New tires or Recaps?

No Kidding. Hauling crude from ND to CA. I guess better safe then sorry. Thanks. I appreciate any other comments you all may have. New to the biz.

 

The lowest rolling resistance will always be "fuel saver" type brand new virgin rubber. Why cut corners on those crappy recaps that end up laying all over the roads when the fuel mileage difference alone can buy several sets of new fuel saver rubber for what you saved in fuel.

A lot of O/Os ignore the rolling resistance on tires and only care about how many miles they can get out of a tire. Long lasting tires have a very high rolling resistance and could cost you as much as 1 full mpg over "fuels saver tires" with a very low RR that even if they last half as many miles you are still way ahead by the fuel you saved. 1 full mpg is equal to around $12,000 a year in fuel that will buy a lot of tires.

 

Caps all the way, just make sure you are capping good tires. If you cap a top tier brand tire with a good retread you won't have any problems, but if you try capping something cheap like a Double Coin or a Ling Long, you are asking for trouble.

 

You know you can get those fuel saving tread designs as a cap? If you put them on your fuel saving casings you have as good as new for less than half the price. Why if your so concerned about saving money on fuel would you throw money out with your good casings.

 

For drives I run my own casings with bandag BDR-W recaps in the winter months. Virgin Goodyear 661rsa the rest of the year all the way around. I see a 3/10s increase in milage doing this.....


As others have said, nothing wrong with recaps especially if there your casings and you take care of them.

 

I quit using Bandag as I could never get them shimmy free. I like the Michelin caps they look good and ride smooth.

 

Because I don't want those recap casings blown off all over the highway. Only virgin rubber for me.

 

We have had rather good luck and decent ride with the gripper recap, it is also nice that the dealer we work with warranties the caps they sell down to 30% tread if they do come apart, which doesn't seem to be hardly ever if a good casing was used to begin with.

 

That is true. Michelin is offering the XDA Energy tread as a cap on any Michelin casing. The result of that is almost as low of a rolling resistance as a virgin XDA Energy tire. For half the total cost, why not? No brainer there.

 

If you take care of your casing that will not happen. Your money your choice.