Recap separation?

I don't like that recap tire. There is a bulge under the tread addition at the top of the tire sidewall approximately 8 o clock in the picture. Thats a bomb waiting to detonate.

If it is anything that I do not do in trucking ever is run a recap tire. I would swap it out for a virgin retail tire. They can fire me any time for that. But I do not run recaps anymore. Ever.

 

I ran some really good recaps all winter between AZ and CO. Then one trip to CA in late May between Needles and Barstow, one let go and the rest had started to separate. Ran at night for the rest of the trip and replaced them.
The desert highway is the death of recaps!

 

There are shops that cap any casing. If it black and sort of round the cap it.

Twenty five years ago I had the local Goodyear dealer cap trailer casings.
150 miles later the first one came apart, no warranty and the Goodyear dealer I went to in Kansas charged me $100 for after hours service, I got to the shop at 5:05.
Needless to say I have never owned another Goodyear and refused delivery on a car that had them on it.

if they would warranty caps plus collateral damage, I still wouldn’t buy them

 

At my old company job where I spent almost 9 years we ran caps on everything but the steer axle and truck and trailer lift axles. During my time there I had two blowouts. One was a sidewall on a virgin steer tire and one was a virgin tire on the trailer lift axle. We had a dedicated tire guy that checked the pressure and inspected the tires every weekend at the shop. Recaps aren’t that big of deal when taken care of properly. But most people are lazy and don’t give them the attention that they should.

To suggest they should be illegal because of laziness on the part of some is just foolish. If I were in a spot where money was tight I’d rather cap my own casings than roll the dice on some cheap Chinese tires.

 

I entered the Air Force in Dec 1975 at 17. For several years before that, I worked part-time at a local recap shop. I was not allowed to operate any of the machines, but I did sweep the shops out and after getting my driver's license at 16 would carry tires to other shops owned by the company. I was around recap shops long enough to understand how crucial it is for those recapped tires to stay in those matrixes for the prescribed time. I know for a fact some recap shops remove these tires too early because the shop owners dispute how long it should take. As @Long FLD just said, it is CRITICAL WITH ALL tires to keep them inflated properly. They will fail otherwise. I have no real issue with recaps. I had recaps on my POV for years. I just don't like the "cold cap" process and never will I guess.

 

If you see a gator on the road with the steel belts still connected to it. It is not a retread. The replacement tread has no steel in it. If a retread seperates it does not take the steel with it. The retread is vulcanized over the original steel bodied casing. 90% of the scrap on the highway is a virgin tire that was abused and not maintained.
Just something to think about.

 

I was thinking about this topic some last night. It was something my father told me many years ago. On average a trailer tandem is around 28 to 32 thousand pounds. Sometimes lighter and sometimes much more. This weight puts a lot of stress on the tires. Road hazards all of us have had to contend with damages a tire. "junk" on the road can damage a tire. How many of us have had to run over an old curb while trying to get into a door? I used to have to unload at a place near Dallas where I had to do this. Some drivers run over curbs without thinking about it. All this damage will shorten the life of a tire. It can destroy the sidewall and cause more heat. This happens to both recaps and new tires. Running mixed matched tires can also cause problems. The same can be said for having an underinflated tire beside one that's not. This goes back to this inspection discussion that had maybe a hundred or more threads on these boards.

I would run recaps on my own truck if I had one. I don't fear them. I do however hate that "cold cap" process, and as I have stated several times now. Shop owners have a history of yanking those tires out of the matrixes too early.

 

Just my two cents, but I’ll never run recaps on my truck. Especially not on my steers. Which is totally illegal btw. 21 years and three trucks later I’ve learnt the hard way, recaps are a waste of money.

 

Not illegal to use on truck steers. Thats a myth. Nhtsa 393.75 tires reg. says retreads only illegal on bus steers. Look it up. It’s in the green book that you are supposed to carry in truck with you. ( the one that the lawyers will hang you for not abiding by it) Also the tire industry has publications all over the web on this. Michelin, Bridgestone and GoodYear are the largest retreaders out there seeing how they own all the processes now and do their own. Bridgestone owns Bandag who has always been the largest retreader.

 

Well I did look it up. 393.75(e) specifically states it.