Recap separation?

For a vocational truck you'd be crazy to spend money on high end tires. You throw them in the trash bin every 8 months anyways.

 

I’d be willing to bet that if someone is a company driver that does not own or maintain their own equipment and does not personally purchase the tires for their truck have driven a truck with retreads on the steers and have not known it. Merrily going down the highway at speed head bobbing and singing their favorite road song happy and care free. Some tires are retreaded with the EXACT same tread pattern as the virgin ones and if done correctly you will never see the difference. If someone is not educated on tires other than they are black rubber, hold air, go boom than that is unfortunate. Learn how they are made. The virgin treads are “glued” on the same way as the retreads.

 

I agree with everything you typed except that last sentence. I don't have any direct knowledge, It's my understanding like you said all the parts are glued. However, they are glued before the curing process. I would also add they are also made under exacting company rules that dictate quality. Recaps are glued to an already cured tire, and the quality control is not as good as the makers of new tires. I do agree though that a properly "cooked" recap should last for many miles. I guess I am that one oddball that feels recaps are OK but have no confidence in a lot of the shops that recap them.

 

Here is a virgin Michelin that I’m inspecting today for T-sep. look at how the tread is peeling off. The radial break (sidewall to sidewall) is were the rupture happened. It was caused by a hard road hazard impact with something at sometime in its life and low air pressure. The last pic is what the tread wear looked like before the rupture.

 

The ultimate cause of this failure was a Puncture from something that allowed moisture to get to the plys under the tread causing the Seperation. That is why no matter what kind of tread a proper repair is important.

 

If that tire were a retread people would blame it on that fact only if they saw that gator on the road. Not the little nail puncture that happened 6 months or a year ago until it failed.

 

That I couldn’t agree with more, even more so, I only buy Michelin’s for my steers. Replace every fall, I like to have new rubber up front going into winter. Drives? I run off shore rubber. For half the cost and very close to the same mileage, why would I pay $600+ for a tire when I can get basically same knock off tread for less than half the price? I can put virgin off shore drives on for often the same price as recaps. So why bother??

 

That's how I see it. You add up 12 drive tires and 12 trailer tires every 9 months or so, that's a significant chunk of change.

 

Yes. I was being sarcastic with the last sentence. On new the blank tread rubber is rolled on than the whole thing is put in mold to make the pattern and branding. On a properly done quality retread they buff off old tread repair carcass casing if need be and roll on pre molded pattern tread the same way as new ones than put them in a pressurized rubber “bag” that vaccum sucks it tight around tire as the mold and than pressure and temperture vulcanize it together in an oven the same way as new.

The issue is with the quality of the retreader. That is the same issue as to the quality of the original manufacturer as well with new virgin tires. Like I said earlier the big 3 manufacturers are more involved now and a lot has changed.

 

Man you would have a heart attack if you saw how offshore tires were made. If it isn’t owned by a name brand manufacter you basically have a steel belted bias ply retread with no technology or testing invested in it. Private label stuff is good as long as it has a name brand behind it.