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Based on what? Or is this based on the all the Internet hearsay about retreads that have been circulating for years?
The funny thing is that there is at least one comment like this in every single thread I've ever seen about retreads -- and not once was there ever any evidence to back it up. Many times those stories are based on something someone heard about them "20 years ago" -- but you never hear any of them claiming that it happened to a retread made in the last 10-15 years.
Retreading technology today is very advanced compared to what it was 20 years ago and I've still yet to see any evidence supporting the alleged safety issues with today's retreads. Someone show me evidence to where the chance of tire failure is increased with retreads and I'll jump on the retread hater's bandwagon. Note I'm not talking about evidence of any tire failure, but I'm talking about evidence of tire failure due to the retreading process or the age of the retreaded tire carcass.
From a "tech" standpoint, this is all I'm able to add:
I've known quite a few people who got their tires through treadwright -- and every single one of them is a happy customer. I've looked into getting tires from them, but since their inventory changes so frequently, I've never been lucky enough to be in the market for tires when they carry the size I need.
Last edited by SirFuego; 12-21-2010 at 03:20 PM.
Have you ever had a retread bounce off the front of your vehicle? I have. I have also been along side one when it let go. DOT prohibits the use of retreads on the steer axles of busses. There's a reason for that. It may be perfectly legal and "OK" to run retreads on one of our tow rigs, but for the reasons above, I'm leary. I'm not willing to risk it all over $400.
BTW, I just bought 4 new tires for my tow rig. BFG AT KO's. Load range E. $711 on my door from tire rack. So far, I like them.
Also, here is a very useful chart for setting your tire pressures when not hauling.
http://www.goodyear.com/rv/pdf/rv_inflation.pdf
Last edited by SB406; 12-21-2010 at 03:41 PM.
Thank you, Mike! The funny part is that while I was typing that post I was thinking that if anyone had a retread story like that, it would be either you or your Dad
The Internet smells pretty bad because of all the crap floating around it, so I just sometimes get sick of the smell and want someone to bring in the roses.
Not saying they're a bad deal or even a bad tire. Just saying that's why I don't run them.
Here is a question, why do you see all the tractor trailer retreads on the side of the road? Is that a different process, cheaper maybe?
Excessive Heat makes them come apart, especially when they're getting old. Heavy loads for miles & miles without stopping = excessive heat.
You are correct sir. These are siome reasons why big truck (like 11/24.5)recaps fail. A lot of them are caused by under inflation. With the excess weight and long road miles builds excessive heat in the tires that allows the cap to pull apart. This used to be fairly common. The process has come along way and the newer style retreads are much better. A lot of big truck recap places use the same old tech that has been used for the last 30 years. That's why you still see gators on the highway. My dad owned his own trucking business for 60 years and hated them with a passion. He would only run virgin tires on his rigs. He even admitted that the newer style recaps are way better than the old style.
With all that being said. I still think that they maybe a good economical solution. My rig is a F350 4x4 crew cab, and I pull a goose neck with 2 rigs on it to most of the places I wheel. I am seriously considering these, but like I said in a previous post, I will keep 2 tires in the back for spares until they prove themselves.
i ran nothing but retreads on my first few cars(poorness will do that). never once had a failure due to it being a retread.
i'll chime in on the bfg at's as well. absolute WORST tire i have ever attempted to drive with in the snow. i ran goodyear eagle h2's on my summer car last winter while my jeep was down. they had significantly better traction than the bfg's. jared, i actually drove it across i86 in the worst blizzard they got last winter without trouble. the bfg's get light in less than 2" of powder.
That's funny because I've been running mine for about a week and have had nothing but traction in the snow. Were yours the BFG AT KO's or the old AT's? I was told that the old AT's sucked, but the redesigned KO's were much better.
Also, we're talking apples & oranges. A car is gong to behave much differently than a short wheelbase Jeep which will behave differently than a long wheelbase truck in the snow.
If I had a dually tow rig, I might consider the recaps for the rear. Even if one were to come apart with a load on, there's another tire right next to it to help maintain control.
running the ko's. 11.5 wide for the dd duty.
it even gets a bit funny in 4hi. i don't even have to try to spin on wet roads and just a little throttle blip will break them free on dry roads even. bfg's just plain suck.
cars may be different, but when a low tread depth summer performance tire out does an all terrain on any vehicle. something aint right.
I'm sorry but rat you must have some crazy pair of BFG's, are they old and dryrotted? That sounds nothing like any experience me/my dad have had with them.
My dads on his....12th? consecutive set of BFG AT's because he's never found anything better. He puts about 40k miles a year on them. Drives 100+ miles to a property he's working on (forestry), and wheels it like 5 hours a day, then drives the 100+ miles back on workdays. Including the winter months at 7000ft elevation, PLENTY of snow.
