Retread tire cost

Most of the older cans I have hauled had the 10-20 bias tires, they were not good at handling weight and speed even new virgin. I worked in a tire shop while in high school when everybody ran bias split rims, sure don't miss those things.
I still have some on a flatbed dump, but it gets very few miles and tops out at 55 too. lol

 

Junk it.

Do not use retreads.

Again retreads when they fail 100 miles down the road will make you cry tears over the damage and even more losses for trying to save a dollar.

Do not use retreads. If a tire is too far gone? Toss it. Grab a good tire and put it on there and go forth.

 

We use retreads on dump truck and cement truck.

2 of our tractors have retreads as well but they’re local haulers.

The 2 tractors I drive have virgin rubber all around and same goes for the trailers.

As of right now, we are out of retreads and the dump trucks will be using virgin rubber next.

None of the trucks have retreads on the steers. Too risky. Especially the 425, 455 wide based types.

When they blow, they blow. There goes the hood fenders, possibly the air tanks, battery box or whatever is behind the tire.

Or truck ends up crashing into the ditch or a wall on the freeway.

I was driving one dump truck, saw many pieces of what I recognized as from one of our dump trucks, picked up the pieces that were scattered all over the road after a lift axle tire exploded.

Both metal mud flap mounts under the dump box blew off, both of the fuel tank steps on the driver side shot off, dent in the fuel tank, dent in the box above, dent in the hydraulic oil tank that was behind the lift axle.

That was a lot of welding to repair the truck. The dents are still there to this day from 4 years ago.

 

Don’t wanna sound like a Richard Cranium here, but - is this business not profitable enough to afford buying new tires - and running them to minimum tread depth and replacing?

I don’t spend much on chrome and fancy stuff, but I sure as heck spend $ on anything that fends off a service truck or a tow truck.

Just saying.

 

I bought a set of new drives a couple of months ago.
Don't forget we get to pay an Alaska premium for everything. lol

If I waited for my tires to be capped I could get tires for 170 some odd bucks'
Without my caseings and just outright buying recaps, I would save a little over 50 bucks a tire over the cost of new uniroyal lugs, and that was with new valve stems and after fet. It was a no brainer, with the caps I would have had nothing when I wore them out, they will give me 150 bucks trade in or I can have these capped if I want to when they get to that point.
So if nothing else besides the trade in value, in the long run new tires, these particular ones were almost 100 bucks cash money cheaper than caps.
I seldom run much over 50 or 55 for any length of time and the ground is never hot here, I see the company trucks get by with some pretty shabby caps, but we also do not run over 85 pounds pressure, just the piece of mind is worth something, since it is 500 miles between places to buy a tire. lol

 

I do find that recaps last a long time depending on types of tread.

I put 125,000 miles on a set of recap drives on a tractor in 4 years, while another driver drove the truck before I did.

On the dump trucks, they have a short life due to excessive turning but likely the virgin rubber may only last the same or less or maybe a little more.

But I often times see the caps start separating which I then change out.

Some of our drivers don’t seem to bother checking tires and then come back to the yard with only sidewalls left.

One even drove back to the yard with a half flat 425 wide based front tire while still loaded.

He said he was only 5 mins away, but that don’t matter.

I peeled the tire off the rim and was scooping out handfuls of sidewall rubber that separated internally.

That tire had lots of tread left but is scrapped.

Driver should’ve waited till someone came out with a air line and filled the tire up.

As I’m usually the one that changes tires, I’m sure if the tires were good brand virgins, with a good life span and good maintenance, I wouldn’t be changing as many and keep trucking.

Keep the cash rolling in, customers happy etc.

For the dump trucks, recaps usually still make a better choice than virgins as they often times get damaged by something and most times they’re cheaper.

Like for example, a dump driver that we recently fired, drove the sidewall of 2 outside drive tires on the passenger side over the edge of a scale I-beam. Both sidewalls got rubber peeled to the cords.

I replaced 3 tires with left over recaps from other trucks when they got newer recaps put on.

 

A friend of mine who manned a dumptruck tandem had a dual blow out which somehow took out everything on the far side while on a flyover ramp for 695 north west of Baltimore. Somehow or other he kept the whole thing, rocks and all (20 ton) from spilling and slamming into the rush pack below. I helped replaced bearings a few months after that accident with that particular truck. And she did ok. Just had to watch it when it's just light rain. Get away from you and slid on any braking at all. (Tires when empty)

 

X1heavy:

I sure don’t want to see that happening myself or to any trucker out there.

 

Here you can check some, Affordable Retread Tires - Car, Truck & RV Tires - Tire Recappers Nashville Tips to - To buy new or retread, making the right tire choice - FreightWaves

 

I thank we have changed subjects here. I was talking about recaps on large trucks. Not saying this is what you should do, just sharing.
It you can get a fair price for your casings and have new rubber how can you beat that?
I was putting caps down for the steer and said it was highly restricted. Got my hand slapped for that on this forum. You can search block it.
A major company I worked for in 87, 88 and 89 had a steer tire blow out on a nearly new truck. That did $5,000 in damage and the operator kept it on the road.
I am not buying or selling anything. I know the brand and age of every cap we put on. If I had some to really stay away from I would tell you. If you are following the guide lines I set out and are having failures you may need to change suppliers.