Happy Halloween everyone! I sure got my scare this evening when I had one of my brand new (can't really call it that!) Treadwright retreads come apart on me on the highway doing 70mph. My trip into town where I work is about 35 miles-- the only reason I took the truck this morning (try to avoid it, as it gets 10mpg) was so I could get the alignment checked; I always do that after a new tire install. The old ones (Michelin LTX AT/2) wore nice and even. Alignment checked out okay, though they noted I should replace the outer tie rod ends soon (strange, because I just replaced them 8 months ago). Truck is sound mechanically, suspension is good. Truck is an '85 Ford F-250. Tires are LT265/70/17 Load Range E. Passenger rear was the one that failed.
On the way home in fairly dense traffic doing 70, all the sudden there was a loud BOOM, the whole truck shook, and a look in the rearview revealed black debris of some kind shooting out of the back of my truck. Cars were trying to avoid it, and it's a miracle it didn't cause an accident. My first thought was my cheap plastic toolbox got whipped in the wind and blew out, but I spotted it in the bed a couple minutes later. Mind you, I'm still doing 70 and truck is driving fine, so tires weren't my first suspicion. However, after a moment of pondering, I realized that whatever impact/collision/etc. had occurred was too violent to ignore. It felt like a Moose had run into the side of the truck. I pulled over on a side road and spotted what you see in the images below.
Is this a fluke, or somewhat common on retreads? I'm real hesitant to drive the truck now, even if this bad tire were to be replaced. I bought these because they had a lot of good reviews (few bad, but I chalked it up to idiots not inflating their tires right, beating on them etc.) I grew up with my parents buying retreaded studded snow tires for winter season on all our cars in Northern Vermont. They never had any issues, so I thought this to be safe bet. Now I'm second guessing my decision. I can't afford another $800 set of tires until next year; luckily this truck is used only for bad winter weather and recreation/camping in the summertime. Maybe coincidence, but this tire that failed was the one that balanced the poorest. It needed about 12 ounces of weight, but the guy at Costco thought that was okay for a retread. The others are 4oz or below. Thoughts?
On the way home in fairly dense traffic doing 70, all the sudden there was a loud BOOM, the whole truck shook, and a look in the rearview revealed black debris of some kind shooting out of the back of my truck. Cars were trying to avoid it, and it's a miracle it didn't cause an accident. My first thought was my cheap plastic toolbox got whipped in the wind and blew out, but I spotted it in the bed a couple minutes later. Mind you, I'm still doing 70 and truck is driving fine, so tires weren't my first suspicion. However, after a moment of pondering, I realized that whatever impact/collision/etc. had occurred was too violent to ignore. It felt like a Moose had run into the side of the truck. I pulled over on a side road and spotted what you see in the images below.
Is this a fluke, or somewhat common on retreads? I'm real hesitant to drive the truck now, even if this bad tire were to be replaced. I bought these because they had a lot of good reviews (few bad, but I chalked it up to idiots not inflating their tires right, beating on them etc.) I grew up with my parents buying retreaded studded snow tires for winter season on all our cars in Northern Vermont. They never had any issues, so I thought this to be safe bet. Now I'm second guessing my decision. I can't afford another $800 set of tires until next year; luckily this truck is used only for bad winter weather and recreation/camping in the summertime. Maybe coincidence, but this tire that failed was the one that balanced the poorest. It needed about 12 ounces of weight, but the guy at Costco thought that was okay for a retread. The others are 4oz or below. Thoughts?
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