I don't need tires any time soon. When I got the truck almost 2 years ago, they had some Hancook Dynapros that had quite a bit of meat on them and they haven't really worn down too much.

But I have been looking around, "researching", for tires for my wife's Outlander and eventual Blazer restoration. I've only found one place that makes tires at our stock size. Anyone ever run retreads on a passenger/light truck?

 

No no no. You see all those retreads that peel off on the semi trucks on the highway? Do you really want your wife to be going down the highway at 70-80 mph and that happen to her?

 

I think here in NY they outlawed retreads for passenger vehicles years ago.
They only recap large truck tires now.

 

I don't have any experience with them, but I'm getting a set of the ones with the same tread as the MT/R's in a 285/75R16 when I put my bodylift on.

 

I didn't even know they did it till a few months ago I watched one of those "How'd they do it" shows in Science Channel. After reading about them, their counter to the "chunks on the side of the road" was to keep the tires inflated.

Looked like an interesting idea, guess they still have some bugs to work out.

 

In my opinion, tires are the most important part of a vehicle. You can make tons of power, have awesome brakes, great suspension and it's not going to do any good if the tires suck.

Plus I don't like the idea of retreads at all for a daily driver. I have heard of some people running them on trail trucks but most of their sidewalls looked crappy last time I looked.

 

The only time I would ever run them would be on something that never goes on the highway. The tire just gets to hot running those high speeds I don't trust it.

 

Exactly. they would be fine for a farm truck or something.

 

Actually the retreads they are making for passenger vehicles nowadays are exceptional they have to be or the companies would be sued left and right. I have run 3 sets from Hi-tech retreading and every set has been exceptional...little weight to balance out, long tread life, never a seperation or anything and I am far from easy on my tires. Many 400+ mile highway trips with a set of them matter of fact I put 18k miles on a set in 5 months when I was traveling for work.

You can not compare them to tractor trailer retreads at all! First off the few treads you see on the road come from millions upon millions of rigs on the road with anywhere from 8-16 retreads on 90% of them. It's also not a catostrphic issue when they do lose the tread in most cases, the tire carcass is still there and will still hold air for a period of time giving you plenty of time to get off the road safely if it did happen. You also have to take into account the number of miles put on those tires in most cases well over 50k miles, the fact they are run at over 100psi plus they have as much as 80k pounds on them. The factors that contribute to semi tire failure are usually not related to quality but to maintanace....low air pressure or flat inside, debris, overloaded axle weight and tires run beyond their life expectancy. Yes I've worked in trucking for over 10years so I know a little about semi tires. I can also say that over those 10 years dealing with 40-70 trucks a day the number of tire failures I have seen is extremly minimal maybe 1 a month running retreads on everything but the steer tires and 90% of those are on the actual trailer as they are run down to 2/32 which is almost slick.

 

Personally I would never run caps on a daily driver. Especially when you consider its for the wifey.

Now that being said, I believe that as far as truck tires go, the above poster is dead on. Properly done caps are bonded to the carcass and not much more likely to fail than a new tire, when properly capped, installed and maintained.

Truck tires though, are made for extreme life spans and designed to be capped. Car/light truck tires are not designed for this. Most truck tires that are cappable (pretty much anything but steer tires, though steer carcasses can be capped into drive axle tires), have a layer of rubber that protects the underlying nappe wires that form the outer layer of the carcass. During the retread process this layer keeps them from damaging any wires, making sure the metal wires inside retain the strength they were designed for. Most car/light truck tires lack this layer, and most likely the wires are not made of metal but some kind of fabric.

Just not worth the risk to save a few dollars. Get some bfgs!

 

My bro bought some for his cougar, to go on a trip (400 mile RT), 125miles in he lost the first one, 225 miles he started chunking the second. when he got home and went to the tire shop,, they said no recaps have any warrenty, $70 later and 400 miles he needed new tires