I have a question about recapping old tires. With the price of wide whites these days I thought it might be worth it to have the ones I have recapped but I have no idea if thats still a viable process or who does it or how much it might cost. Anybody got any info? I did a search and couldn't find anything.....
I don't know. But, there was a wreck here about a week ago where a rear tire blew on a 15 p***enger van. When the tire blew(60 mph) it it caused the van to flip killing five from one family and sending seven or eight others to the hospital. A wrecker driver told us when they towed the van in it had recaps on it. So if the recap was the reason who knows but I don't think I would want to chance it.
If you're thinking of recaps, just think how many fragments of truck tire you see littering the sides of the freeways. They're recaps!
Ron beat me to it. I blew the tread off of my right rear at about 125 mph during my camaro days. I didn't wreck but the tire did a real number on the body work. :-( And before anybody gets after me for running so fast on a retread, let me just say I was young and stupid.
might be a dig difference in big rigs but we dont use recaps because you never know what the casing has been through. in hot weather they start blowing left and right. i would imagine it wouldnt be much different in a car. maybe if you've had the tires since new and you took care of them not running over everything in sight and get them capped at a decent place they might work out.
I'd be mighty surprised if you can locate a p***enger car tire rebuilder in the US. I looked pretty hard a year ago to find someone to redo some Goodyear Speedway casings I had for a 67 Shelby (the resto boys are giving $2000 a tire for anything that will hold air). You can find retreaders who do truck and racing tires, but liability pretty much put the guys who did them for cars out of business 10-15 years ago.
Retreaded tires are performing flawlessly all over the world in all types of weather and on all kinds of terrain for all types of vehicles - from school and municipal buses to emergency vehicles to trucks to commercial and military aircraft.And also by the way in the "Pie Crust Tire" industry. The true culprit is improper tire maintenance, particularly the failure to maintain recommended air pressure in tires.Tires that are not properly maintained will fail and it doesn't matter if the tires are new or retreads.
My parents run a tire shop and do retreading. They do not do p***enger vehicle tires at all. On semi trucks and others a retread tire shouldn't be put on the front. On the duals a retread will work fine but in the event of a blowout the vehicle can stay in control.
Running recaps on any steer axle is not very smart. Even on big trucks caps on the rear are a gamble. Most caps you see on the side of the road still have good tread, its the casings that fail
<TABLE width="95%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>Q.</TD><TD>[FONT=Helvetica,Arial]Are there any driving conditions where retreaded tires should not be driven?[/FONT]</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD>A. </TD><TD>No. Retreaded tires can be driven wherever comparable new tires can be driven. The only restriction is on the steer axle of busses hauling p***engers. </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=3><LI cl***=MsoNormal style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in">Aircraft tire Retreads are not only cost effective, but they are also dependable, reliable, and safe. Aircraft tire retreads are used on commercial and military jets and by virtually all flight school operators. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
how often are plane tires on the road at high rpm's though? i wouldnt see a huge problem on a car if it wasnt driven daily. on rigs recaps fail in the summer heat with 80k on them.
In the State of Maine, recaps can be run on the front of trucks, but can not be run on the front of buses, Read into that what you will. tc
Don't know how reliable they are, but Speedway Motors sells recapped radials in cheater slick/piecrust varieties. If they were sketchy I don't think Speedy Bill would sell them - that would be a big liability!
Ron Hurst and Speedy Bill have been doing buisness a very long time,and we have a Great relationship with the boy's at Speedway, they are very happy with our product's and they are a great team of people to work with. Cody Hurst
Recaps for a p***enger car arent worth getting yourself in a wreck killing yourself or maybe someone else over a few dollars.Plus you will never get them to balance.When they get real hot look out.They will tear sheetmetal off anything they come in contact with when they start coming apart. I would not use them.
seems like if you can recap a slick that gets heated up on purpose that the heat shouldn't hurt them but i'm no tire expert just a thought.....thanks for all the info....
Ok... Heres the deal... Recapping tires... Taking old casings, and putting new tread on... Capping is normally done with a strip of tread and glueing and stapling the tread to the casing, then cutting the strip of tread to finish the tire... Then into the vulcanizer to finish tire... Most famous RECAPPED tires are Bandag Recaps... ReTreaded tires... Same as capping, but diffrent... The actual tread is molded to the casing, no strips, one continuous ROUND tread... NO SEAMS... Most famous RETREADED tires are Bridgestone OnCor Retreads... ReGrooved tires... Taking an old tire that is low on tread and cutting into the tread making more usable rubber... normal thickness of new groves in the existing tread are normally 2-4/32nd of an inch... Now... the FEDERAL GOVERMENT aka DOT regulates tires on all commercial trucks... Now... Running re-caps or re-treads on a steer axle of a truck is perfectly legal, I really dont like it when they say that its against the law, when you have just been mis-informed... Now, the following condition should be met before running re-caps or re-treads on a steer axle... The truck must not exceed 60 mph and that the re-tread or re-cap was designed to be used in a steer tire position... Re-cap or re-treaded tires may not be used in a bus carrying p***angers on the steer axle... RE-grooved tires may never be used on a steer axle... Hope this clarification helps...
also, someone mentioned that those tires on the road are re-caps... Yes, some of them are, but there are equal amount of re-caps and virgin tires that blow out... If you dont maintain the air pressure, any tire will blow out...
The Jalopy Journal
