Outlawing recaps

Recaps should be outlawed? I don't use recaps, but even I wouldn't say that.

 

Guess I am really a tight wad. On my dump trailer that goes to some real nasty places ill cap tires 3 times if the caseing survives that long then I regrove. If the cap has not come off by then it moste likely will not. But more often then not something destroys tire before this happens.

 

I use caps on my drives. Like was stated earlier, watching those tire pressures (doing a pre trip) and watching what you run over with them, they will perform like virgin. Not for every application, but most people could use them with no problems. I am a tight wad too!

 

I used to think virgins were the only way to go. Now that I've got a trailer.. ..with prices surging every few months. I'm definitely keeping my drives, capping, and putting them on the trailer. And probabaly look into running caps on my drives. I know my tires and how careful I am about never curbing. I keep tabs on air pressure. My casings will be first rate

The trouble I saw with the last company I was leased on at... ...was they had about 300 trailers for a 120 trucks. You've got a lot of company drivers, and owner operators too, who just don't give a rat's rear end about where their trailer tires track. Many of them don't take care of their tractor tires either. Rubbing sidewalls up against or over curbs destroys a casing. Pinwheeling trailers... That company had some pretty crappy recaps but really a lot of that was from driver abuse. I think this alone acounts for most problems with gators from VIRGIN and recaps. Driver abuse.....

 

I heard a Goodyear instructor tell me personally on 06/21/12 between 11-12pm that in the case of precure and unicirle retreads, the cushion gum chemically bonds the tread to the casing to the extent that the casing and tread actually become one single piece (ie. vulcanized).

 

So, all the alligators I keep dodging on the road must not be from the planet Vulcan?

 

Affirmative, Scalemaster.

Drive long and prosper... 8)

 

Ha, no they're actually probably from "discount truckstop land!". They were abused since they were virgins, recapped sold at a truckstop. Then they came apart and people make forum threads about how bad ALL caps are. LOL!

Also know as Internet ballpark facts.

 

DOT already regonizes it as unreliable by not allowing them on the steer axle.

I believe that you are wrong on this point.If I am reading the rules right you can run recaps on the steering axle of a CMV as long as it is not a bus.

(d) No bus shall be operated with regrooved, recapped or retreaded tires on the front wheels

(e) A regrooved tire with a load-carrying capacity equal to or greater than 2,232 kg (4,920 pounds) shall not be used on the front wheels of any truck or truck tractor.

 

I'm confused, how can a raw, rubber tread be volcanized to an already volcanized tire, thus making the new tread and the old tire, one whole tire, not two separate pieces?

To my understanding, when you make a tire, you use all virgin rubber, put it in a heated mold and cure the rubber to it's volcanized state, making the tire as one piece of fused together rubber.

I dunno, I figured once a tire was volcanized (cured), it couldn't be re-volcanized or bonded with new uncured rubber in the same manner as a new tire.