Retread Info/Advice

It all holds on the caseing. Bad caseing or old your tire is crap. Check the DOT date on the side of the tire. After 2000 they went to 4 digits instead of three, first two digits are the week of the year it was made and the last two digits are the year. DOT date of 4409 is a tire that was made the 44th week of 2009. Same applies to the recap date it will have the cappers code which will be 4 letters followed by the cap date. I like a couple different brands; PreQ has some awsome tread designs and is a split cap but one of the better ones, the have hard rubber caps that are scuff resistant like their SA (spread axle) Cap we use on of couse spread axle trailers but also work perfect on oil field trucks also their WHL (waste hauler lug) awesome drive cap for servere serive oil field, rock buckets, tash trucks. Goodyear also has their Unicirlce caps that are one piece of rubber. And their Precure cap that is a split cap but also rates up their in my good list. www.goodyear.com/truck/retread is a link to look at goodyear cap designs and get a little info on them. I can put a set of caps on the front axle of one of our hoppers and with propper air maintance they will out last the second set of virgins. The harder rubber compound allows for longer wear. If you have a set of "summer tires" and "winter tires" that you swape around and run out almost to where they have to be change, a good set of of virgins for the summer then cap those for next winter so you have YOUR tires . A good tire program will ultimately save you alot of money. Cap are good if you watch your dates and air.

 

Shoot that could be applied to any truck out there I think!

 

My experience has been that a good retread these days performs as good as a new tire, as long as you maintain them right. MRT is probably the best retread process but you have to be careful where you get them from. MRT shops are independently owned and some make great caps but some are down right horrible. I used to use an MRT shop here in PA and the caps looked like crap and I had some come apart. Then I found a company called Inter City Tire out in NJ that is also MRT and there was a huge difference. Visually you can barely tell the difference between their caps and new Michelin tires. Good retreaders are out there, you just have to find them.

 

The best info given was maitain the tire and forget thumping a tire!

All a thump tells you is if there is SOME air in it!

Stick those things with a good tire gauge and about every 3 months check the gauge at a tire shop for accuracy.

Always check them when cold as in the first thing in the day during the PTI and if low fill it at the island or with your air hose. I use the same system the DOT does when they hit you with an inspection on the brakes. A line from top to bottom of a note pad (pocket sized) and then a line across for the sterers then 2 for the drrives and 2 for the tandems unless you have tri axles.
As you stick each tire if it's good then either put the pressure you keep them at but darn sure put if it's low and do each tire this way and that way you go to the pumps and fill them up using your page.
HINT to you newer drivers. IF you have a tire that keeps losing even a few pounds of pressure then that tire needs to be checked. This is whrer your spray bottle of home made window wash fluid for bugs and oil is handy. Start with the stem and spray it and look for bubbles. If bubbles come from the stem then use you handy stem tool and tighten it. IF it's not there then spray around the rim or the whole tire. Bubbles anywhere is a reason to go to the shop and get it fixed as it's way cheaper to fix it then than drive another 600 miles and have it fail on the road and you have to lose time and more money for a new tire or service call which could also involve a mud flap and hangar!
If a company driver and they tell you to go with it ask them if they will pay you hourly pay if it fails? I'd also rethink driving for anyone who tells you to go with anything needing to be fixed that can cost you down time on the road and they don't pay for it! But that IMHO!

 

Very good advice, Rollover.

As to tire thumping - I do it every morning and when I pick up a trailer.
I listen to the sound, and observe the rebound.

My very first mentor had me thump the tires to see which were low.
I correctly identified all three - and he only knew of two.

If I have any doubt, I pull out the gauge.


As to retreads...
I'd rather have virgin.
I don't trust 50,000 mile casings.

 

Good info , but it is just common sense regardless of what type of vehicle you drive.

Asked a driver 1 time if he had the conversion table for THUMP to PSI

 

as long as the tire has at least 50 psi. you can thump all you want but will never know it's low.

i knew a driver once. that would KICK the side of his tires ONCE A WEEK.

and didn't care that his tires looked low ONLY WHEN HE WAS LOADED WITH DIRT.

but then, this was a dude that LOVED HAVIGN SOME TYPE OF BREAKDOWN in his brand new truck.

 

That reminds me of a joke my high school auto shop teacher had, it was a table converting "bap's" of an air impaft to ft lbs of torque.

 

Not lucky at all. Just proper maintenance. Probably the difference between an O/O and a company gig.

 

If you want to retread your VIRGIN casings with your commercial truck center, they will probably charge for the new retread and the casing that comes with it. Certain casings are better than others, ie a never-before-capped (NBC) 2010 Yokohama is more valuable than a NBC 2010 Double Coin just as a NBC 2008 Goodyear is superior to a NBC 2009 LingLong casing, depending on its application. Some Goodyear dealers will give you an even swap if your virgin casing is their definition of an "A-grade" casing, which, for Goodyear, would include any GY, Dunlop, or Kelly casing. If the truck center was a Yokohama dealer, "A-grade" may be redefined. For example, you come in off the road to your Goodyear truck service dept. and ask for two Goodyear G167 PC retreads because your one NBC Dunlop SP193 from 2009 and your other NBC BF Goodrich ST230 from 2008 are down to a barely legal 2/32nds of tread. The Dunlop SP193 casing and tire will cover the cost of the casing you bought with G167 retread #1. Since the BF Goodrich is not in the Goodyear family, you wouldn't get quite as much credit toward covering the cost of the other casing you bought with G167 retread #2. Of course we're assuming both retread #1 and #2 are Goodyear brand casings on their 1st retreading - not always the case, but works for an example. Either way, if you decide to go with retreads, you'd get your retreads for fewer greenbacks, especially since the casings you traded in were of moderate to high quality in this situation.