retreads and airing down

[speedracerbubba]

Retreads are a hot debate among people and curiosity intrigued me so I emailed Treadwright about airing down their retreads (specifically the goodyear mtr tread) and how they hold up and here is their response:

"Hello Jason,

Thank you for the email. While there are many people that air the tires down and I have yet to hear of a problem, we do not recommend airing down the tires. There is a greater chance of tire damage occurring while aired down that may not surface until aired back up and driven down the road. For this reason tires that are aired down are void of any warranty.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Best regards,

Joel"

I couldn't imagine treadwright endorsing an act that could/would reveal any flaw in adhesion of old tire to new tread but I figured it was worth an email to find out. I know people have run retreads on trail rigs, daily drivers, and everything in between with no problem, but to be honest, it is a little scary when I see so many treads on hwy5 from semis and even cars (or car trailers) and to know the carcass isn't designed for retreading or recapping will keep me away from them until they have fully proven themselves to me that they are as safe as new tires.

 

[tommudd]

Retreads are a hot debate among people and curiosity intrigued me so I emailed Treadwright about airing down their retreads (specifically the goodyear mtr tread) and how they hold up and here is their response:

"Hello Jason,

Thank you for the email. While there are many people that air the tires down and I have yet to hear of a problem, we do not recommend airing down the tires. There is a greater chance of tire damage occurring while aired down that may not surface until aired back up and driven down the road. For this reason tires that are aired down are void of any warranty.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Best regards,

Joel"

I couldn't imagine treadwright endorsing an act that could/would reveal any flaw in adhesion of old tire to new tread but I figured it was worth an email to find out. I know people have run retreads on trail rigs, daily drivers, and everything in between with no problem, but to be honest, it is a little scary when I see so many treads on hwy5 from semis and even cars (or car trailers) and to know the carcass isn't designed for retreading or recapping will keep me away from them until they have fully proven themselves to me that they are as safe as new tires.

They are saying that to protect their own behinds is all! Read on a lot of forums and people ar airing down Treadwrights everyday with no problems. I bet most new tire mfgs. would say the same thing !
What you see on the roads is when a tire gets low on a big truck, from a nail hole or something, driver doesnt notice, tire over heats and then the cap peels off. Yes it happens a lot.

 

[speedracerbubba]

I work for a food distributor and on our trucks that use 22.5" rims we have either retreads or regrooves, can't remember which, and they hold up great with the gvwr being 26,000#. We also check tire pressure, oil, lights, etc.. regularly so I am sure that helps. I have seen semi tires start to come apart with no signs of damage and proper inflation maintained, but that could be due to the long straight roads between the east coast and the west coast with a full load (scary and impressive to hear quite a few truckers cruise at triple digit speed on some of those roads)

Once I get more miles on my tires I will do some serious research into them and see if they are what I am comfortable with, but it is good to know people are airing them down and not having any problems. I have just read a lot of bashing on them on different forums and never did the proper research for myself.
You're a plethora of information, sir, and nice to boot.

 

[tommudd]

I worked in a retread shop back in the 70s and retreads have always had a bad rap. Yes there are or were places that retreaded tires that should never of been but they are long gone. The place I worked at is still doing it and has been in business for over 45 years so they must not be too bad. Check over on LOST there are several running retreads now. Also on Expedition Forum there seem to be quite a bunch. I have a set of the Treadwright BFG AT type tread out in the garage right now that I ran for a while.
Triple digits out west in a Semi, never heard of such a thing,
Back when I drove my long nose Pete would top out at 113 MPH ( verified by a very nice Texas Trooper) with a full load of produce coming back east out of Bakersfield Ca.

 

[twack]

does anyone have a picture of treadwrights on stock rims. what would be good from them with a very full 2.5 lift but keeping the stock rims with some meaty tread

 

[Spidey]

I've got about 15,000 miles on my Treadwrights (245/75 on stock rims, Daystar lift), here's 2 pics:

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Pic when new:

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[ridenby]

Have Treadwright 245/75/16 on stock steel rims,air them down to 15-20 psi,run about 50 psi on road.When going somewhere 80mph is common. look at past posts,been running these since June,no problem,knock on wood.

 

[TAHOE]

I read a bunch on the retreads and all the discussions on lost/JeepJK, I'm 95%sure the new MT/R treads will go on my Tahoe when needed. From seeing the ones on Larry's jeep this past weekend ( pic below), they look like new produced tires, the quality is excellent.
I agree with Tom, there are so many people against retreads cause of what they see on the highway.
"Do you see all those pieces of rubber on the highway? No way I would put retreads on my vehicle"....
my thought.. "yeah, I do see the rubber, but how many of those are AT or Mud tire treads? ... NONE!!!!" All the rubber othe highway is form the big rigs.
Anyway, enough on my opinion.
Can't comment on airing down, but again agree with Tom, probably the same as any other tire.

Larry has 265/75's

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[twack]

those 265s on that red libby are sexy

 

[Spidey]

Definitely, I had planned on getting that size for my next set but actually picked up some 15x8 Cragars at a price I couldn't pass up, now I'm limited to 31x10.50s from Treadwright or 32x11.50s from a few other manufacturers. 32s dont seem to be very common for a 15" wheel.

 

[speedracerbubba]

Thanks for the responses guys. They are definitely something I am going to look into and make an educated opinion on whether to get em for my next set.

 

[TAHOE]

Not sure what lift Larry has on the red KJ, but he had to rip the inner wheel wells out in the parking lot before we went on the Devil's Staircase road rally, the were rubbing something aweful .

 

[Spidey]

I can imagine how bad it is with that size, even my 245/75s rub the hell out of the front fender plastics with my 2.5" lift(22" from center of wheel to fender, need more!)

 

[tommudd]

Larry got carried away with his and got 265-75-16s with a worn out daystar lift ols stock springs etc. Plus the 265-75s Treadwrights are 32.8 inches tall

 

[OneOneNiner]

Plus the 265-75s Treadwrights are 32.8 inches tall

Dang.....That's big!Wow1.gif


BTW,I know 2 guys w/h treadwrights that air down.No problemo.

 

[Spidey]

Did you guys measure them yourselves? The site says 32.2, but if they're 32.8, wow!

 

[jsc7002]

I had the 245/75 OTR and they are great tires! I had them aired down to ~18PSI and they were fine

 

[tommudd]

Did you guys measure them yourselves? The site says 32.2, but if they're 32.8, wow!

whoops miss hit of the keys trying to type too fast and eat dinner at the same time!