Problems with Recaps, should I recap or buy new?

Winter is here.

Take the best 8 off your tractor, buy ten for the tractor new ones. Dump the trailer tires, slap the old tractor tires on there, keep the best two as spare, maybe one in the tire carrier if you have one.

I do not do recaps. I draw a very hard line on those. I recognize they can be done right etc yadda etc. but I simply refuse to have any of that on my rigs.

The last few years of my OTR, I just have FFE slap on a fresh virgin set of ten in october or so on the tractor. Good oldies go on the trailer if need be. Or to the tire shop in lancaster for the spares pile.

Don't forget to spray a glow strip on your outside trailer tires when you are all set. You will need that visual indication that they are indeed rotating on ice.

 

Goodyear will be the last people to cap a darn thing for a long time as far as we are concerned. We burned through 12 of their premium car tires at 175 each in the last 6 years averaging 30K before sidewall failures. The last one is coming off the car in a few weeks.

 

every company i had ever worked for (prior to this one), put on fresh recaps, usually Bandag.

the casing MUST be in very good condition, and the shop inspects that. recaps last a long time, i never had a blow out, but then too, i made sure the air pressures were where it belonged.

it is important to jot down the serial number on each tire, so that you get your own back.

as mentioned, if this is your only set of tires, then YES, you WILL have to buy another set, preferably new, and when they NEED to be recapped, switch them over, remembering to jot down THOSE serial numbers as well.

my current employer, (which is dedicated) only buys new tires when they are needed. when we get a flat, we get a new tire as well. they do not repair flats (my company)

another company i worked for, dedicated as well, only put on NEW tires when they were needed, and if a flat, they too put on a NEW tire, never repaired the flats.

if you have "general freight, non-dedicated, non- time sensitive", save your money, and get recaps.

my dedicated freight was always time sensitive.., so new was the only way to go.

as for a virgin tire casing, as long as the casing is NOT damaged,(curbing, cuts, etc) i was told, they can be recapped at least 2 times....but some have said 3 times...

 

Great advice! You sound a lot like my Dad to be honest. lol

School of hard knocks.

 

More like school of a dead horse. Whap whap whap whap.

=) Youth be so fleeting with all the cares in this filthy world. HA.

 

I’ve never had retreads. But in my area which is a heavy traffic area with a lot of trucks I see blown tires daily. Sometimes I see brand new treads lying in the middle of the highway causing major danger to the public and major cost to the truck owner who had to pull over. This owner is now paying for new tires, truck damage, possibly a tow, and who knows what with the freight or commodity on board. The customer won’t be pleased, that’s for sure.

Probably 90% if the time they work but a quality tire can last a very long time and will not tear apart.

Not only that but retreads are not free. They cost money and labour. It’s big risk for a small amount of savings.

 

Anyone can say what they want but all the gators along the road tell the story. Recaps blow out.

 

One time Im out of 355 onto 70 in my ford at Frederick and my passenger recoiled as if bit by a snake, and squealed gibberish. When someone squeals that high up in pitch, they are REALLY scared.

Directly in front sat a complete tire, wheel rim and wheel. I horsed that muscle car into the hammer lane and all hell broke loose with several tractor trailers coming over the hill. Those michelins I had on there with the hard compound traction mix paid for themselves that day. And to think I was verbally abused by my family for spending a outrageous 400 dollars in the early 90's for a set of what they thought were fancy tires.

Those tires on the car are there for a reason and they have more than performed over and over again when they needed to.

That's why I am so set on quality tires. You cannot shave a dollar doing a recap and hope to get by. When I left container work, I pretty much left behind the constant Boom of blow outs gators coming out of my rig and so on so forth. It's tiring actually to have such crappy tires.

 

Can you explain more about this?

 

I agree with tire pressure is responsible for most blow outs. As a mega carrier recaps make sense, and is a money saver. A fleet of 1500 to 2000 trucks would really save some money. If they have 10% blow outs the other 90% saved them money. As a small carrier / fleet owner , one owner truck worst yet, 1 blown tire could wipe out the Savings of buying recaps. One road side call will cost you over 500 even more if it's a single. And I'm being conservative here.