Anyone running recaps?

I bought a few 'fresh' retreads from an auction where my deceased friends stuff was being sold off... never made it out of state when the first one blew. The second one let go a few days later... that's when i decided to only retread my own casings...

 

I had michelin recaps when i bought my truck. All togther, they last about 55k ish before "bad" signs started to appear and I replaced them before summer heat took its toll.

 

Recaps?


NEVER!

 

Recaps... Really?

 

Bought my truck with new recaps. Already looking ugly. Going to wait till after harvest when odds are one or more of the tires will get chewed up. Putting new virgins on and keeping the retreads for harvest every year.

It has always seemed to me that the time, energy and effort of getting your good tires capped was like throw good money after bad. They are great when you want to sell your truck or running locations that beat tires up.

Also, only positive reports I have ever seen on these have come from companies that gain from the sale of these.

Also, take your national account pricing into a local farm tire shop and they will sell you road hazard warranty on your new tires. Just like available for cars. They do it with a wink and a nod. But the manufacturers honor them. Road hazard is only supposed to be sold for local and regional use.

But you won't find it at the TS. Gotta go with a local tire shop that does a lot of farm and local accounts. They may have to even order the tire you want.

 

training wheel rubbers . . . . .

 

I bought 8 Michelin drive tires brand new for $4300 on the truck & out the door. I ran them. When they wore out, I sent them to a Michelin facility to have Michelin treads put back on them...8 tires, $1560. I ran them again. I'm in the process now of having them capped again, but the price has gone up a little. 8 tires will run me $1690. Basically, I got 3 sets of drive tires for $315/tire. Factor in the $70+ I'll receive for the cases when I'm done with them and we're talking an average of $291.25/tire. That's not sticker price, that's out-the-door price. For 11R24.5 LRH tires, the FET alone is $34 and change...and there is no FET when you cap your own tires. You aren't going to buy an 11R24.5 LRH tire with a deep, aggressive lug pattern for $257...and if you do, it probably won't last very long before it grenades.

High quality virgin tire properly maintained. High quality facility doing the capping. No problems.

When I'm on the road, I run the speed limit year 'round...summer temps here get into triple digits at least a few days each year. I get paid by the ton, so every load is as close to the legal gross as I can get it. I'm constantly going in and out of mines, quarries, and job sites to pick up and deliver....not the most tire-friendly environments.

And even after I've had them capped twice, I'll STILL be able to get more in trade for my cases than you could for cheap chinacrap virgin tires.

Would I put an anonymous cap on my truck? No.
Would I put a cheap chinacrap tire on my truck? No.

You are throwing money away though if you spend the money for quality virgin tires and don't even CONSIDER having them capped....unless you abuse them (run low pressure, run over curbs at speed, etc.) in which case you'd be better off trading your tires in for an anonymous case if you were to use caps.

Quality in, quality out.
Garbage in, garbage out.

 

Here is how I look at the numbers. I can get tires for $3000 with an alingment on National account pricing. I have been qouted 4-5 days turn around on getting my tires capped. So the $1500 dollars I save on a lower grade tire is costing me $2000. And that isn't accounting for any of my other time in doing all this.

If I am going to be beating them up then cheapest thing I can find. All the farm trucks have used tires on them. Only had one go because of quality. Rest got sidewall cut or puncture or any one of a dozen farm related things.

But OTR I want the best. Little worried about caps I have now. As I have said I want to use them for harvest but worried about loosing one or more during the summer. I don't run fast but heat is heat.

 

Agree 100%. I laugh when I read all the stupid things guys do to try to save money trucking and on of the easiest ways is tires and they routinely throw away perfectly good casings.
Like you said
1.buy good tires to start
2.only cap your own
3.stay away from the discount tire shops
4.laugh all the way to the bank.

If you only believe in running the absolute best virgin tires money can buy and have no problem tossing the casings when your done great. But don't be surprised if I'm the first guy to jump on you when you make an ignorant statement in another thread about how "only aero trucks can make any money" or "I'm going broke and can't figure out why!"

I especially love the guys who have no problem running the Chinese tires but think recapped major brands are junk.

 

I think recaps are junk...I also think chinese tires are junk.

I trade my casings for about $80 to $100 to the tire shop so they can recap them an sell them to someone else, I don't want them.