The future of tires. (horrifying)

I was recently on a flight back from Mexico and spent my time speaking to an OEM tier 1 tire executive, He told me that the auto companies are demanding non-repairable tires in the near future. They have discovered that tire sales are profitable and repairing tires makes them last too long. Get a flat, buy a new tire, or two, or four. . . . .

Also, remember when Ford tried strange metric wheel sizes to force you to go to the dealer for tires? That will probably start happening again.

Kind of ruined my flight.

 

What the*****! Time to stock up on repair stuff. Oh God this means more idiots will try and learn how to do it themselves

 

This is not cool!!

 

so just exactly what are they going to do to a tire that would make it not repairable?

sounds like BS to me, but I read it on theinternet so that makes it true..

 

Non-repairable, that's kind of an open ended term. His impression of non-repairable might mean that the tire shops will not be authorized to make repairs. That doesn't mean that the crafty guys here on this site couldn't figure out ways to makes repairs to their tires like all shops do today. Tire repairs are simple if you have the equipment.

The other side of non-repairable might mean that the tire absolutely shreds itself when it gets damaged, and that would mean MASSIVE potential lawsuits even bigger than the Firestone debacle that happened years back. Can't see any tire company wanting to buy into that idea....

What we're seeing is the by-product of making things last longer. If you make engines that last longer, the parts stores suffer. If you make longer lasting tires, the manufacturers complain. I happen to believe that consumers are getting smarter and are really making an effort to keep their vehicles maintained better. In this economy, you have to make things last longer.

 

He wouldn't say, since all of the manufacturers are attempting to "invent" these. I will guarantee, however, the claim will that they are "safer" and done for the good of the consumer. That I will take bets on. We always get screwed when it is for "our benefit."

 

They'll put the word "Eco-something" in the name and all of the mouth-breathers will insist on having them to reduce their "carbon footprint."

 

I don't know about non repairable tires, but I would put money on all of them being run-flats. With the new CAFE regs I see them dropping the extra 40Lbs of a spare tire like a hot potato.

 

Future? Haven't you seen the Mayan Calendar?

 

I'm betting the proliferation of used tire places hasn't helped either.

 

Can't see any Government allowing it.
They can't get rid of the stockpiles of worn out tires now...let alone absorb the influx of barely worn, but suddenly "unfixable", tires such a new rule would involve.

 

I had some of those 390 tires on an 83 turbo T-bird. The thing cornered like it was on rails, but in Wi. winters a 1/4" of snow & I was stuck. Went to a salvage yard & got 4 - 15" tires & rims off a normal T-bird. Just put 4 - 16" tires on my wifes Ford Escape almost 700 bucks for 50,000 mile tires. My Dad ran 8 dollar retreads 55 years ago.

 

I bought a new off topic car for my wife recently and was told because of the option package it was unavailable with a spare tire. The vehicle was equiped with "run flat" tires. I have been running run flat tires on another off topic vehicle for years (think American made and fiberglass) so I was comfortable with the tires. I****umed it was just another way to trim weight off of the vehicle to meet CAFE standards.

 

Wont be that hard to do..

If they make a bead that wont seal after its taken off the rim, they are almost there.

And about the spare, most drvers dont know how to change a wheel anyway...


But as long as we have mills and lathes, we can adapt wheels to cars.

So if Corky keeps selling them, we can keep using them.

 

I thought this would be about the Tweel.

http://http://www.fastcoolcars.com/airless-tires.htm

 

Not to mention the world economy!

 

Business is very counter productive and you can always expect to suffer when profit motives run this country, when will we learn to live logically and stop this madness.

Its already ruined what we eat, thanks rockefeller, petroleum based products forced down our throats.

 

non repairable just wont happen,just like when i got into the trade,we were not patching tires but using those "camel hairs" sticky thread thingys to fix punctures.
now those are illegal to be used by a shop,but joe public can go out and but the little kit and use them.the loop hole,on the kit it states "not intended for motorized vehicle repaire or vehicle used on public roads" ha show me a tractor with one of those.

now at work we have to patch a tire properly from the inside,even run flats can be patched as long as the inner layers have not become sepperated or there is side wall damage

now i think run flats save nothing on weight over a spare tire have you ever picked one up? they weigh at least 2 times what a regular tire weighs.

and these new "eco"tires are a scam,they will save you 0.0000001 cent a mile over the course of its life if correctly inflated,alignment,drive conditions etc,etc,

and dont even get me going on nitrogen tire inflation,scam,scam,scam.

 

Well what do you expect... they already make cars disposable.... the've got the whole engine compartment so crammed full of***** you couldn't work on anything other than the engine cover.

 

What has tire repairs have to do with auto sales?
The car dealers have most repairs locked up now. You can't work on a new car yourself these days.
I don't believe this story...

 

I had a car that had the stupid metric tires. I didn't have to go to the dealer to replace them. Michelin TRX.

 

It wasn't just Ford that used 390s, Michelin brought out TRXs around 1979, for the time they were outstanding tires. They used a different bead seat than "normal" tires and they came in 340, 365, 390 and 415mm sizes. Ford used em but so did BMW, Ferrari, SAAB, Alfa-Romeo and a bunch of others. Jaguar used a similar setup in the 80s too.

They made a TRX M+S which was a snow tire and an all season too. Avon also made tires in the 390 sizes that were better and cheaper.

As far as non repairable tires go, lots of tires aren't supposed to be repairable... Run flats, most high performance stuff, etc.

But how this is going to affect my Deluxe Champions and Silvertowns I'm not so sure

 

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

As much as this sounds Orwellian and impossible, I can see it happening. How many things have we all seen in our lifetime that we thought would NEVER happen?

They would sell it to us and the government as being safer for the general population. You never know when and where one of those repaired tires are going to fail and kill you and your family. We all know that is BS, but the average citizen doesn't.

If you have seen the ads on tv where Ford is pushing tire sales it tells you they see this as a huge market that they want a big piece of. It just goes back to Henry Fords original philosophy........"Sell them the cars cheap and then make the money on the repair parts."

Yep, I see it happening someday.

Don

 

you have it exactly backwards......it is the profit motive that brings you (and all of us) a plethora of products from which to choose. and free competition so someone else is free to compete for the 'profit', by developing the better mouse trap, from which you, and he, benefit. without the profit motive system there is no great incentive for anybody to get off their**** and do something. self interest, which is only served by first serving someone else's interest or needs, is what makes a society function.

pull your head out of your**** and broaden your education. strange thing...for the last 100 years or so, it's the socialists, not the captialists, who lived a miserable existence. that is, until the %#@$ socialists got a grip on our system.....and that is the main reason why it is now teetering on the brink.

Ray

 

Ok, Nissan and Toyota are trying something like that with the PAX system. If you don't know what that is google it. It's not working, it never will work and the sky is not falling.

 

I fail to see what this has to do with traditional hot rods and customs - am I the only one here?

I buy my tires mainly from Diamond Back or Coker - specialty tire manufacturers - and I believe they will be around as long as there is a market for their product. As for my late model DD I really don't give a damn about whether the tires are repairable or not....

 

I have run-flats on my newer car and tire shops won't repair them. So when I pick up a nail on a $700 tire with 2500 miles on it there's no way I'm buying a new one, hello do it yourself plug kit. I've never had a problem, even if I did, hey they're run-flats.

 

Bingo! The only way they will go to "non repairable" tires is to outlaw standard tires. I guess it could happen, but I don't see it.

If there is a demand for regular tires, someone is gonna make them.
Larry T