Make Recap Tires Illegal

We run all virgin tires on the tankers and the low beds. The logging trucks, the rock trucks, and anything that runs primarily off road gets good recaps. Emphasis on GOOD. If we start losing caps or having sidewalls blow out we start looking harder at the casings we're sending in. We cap only our own casings.. The deal we have with our tire provider covers the costs of replacing bad recaps. So far, other than the tires themselves, we have no real damage.

 

Dang it!!! Second one in a month.

 

I'd like to know how some of you blow more virgins then recaps.

I don't hear the same story in person. And personally haven't had the same experience.

I don't think I've ever blown a virgin. I've blown tons of recaps though.

So I find that $2B in savings very hard to believe. Most of us will run one virgin down compared to 10 blown recaps.

A virgin can run low and not blow. A virgin requires full or it blows.

Recaps aren't much cheaper then virgins. But 10 recaps to 1 virgin. Makes em way more expensive.

 

Plenty of people run them without issue. Those that have issues are probably due to lack of monitoring them properly. 10 to 1. Lol. That would mean my old boss was replacing 200 caps on each truck before replacing 1 of the virgin tires. And running a virgin low does damage the tire and is likely one of the factors in that tire blowing once it’s capped.

 

I’ve had two recaps blow out, in 4 weeks. I blame it on the company and who they choose for tire services.

In nearly 30yrs, I’ve only ever had recaps blow; never a virgin tire.

 

A pretrip or whatever won't save recaps. They can go at any given moment.

My journeys were 60 miles between load, unload, load. Tire looks fine with a load. Drive 60 miles and it's off the rim.

Pretty common with my last job to have a flat tire 60 miles from the tire shop.

 

That can be said for any tire not just recaps. Capping a casing that hasn’t been sectioned or repaired will get you a tire just as good as a virgin. That’s why people who cap their own casings have better luck than people who but caps at the tire shop. In my ten years working for my old boss I never blew a recap. Our casings went to Les Schwab in Prineville to get capped, and our mechanics checked air pressure every weekend. Our experiences are different and that’s why blanket statements often aren’t entirely true. My old boss has been in business since 1978 so he must see a return to make it worth running caps.

I should also say we were married to our trailers, no drop and hook. Running the same equipment daily and having to answer to the boss if things go wrong also motivates people to take better care of their truck and keep a better eye on things.

 

The cheap Chinese tires have less issues than caps from what I've seen.

 

Except that they wear about as fast as a pencil eraser. Or they used to anyways. Maybe they've improved in recent years.

 

I suspect, those who are using them don’t care about cost per mile numbers.