New tires or Recaps?

Well, I bought my tires at home in BC (BC= bring cash) where everything costs more and with my traded-in casings I paid $4000 CDN for 8- XDN2 mounted, fees, stems, etc. from an independent tire dealer. That's pretty close to $3777 US

I'm sure I could have have done better south of the border.

 

A long time ago recapping technology was different... Today it still makes a difference who does recapping... For me Michelin MRT is #1, Bandag #2.

 

That may very well be true but I was quoted $2400 (CDN). for 8 Michelin caps on Michelin casings done at a local Michelin plant.

A savings of $1600 over equal milage would net me a savings of about $470/year.

Unless you're capping the same casing twice, the savings is even less.

Edit:

But I'm really happy that there are people that love recaps because without them my casings would have less value.

So, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

 

$400 a year is peanuts to me since I only have one trailer.

But to Schnider with 20,000 trailers, it's

EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS!

 

Hahaha !! Now that was funny right there

 

Negotiated that price at a Love's truck stop last Sep. with the tire shop manager. It was for 8 Yokohama TY577 drive tires. That was the total price installed, that was what I paid, including tax, and it was $3377, not $3777.....

Did I get that price at the first place I looked?

No.

Spent 3 weeks getting my deal. Talked to numerous tire shops before buying. Prices ranged from that low price I accepted to quotes as high as $5800.

Was real close to pulling the trigger on some Toyo's at Sapp Bros. for $3800.

Kept looking and got the right manager, at the right place, at the right time.

 

And the Toyo's may be a better tire, and so, may have been the better deal, although I haven't had any problems with the Yoko's, and I'm running Yoko on the steer as well....

A lot of drivers have reported weird wear as being a downside of Yokohama. I run the Counteract beads in all my tires and my weird wear issues are no more....

I've currently got a hundred and something thousand on the drives and they're wearing great, (had picked up a nail in one, didn't catch it right away and ran it soft for a day or so, (couple thousand miles, we run team), it started to wear weird...wearing down every other lug strangely... threw a 12oz bag of beads in the tire when I had it repaired and flipped it on the rim..... weird wear stopped and it's doing fine now. (this happened twice, to two different drive tires. The beads work)

Run the beads in the steers, (different weight, I forget how many ounces, exactly), any way, currently have 65-70k on them and they're wearing perfectly even, and I mean perfectly. Should get 200k or better on the steers before they come off and become trailer tires....I'm really happy with the balancing beads.

 

I'll stand corrected on the issue of recaps being illegal on steer axles, except, they are illegal on buses...

For some strange reason, caps are illegal to put on the steer axle of a bus..... weird.

Anyway...

How many of you guys are running caps on your steer axle?

If the caps are just as good as new, shouldn't you be running caps on your steer axle?

Just a thought.

 

My $.02:

Running caps isn't a simple yes or no answer. If you are considering them, the best thing to do is talk with people who do similar runs, with similar equipment, in similar climates, and see what their results have been. The same thing applies to choosing what brand/model tire to use when buying virgin tires. What works well for some trucks and applications may not work worth a #### for something else....or be cost effective. There are plenty of applications where running caps can save you money...but there are many applications where running caps will cost you your arse.

We used to run recaps, but finally figured out that they were a wash when compared to new rubber (and a whole lot less of a headache). But, we run in extremely hot desert weather, we run at 80k all the time, we do a lot of inner city multi drop loads, and we deal with a lot of jobsites (read: lots of nails and flats). Our statistics were pretty bad (even when using a good cap system like michelin). 30 percent of them had to be removed with half of the tread or more remaining due to cap/casing separation. Caps don't like heat and high scrub applications (no matter who makes them). In addition, there was a 1 in 4 chance of a blowout before the cap wore down to 6/32, and it didn't seem to matter whether it was a drive axle or a trailer. It wasn't a casing issue for us either,....I wouldn't cap anything more that 5 years old, I wouldn't cap anything with more that one section repair (nail hole repair), and I used good casings (michelin, goodyear, yokohama, etc). I wouldn't dare use any chinese junk, and I only used 16 ply casings. In addition, I would only cap them once.

Blowouts happen, but there are a whole bunch of things that can cause them. I've seen brand new (non chinese) tires blow themselves to the moon, but it was almost always due to underinflation (and the heat and pressure buildup that ensues), or from air migration between the casing layers due to a nail, a small puncture, or a failed section repair. In addition, I've found that smaller rubber is way less forgiving when it comes to underinflation....whether it's due to lack of maintanence or a leak. Lo pro tires have less area to radiate heat, and less volume inside to absorb the pressure increases due to the increased heat. 11r's may be old school, but they put up way more abuse than the low pro stuff....especially lo pro 24.5's.

If you are set on running caps, here are a few tips: Use only good non chinese 16 ply casings, don't cap anything more than 5 years old, don't cap anything with a section repair, don't cap them more than once, and above all inspect them daily! If you are running lo pro 24.5's or 255/70R22.5's, I wouldn't cap them at all.

Tire pressure management systems (TPMS) are out there, and are getting cheaper all the time. Although I've never used any of them while running caps, I firmly believe they can save your behind. I'm currently experimenting with two different systems and so far they are worth the $1000+ expense in a fleet application (even though I don't run caps). Drivers that can bump a tire with a winch bar or a hammer and tell the difference between a 100 psi tire and a 70 psi tire are a dying breed, and sometimes all it takes is a 30 psi drop in cold inflation pressure to make a weak/leaky tire go boom on a hot day.

Hope this helps.

 

Excellent post. Anyone running the SW deserts, and anyone hauling time sensitive materials will learn that the money saved with caps disappears pretty quickly when one blows at the wrong time and place, and especially if it does big time damage to the equipment in the process....

I like to save money as much as anybody, but when I really look at it, I don't see caps as being any kind of real bargain.