Hell I put 4 hours of road time in his jeep yesterday driving from Sacramento to Reno and back, and it was raining/snowing on me the entire time. I couldn't have been more comfortable driving it. Granted he has quadra drive, but at one stoplight I completely stomped on it (4.7 HO) in the pouring rain, and hardly got a chirp
AP, my BFG experience is very similar to you and your dads. I posted my experiences in the thread I linked to early on in this one, but I'll share them here as well.
When my sister had her ZJ, AT/KO's. She went to college in the mountains of CO, nothing but good things to say about the tire. Are they excellent at any one aspect? Probably not, but they are good in a wide variety of scenarios.
I suggested my sister get those after I had good experiences with the original MT design on my ZJ. After my sister's experience, my dad put them on his XJ, and then later his ZJ. As soon as the tires that came on my F250 wore out, AT/KO's. They've served me well towing and commuting. My current commute has about a 5 mile section of dirt road, and it's CO so we get rain, snow, etc, never had an issue with traction in my truck. It can put some power to the ground too. Can I light them up in 2WD? Bet your ass I can, but I have over $7,000 invested in making that truck powerful. 4HI in the snow, no worries. We also ran them on Pam's ZJ for a while too after ditching some MT/R's. The Jeep performed much better on and off road with the BFG's.
Based on those experiences, as well as having MT's, KM's, and KM2's on my ZJ, as well as some of the things that BFG does for land use issues, I'll need a really good reason to not continue putting BFG's on everything I can.
I too will echo my good experience with the BFG AT. I have em on my SD and love em. I think Dave said it right...not great at any one thing but a jack of all trades. Like em in the snow too...not that there has been any down here anyway.
What pressure do you run them at? Bumping pressure up when you'll be towing weight/ down when running empty has made a big difference in tire wear & performance in my experience. on My 2500 Chev, I'm running 60psi rear, 50psi front for the winter. In the summer, I'll run the rears at 80 psi. I had them all at 45 psi when first mounted, but didn't like the extra little tread squirm.
The only bad experience I had with BFG was the BFG Commercial tires. I ran a set of them as steers on a 3500 Dodge van. They didn't grip for shit. You had to air them way down to keep from sliding through intersections on wet pavement. Of course, the chopped out funny due to the low pressure.
On a side note, The BFG's I put on a couple of weeks ago were stamped 4410 (44th week of 2010). Fresh outta the mold .
Mike, what's the load range on your tires? I know I was never able to run that high of a pressure in my old set of BFG AT's, but yours perhaps have a higher load range since they are being run on a bigger truck? I think the max PSI on my Cooper H/Ts is something like 45 psi. I'll run them around 35 psi around town and usually bump them up to 40 when I'm towing. They are rated for a weight of around 3k/tire, so I'm definitely not pushing the limits of the tire.
Tyler, I'm still sticking by my hypothesis that most folks who hate the BFG AT's are running wider tires. It seems that 10.5" is about as wide as folks are happy about snow performance. I've never heard a complaint from folks running 10" or narrower BFG AT's, either. But again, there are too many variables in play for the tire to work well in every situation. Maybe the BFG AT's don't like the type of lake effect snow that hits outside of New York
Last edited by SirFuego; 12-28-2010 at 12:24 PM.
Load Range E.
Max psi cold: 80 psi
I jumped on the BFG AT for the tow rig recently.
I have been nothing but happy with my 22.5's and semi traction tires on my dually. 20K+ miles and the nipples are still there. Balanced the fronts with sand and made a big difference. By far the best mod I have done to my tow rig. No more buying tires for me, I am set for years...
Maybe it was the amount of towing I was doing, but I couldnt get a good set of heavy truck tires in the 17" rim variety to last more than 25K...
Tommy
I'll try to remember to look later. Here is something I found in the mean time:
http://www.crstire.com/productdetail...ductId=3167480
Part#: 19932
CONSTRUCTION: Radial
RIM SIZE: 20
TIRE SIZE: 275/60R20
SPEED RATING: T
MAX LOAD (SINGLE): 2726
OVERALL DIAMETER: 32.95
TREAD DEPTH: 12/32 in.
LOAD INDEX: 119
UTQG: 460 A B
SIDEWALL: BSW
REVs PER MILE: 632
RIM WIDTH (MIN): 7.5 in.
RIM WIDTH (MAX): 9.5 in.
RIM WIDTH (STANDARD): 8 in.
SECTION WIDTH: 11
TREAD WIDTH: 9.3
MAX PRESSURE (SINGLE): 50 psi
So I guess I was off by about 5 psi. Maybe I'll boost up the psi a bit more. Interestingly, though, Cooper lists the max load as 2998 on their website for that size. They are a load range "XL" -- which I'm guessing is a Cooper-specific thing.
I'll try to remember to check the tires actually say, though, next time I get in the truck.
Or a ply rating, if they don't have a letter.
Also, this:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=55
Last edited by SB406; 01-04-2011 at 11:51 AM.
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