even do 60... lol. I was just curious, keep the opinions coming guys...

Big rigs run them, and I know thats a totally different application, and yes they are all over the interstate, but why would they run them, if they weren't the most cost effective way to get miles under those rigs?

[Erich_870]

ever see treads/rubber bits all over the highway?
mostly from 18 wheelers that have had one separate at speed.

while changing a tire on our trailer we heard one explode and some of the tread hit the back window of the car and broke it, we ducked

i wouldn't feel confident out on a trail

An important note that if you see wires in the tire chunks on the road, that was not a failure due to a retread separating. That is a tire that exploded due to excessive wear, usually from improper tire pressure.

I almost pulled the trigger on 4 Green Diamond retreads last year but they were back logged and kept dropping my order. I don't drive many highway miles and the green diamond additives plus their lower price made them worth testing for me. The problem I ran into was shipping them up here and their backlog.

Long haul trucks use them almost exclusively and the forces on those tires are significantly more than our vehicles see.

I can't speak to the air'd down performance but I plan to pick up some green diamonds next year once my current set of studded tires need replacement.

Erich

[MTL_4runner]

Retread tires have had a bad rap for quite a while and it was all because the technology has improved but very little marketing is done for them to change the old image. This process is VERY common for truck tires (over 90% of all truck tires do get retreaded.....only the steering tires always get replaced with new ones) but not so for passenger tires today except in 3rd world countries. Many of the tires we see come apart on the highway are not just from retreads, those are also new tires failures as well. They can fail from all sorts of reasons including nail punctures, overloading, under inflation, mismatching of tires on dual wheel positions and other improper maintenance and inspection procedures (heat is the worst enemy of a tire and most often the cause of the failure.....retread or new tire).

I've run retread tires before myself and the issue of them delaminating is a total non-issue. The tough part is to find retreads that balance well (the retread process usually creates a point that is heavier where the splice overlaps.....this area should be put opposite the valve stem to offset the small weight difference). If you do give them a try then make sure to get them road force balanced which will give you your best chance of getting a smooth ride out of them (also pay attention if there are markings for where the valve stem should be). I wouldn't hesitate to put a retread on a trail vehicle at all myself.

This is the process for truck retreads but car tires are much the same deal:
http://www.retreadcenter.com/retreadprocess.htm
http://www.bandag.com/download/TireP...ead_System.pdf

[Cabin2N]

I think 4wheel drive gave those tires a good review in a tire round up last year. Airing down will not affect a retread as it only stresses the sidewall, and as you say they are BFG m/t so you know the side wall is good. If I remember the review said that they balanced well but were a bit to noisy for their liking, but they were testing on a jeep with the doors off.

[04 Rocko Taco]

these are indeed the tires from 4WD's tire roundup last year...

[Texas Jim]

On semi's you have a second tire as a backup to having recaps on. I would never run them on my own semi. Not on the drive axles, or front steering wheels. I would not have to big of issue of running them on the trailer. In Over the road tractors and trailors you have to remember that the tractor is responsible for pulling the load down the road. You want to have good rubber under all of the controlling factors of a Semi.

The trailer is only able to have brakes applied and that is pretty much it. Also in the summer heat is a big time enemy to recaps. You never want to be passing a semi when one of them blows. That recap immediately peals off and that chunk of 30lbs. of tire flying at your windshield will and has decapitate a persons head.

So next time your on the interstate and it's summer and your passing a semi but going by it slowly, taking like a couple of miles to pass them. Remember what I told you about that recap taking your head off. I would never run a recap on anything other than a slow moving vehicle. Farm Tractor. or something as such. TJ

[waskillywabbit]

Don't waste your money on a retread as what is the one thing on the ground when you wheel (hopefully), so why go for cheap and questionable? Save your money Chris and you can find a good used set of tires I'm sure.

[troyboy162]

well ill be a test mule as well. i researched these after reading about them on here and there really is nothing bad said about them online. you can find storys of retreads being junk back in the old days but we all know thats a fact. anyone with first hand experience with treadwrights tires has had nothing but good things to say about wear or balancing. im pretty confident that these tires will be fine for my weekend toy...if not i was able to afford a full size spare just in case. i got all 5 for 1/2 the price of real MT-R's. time will tell, and i try to go wheeling every weekend so ill keep the forums updated with info.


i ordered the MT-G's with the note that i wanted 5 identical carcasses and made from any tire with a 3 ply sidewall. to my surprize they came in full MT-R glory with sidewalls that seem to have alot of the factory "hairs".

[Good Times]

cool! I didn't know they had retreads on MT/R's What's the cost on em and where did ya get em? Does Discount Tire / America's Tire sell em? (road hazard warranty included in these tires?!)

[troyboy162]

http://www.treadwright.com/Tires-285..._T_G-P106.aspx
this is the only place you can get them as far as i know. they do have a warranty of of 2year/24,000 mile. thats not as much as most tires but if theres any manufacturing defects, its probably gonna show up in the first 5000 miles id figure