Recapped tires

37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California
Anyone use recapped tires? Are they still available? There was a recap tire called Bandag that was around years ago that seamed to be good. I wouldn't have a problem running recaps on the rear of my tractor hauler, or trailer, if they were still available. They must still recap semi truck tires, because I still see tire pieces along the freeway. Stan
 
I don't know if you could get them that small, but they are very popular in trucking. Statistically they are more reliable than vergin tires, but virgin tires get most of the manufacturing defect failures. Without defect failures recaps are a bit less reliable than virgin tires, but they are very close. Those pieces of tire you see on the road are most always tire casings with the wire cords in them and are more often, statiatically, to be virgin tires. They are also mostly caused by low pressure, usually from something in the tire.
 
Having bought tire re-tred material to put on steel wheel tractors, I asked the owner of the retread place if these tires are any good.

His reply is that under-inflation heats up the tire to the point where the adhesive will fail. That's the biggest failure source. If you see the bulk of a belt laying along the road, the adhesive let loose. If you see a tire that looks like exploded spagetti, that's a tire core fail.
 
TennesseeTirerecappers.com sells recapped tires I use them on my 3/4 ton pickup 265.75 r 16 are $104 each and they are ambulance approved. I use Michelin caps on my semi's and have had good luck with them. I can order the tires for my pickup and they come in 3 days by FED EX .
 
Not a Semi or big truck but I have a set of E rated treadwright tires on 98 dodge/cummins 2500. They are going on 4 or 5 years now and not a single problem. I will have to replace them probably sometime next year, I'm not sure on the miles I have on them but they have worn just as good as the michelin ltx that I had before
 
Yes Bandag is still around. They have plant in Abilene Tx. I am running caps on rear of dump truck. Have had no problems, don't run fast or overloaded.
 
The 38 years I drove commercial carrier I have thrown a number of caps and most of them were freshly recapped tires. In the the 38 years I had only one virgin rubber tire blow.
 
For 20 years I ran caps on the drives on my semi's. I did have a rule I would not run bandag caps, and would only run steer or drive casings as caps. My theory was the steer had more weight proportionally than drive and trailer tires, so had better casings. Drives had two jobs to do; 1 carry the weight; 2 pull it down the road. Therefore I felt drive casings were also better. I ran Goodyear caps and would not buy the unicircle caps. Less tread depth for more money. I have even been in AZ in the summer with them and held up fine. I do agree that underinflated tires will blow faster than correctly or even over inflated ones. I did not run caps on my trailers as the 255/70-22.5 tires turned so fast they run warmer than the drives by a bit so thought since they only lasted a year or 100,000 miles or so it didn't pay also with the spread they had more weight on them at 40,000 or 20,000 per axle was more than the drives or steer by a considerable amount.
 
Back in the eighties, when I would buy new tires the dealer would pay me five bucks apiece for my worn-out Michelins. He said Michelin retreads were much in demand for taxis. Flash-forward thirty years and you have to pay the dealer to take your old tires. I guess not much demand for retreads these days.

There used to be a process called "Orbitread" that wrapped a narrow strip of rubber around the tire multiple times, resulting in very good retreads. Are these machines still around?
 
Anybody remember the Bandag-sponsored Bonneville truck? Probably 70s-80s. I saw it once in our town We had a Bandag recapper and they brought the truck in on a publicity tour. HUGE single tires on the back, Bandag caps of course. Dual turbocharged engine would spin all four tires at most any speed. Local LEOs close a few blocks of street for a demo run, just awesome power.
 
The theory that the rubber on the road is all from recap tires is VERY inaccurate. Tire failure happens to virgin tires, too. Have not seen any smaller caps in a while. My guess is small, limited market with limited suppliers if any.
 
i used them on my kenworth, but stopped i couldnt get 10,000 miles out of any of them and mostly less, plus they rode hard too, i wouldnt buy any more
 

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