Treadwright - 235/80R17 - Winter Kedge

[CapriRacer]

..... But I thought the tire makers had their own retread line as well?

Many do, but the problem is that unlike new tires, which are a one way trip, retreading involves collecting, retreading, then returning the tires to the same location. That means the retreading site needs to be fairly local.

What is pretty common is for a trucking business to contract with a tire dealer to supply both new tires and to handle retreading - and sometimes the guy on site handling the tires is an employee of the tire dealer. It is not uncommon for a name brand tire dealer to use a different retreader just because of the convenience.

 

[bullwinkle]

I'm on my 3rd set of retread tires on my Jeep. First set was fine, the Jeep outgrew them so I gave them to a friend to run on his dually. Second set worked great but I took out a sidewall one one of them and decided to go bigger. On my 3rd set now.

The second set I never balanced. Mounted on the wheels and never had a problem. Weird stuff.

Anytime someone in a truck runs a tire low, it's going to throw the tread off. Doesn't matter if it's a brand new tire or a recap. Common misconception. Treadwrights are popular with the dudebro crowd who do stupid stuff and have tons of problems with regular tires.

My truck is due for tires next year. But given it's state, it's getting the cheapest tires I can get for it. Not treadwright since they have been going up in price.

Your comment on low pressure is DEAD ON! Nothing kills a loaded truck (or trailer tire) faster than running low on air. It’s better to run 5 PSI over sidewall cold on 10 ply tires than it is to risk running them low. But, I’ve never had a retread last any time at all either, and they can do EXTREME damage to a fender or rear quarter if the tread comes off at speed, so I would never run them on anything other than a rusty beater truck.

 

[nobb]

I would assume they have some stringent QC to check the used casing before re-treading. The problem is, don't tire casings vary a lot between manufacturers? You never know if you're getting a casing from a brand name manufacturer vs cheap Chinese stuff.

 

[Sleepeyes]

When riding buses to work was still a thing, I noticed the local transit agency was using Oliver or Prince retreads on Michelin or Goodyear transit bus/waste hauler carcasses on the rear/middle axles and whatever tire they’re leasing new on contract(Goodyear Intercity Cruiser currently, was Michelin XZU3 or X Incity).

I know FTA/DOT rules dictate only new tires are to be used on the front axles of any bus for obvious reasons. But I thought the tire makers had their own retread line as well?

What are those "obvious reasons"? They don't actually fail any more often than virgin tires.

I would assume they have some stringent QC to check the used casing before re-treading. The problem is, don't tire casings vary a lot between manufacturers? You never know if you're getting a casing from a brand name manufacturer vs cheap Chinese stuff.

Per Treadwright, they only use casings from major manufactures for their remolding. They claim to toss a lot of casings that are not up to snuff. Chances are they do allow casings that a person on these forms would flip **** about, but keep in mind that there are people so parinoid about things here that they will change a synthetic oil with less than 3k miles on it, just because it sat in the some longer that some arbitrarily assigned time in the sump.

That said, not all Asian tire manufactures are terrible...just many are. I just had GT Radials (Singapore owned) put on my wife's 2020 Impreza, and they are wearing better, and performed better in sleet, than the OEM Continentals (which we blew through in just under 30k miles, 5k rotations at the dealer).

 

[Sleepeyes]

7500mile and first rotation update

I was going to aim for a 5k rotation, but real life happened and I had to take the truck on a road trip. Tires are still performing great, and I am really happy with the snow performance of these tires in the Mountains. I have about ~500lbs of ballast (gravel and sand) in the bed over the axle.

I cut down two Black Cherry trees at my folks house, and bucked them into managable size logs. Put them in the bed with the ballast. Probably had 1800lbs of weight in the bed. Then me @200lbs, and the passenger seat packed with another ~200lbs of stuff my family sent me home with (mostly tools from my Grandfather's house). Bumped up the tire pressure to 50psi for the ~700mile return trip.

The old 3.7l V6 handled the extra weight just fine. Was rarely in 6th gear in NE or when I hit the mountains in WV and VA. Treadwrights were just fine.

Overall the Treadwrights are doing great. No weird wear, no failures, etc.

 

[nthach]

What are those "obvious reasons"? They don't actually fail any more often than virgin tires.

DOT(FHWA) wants new tires on the steer axle of a bus(their “definition” of a bus is anything that carries more than 12 people) - the old saying is that a blowout on the steering wheels is more catastrophic than on the drive wheels.

That said, I see UPS trucks with retreads on all wheel positions.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

DOT(FHWA) wants new tires on the steer axle of a bus(their “definition” of a bus is anything that carries more than 12 people) - the old saying is that a blowout on the steering wheels is more catastrophic than on the drive wheels.

That said, I see UPS trucks with retreads on all wheel positions.

The postal service LLVs too.

 

[Jarlaxle]

When riding buses to work was still a thing, I noticed the local transit agency was using Oliver or Prince retreads on Michelin or Goodyear transit bus/waste hauler carcasses on the rear/middle axles and whatever tire they’re leasing new on contract(Goodyear Intercity Cruiser currently, was Michelin XZU3 or X Incity).

I know FTA/DOT rules dictate only new tires are to be used on the front axles of any bus for obvious reasons. But I thought the tire makers had their own retread line as well?

Michelin and GY does capping...as I recall Bridgestone does not, though they own Bandag now.