Retread Tires

[expat]

When I first came to Canada I worked in a retread shop (Bandag, and Hot caps for passenger tires)
The tires we produced were VERY bad, Dangerously Bad, like stripping out steel belts because they were so rusty THEN capping bad!

I'm sure the UK has much higher standards (Have you ever seen a tire casing on the side of the road there?)

But, when all is said and done, I would sooner check out the used market or Bite the bullet and pay the Bucks for new, if it were my car.

 

[Chris142]

Retreads are only legal on a front axle if it grosses under 6000 lbs iirc.so 18 wheelers are out as are buses as they can't run caps on the front at all due to law.

 

[earlyre]

There are a few Brits that post here, including, IIRC,a fellow running a taxi service in London... Hopefully one of them will stumble upon this thread, and give the op the local knowledge his question needs.

 

[Toyoguy]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Do they let you mail order tyres in merry old England? What size are you looking for? Do you have access to a base hobby shop where you can literally mount and balance them yourself, or bribe a buddy with the skills to do so?


That is the back up plan. Amazon has a few I would consider, I just hope the Prime membership thing will handle tires. Then, its off to the hobby shop to mount and balance them myself.

 

[Toyoguy]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Originally Posted By: Miller88

I run treadwright remoulded tires on my Cherokee. Love them. I have done many things that are a no-no (air them down off roading, have run them on the highway with no air, and drove them on the highway with a bent tierod). Excellent tires.


Interesting. I've never seen any retread passenger tires in real life before. I used to work at a bus company and dealt with many retread bus tires.

This thread made me go down a rabbit hole of tire retreading videos.

I found a few places online that specialize in retread tires, including Treadwright.
https://www.treadwright.com/
https://www.tirerecappers.com/

Tire Recappers sells tire they retread themselves on their website and ebay. But they don't have any videos showing the process.

There are some high-tech operations performing the work. Here's a video of a company in Italy.


To the OP,
What is the exact brand of the retread tires you're considering and what is the brand and model of the new tires?


Well, the area I'm in is a farming community and we have a few tire shops around. But now that I watched that video, I'm thinking of going with those tires.

 

[tom slick]

I stated federal law, state laws may be more strict. I have no idea about the laws in England.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: Danno
I run a large fleet +1000 trucks with 16" to 22.5" tires. Never could get a viable recap program going on the 16" drive tires, in that fabric casings were difficult to recap correctly.
22.5 tires on tractor drives or trailers you can do reliably all day long.
My 2 cents is to buy new if a passenger vehicle application.


The Bridgestone Duravis is a scaled-down class 8 tire with all-steel construction and explicitly marked as retreadable.

Or you can just call Treadwright...they have solved the problems!

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: expat
When I first came to Canada I worked in a retread shop (Bandag, and Hot caps for passenger tires)
The tires we produced were VERY bad, Dangerously Bad, like stripping out steel belts because they were so rusty THEN capping bad!

I'm sure the UK has much higher standards (Have you ever seen a tire casing on the side of the road there?)

But, when all is said and done, I would sooner check out the used market or Bite the bullet and pay the Bucks for new, if it were my car.


You do realize that 99% of tire caps on the side of the road are from the truck driving running them underinflated, right?

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: expat
When I first came to Canada I worked in a retread shop (Bandag, and Hot caps for passenger tires)
The tires we produced were VERY bad, Dangerously Bad, like stripping out steel belts because they were so rusty THEN capping bad!

I'm sure the UK has much higher standards (Have you ever seen a tire casing on the side of the road there?)

But, when all is said and done, I would sooner check out the used market or Bite the bullet and pay the Bucks for new, if it were my car.


You do realize that 99% of tire caps on the side of the road are from the truck driving running them underinflated, right?
x2.a lot can happen to tires in 500-1000 miles per day.may pick up a nail near elpaso and not lose the tire till phoenix.

 

[userfriendly]

With the ever increasing price of 18, 20 and 22 inch light truck tires, I'm surprised
that retreading is not an option that most people consider when purchasing tires.

When I buy light truck tires, I look at the retreadability of the case.
A low profile tire with 3-ply side walls, 2 steel belts and 2 cap plies provides a very tough
retreadable case when worn out.

A popular snow tread is the Bandag BDRW which is 27/32 deep.
The tread is quite heavy so assume a Q speed rating at the very best.

Low profile V,W and Z speed rated tires have a very tough case design and
would make an excellent snow or off-road tire with a 16-20/32 deep tread.

The people who speak out the loudest against retreading are usually connected with the
disposable tire industry, and rightfully so.

A retread tire may cost 1/2 the price of a new one and last twice as long.
The price of shipping, labor and materials stay in the country creating jobs and reducing
the mountains of used tires in the process.