I would probably buy a Chinese tire before using a recap. But, back in the 196os when I owned a Corvette as a college student, I had some tires recapped as snow tires just to get around . These days, the Corvette spends the winter in the garage.
Would you consider a Retread (Recap) Tire?
- Thread starter Escape08
- Start date
I'd say that in most situations I would not however if the price was enough of a savings I could see doing it on a spare vehicle that doesn't see much mileage or even on a high mileage vehicle that I planned to dump soon but just needed good tread to get through one more winter.
for a passenger car/light truck, nope. If I owned a bus or RV, I would only for the drive axle.
Green Diamond had silicon carbide chunks in the tread. (the shiney specs you see in the picture). Great for winter traction and doesn't damage the roads like real studs
TreadWright as their Kedge Grip, which is ground glass and walnut shells in the tread, which adds grip by materials themselves and when they fall out, work similar in concept to Bridgestone Blizzak Multicell-tube compound
JHZR2
Staff member
Have been running treadwright warden tires in sever service and severe loading in the Caribbean for a few years now. They don’t last as long as the prior go-to, which is the BFG AT radial load range E. But they’re much cheaper and US made. No issues.
D
Deleted member 89374
Rethreaded tires are a hazard on public roads.
I have extensive experience with them on HD trucks but I have a hard time seeing a benefit on light duty stuff. I’ve had many come in blown out but usually a failure is due to running them low.
Never. Possible quality problems aside, just the idea of a set of retreads consisting of different carcasses from different tire manufacturers and models is off-putting. Surely that is going to result in some weird handling characteristics.
Sloughed-off tread material has always been a common sight on highway shoulders.
A pal was a civil engineer and worked on roadways.
He said once, "Someday one of those is going to hit me".
A pal was a civil engineer and worked on roadways.
He said once, "Someday one of those is going to hit me".
I just retired from 34 years plus wrenching on school busses. We used retreads on the drive axles always. I only had 2 failures of the actual retread part, all my failures were the original tire casing failing. Usually drivers overheating the brakes and cooking the sidewall near the bead on the inner side of the inside dual. Also as stated before being run flat. Same cause, valve stem grommet cooked from overheated brakes. As for car tires, the casings are usually shot by the time the tread is worn out. A high quality casing maybe, we used to race on retreated cop car tires. They held up well.
So yes. Have used Treadwright a couple times before with very good success for both offroad and snow grip and made in US. Would use them again. As for a passenger car, probably would pass.
Back in the 1950's Detroit iron all RWD no posi, everyone was running recap snows.
Don't think I ever saw a new snow tire then.
Don't think I ever saw a new snow tire then.
That's gonna be a no from me dawg
We use them on drive axles and trailers. No huge problem with that, although it seems like 1 out of every 10 or so leaks. That’s more a problem with who we get our retreads from, not leak checking them thoroughly? I don’t know their whole process, I’d hope it’s more than a visual inspection…but some of the sources of the leaks on our new retreads are extremely obvious. These 1 out of 10 I speak of don’t even make it out of the tire room before we can tell there’s something wrong.
We started using them on our 2500 ram promasters for the rear (dead axle). They ride absolutely horrible. I try to spin balance them, and do get them to balance (typically with like 6oz weight per side of rim) but they still ride scarily bad. I had a guy come back to me immediately upon reaching normal road speeds, he thought I left his lugs loose.
We started using them on our 2500 ram promasters for the rear (dead axle). They ride absolutely horrible. I try to spin balance them, and do get them to balance (typically with like 6oz weight per side of rim) but they still ride scarily bad. I had a guy come back to me immediately upon reaching normal road speeds, he thought I left his lugs loose.
In other parts of the world, retreading tires have been a common part on all types of vehicles. As long as they are done right, and the service interval kept right they worked. These vehicles were driven in varying environments on rough roads etc. The main thing was cost. However nowdays with basically subsidized mfgin, every part of the world has cheapo tires that people will prefer over retreads unless the cost savings is still apparent.
I used full on snow grip bias recaps on a couple of RWD cars in the 1970's. No problems. There was a long-standing recap shop in my closest city that had a good rep. Long gone now. Those old school full lug snow tires were very impressive in snow, especially with a limited slip or locker rear axle.
I've also come very close to death on two occasions on motorcycles, from exploding semi recaps.
I've also come very close to death on two occasions on motorcycles, from exploding semi recaps.
