Retreads are not the problem

Man I learn so much on here. Gonna have to change my entire business plan now. I was going to run to Detroit with one of our other trucks in the morning but I guess now the first thing I'm going to do is order brand new VIRGIN tires for 9 trailers and 6 tractors. Not taking any more chances with these caps. I'm sure our lucky streak of probably more than 10+yrs without a cap failure is going to end in a terrible tire explosion mirroring Hiroshima. Would you please give me and others your expert recommendation as to what brand/model tire we should run. Here all this time I thought we thought we knew what worked. I guess when your family has only been doing something successfully for 50+yrs still leaves plenty of room for learning. I can't thank you enough!!

 

I scolded some idiots on the radio yesterday for a conversation that was sounding much like this thread....Only it was about Obama!
OVER AND OVER again these morons went back and forth about their opinions of him and eventually of each other.

Let's break it down here and move on for christs sake!

Some guys (myself included) don't like recaps because they experience a higher failure rate of either the cap or the casing for whatever reason that happens.

Some guys really like caps and don't seem to experience the failure rate that the other guys do for whatever reason that happens.

BOTH sides are correct for their particular operating parameters.

FACT!: No one will admit being wrong even if they are (even just a little) and like the conversations on the CB radio...We are just about to the point where everyone starts calling each other ######## and whatever else they can think of.

You guys are NEVER...REPEAT, NEVER gonna find any common ground here!
Soooooooo......Let it go and talk about something else instead of beating yet another subject to DEATH!

Besides....None of you can ever be right when I'm in the room because...Well, Just because!

 

I pull a double drop RGN trailer over 48 states. When I bought this truck it had 8 new Bandag caps on the drives. I wanted RID OF THEM ASAP! So, I started shopping for tires. In my shopping I spoke to a Bridgestone store manager about my goal. He told me, I'm here to sell you tires, but you don't need them. Your caps will run as long as a virgin tire as long as you keep the air pressure set correctly. He said the casings are x rayed and the quality control is actually higher on caps than virgin tires. He also told me that the government was going after the recap industry so they went out and picked up thousands of gators off the roads to prove caps are dangerous. The results were to the contrary. 60% of the gators were from virgin tires.

I decided to run the caps and see what happened. After 170,000 miles they are still going strong. I rotated them once. I did blow one but it was my fault and it did not peel.

Even so, I doubt I'll buy caps again. I was in a Petro shop yesterday in Vegas and was looking at the tires while my truck was getting serviced and without a very close inspection I actually could not tell the Bandag caps from the virgin tires...

 

Caps are ok in my opinion for trailers and ok drives but I really wouldn't want them on the steers...just my opinion

 

I LOVE to stir the pot and I LOVE confrontation. If I see you in person and I know you don't like me I'll intentionally talk to you just to make you uncomfortable. If you don't like caps great, waste you money all you wish. That's whats great, if you make it you have the right to do what you wish with it. BUT this guy is an idiot. He's one that feels they should be outlawed because HE doesn't like them because of misinformation. Here's my issue with guys like him: A guy who doesn't use caps telling everyone why they don't work, including people who use them successfully. You know the type it's the same group that insists you can't make money with a truck like yours, it's gotta be brand "x" with brand "x" engine period. Then you find out the reason THEY can't make money is because they haul cheap freight. Same with the tires, the reason they blow caps is because they buy the cheapest POS black round thing with tread and mix and match brands and models. They HATE when facts get in the way of their opinions. I'm just here to inform them of their ignorance.

Fair enough, sounds like an honest answer from real world experience. Not BS 3rd or even 5th party crap from a friends friend who heard from a guy who read an article about another guy's wife who had a problem.

 

When I was a company driver at my last carrier, they were using caps on all drives and trailers. I never had a problem with them.

But, I am not going to use them on my truck. Not because they may or may not be reliable, but I have not found any of them to have a low enough rolling resistance for my taste. The only way I can get real low rolling resistance I want is to stick with new rubber. If I can pull just 1 tenth better mpg from using low rolling resistance tires, It will be a break even proposition. I would not gain any appreciable savings by using the recaps.

Interesting how rolling resistance is never brought up on any of the trucking shows by that character who promotes recaps like they are the best thing since sliced bread. One has to look at the broad picture and not just look at purchase cost.

 

I'm finally going to post what I've thought about posting every single time I see this thread. I keep thinking it says "Redheads are not the problem".

 

Only you Nana! That is just toooooo funny!

 

Before we put X-Ones on 2 trucks/trailers I would have called BS on tires having a huge impact on rolling resistance. (by huge I mean noticeable anywhere other than a lab) However you can easily push both those tractors by hand on concrete which you can't easily do with ones with duals.

 

You can't run them on the steer axle unless they are passenger or lt caps....illegal