I'm considering buying a set of retreaded tires for my F150. The truck won't be seeing the highway at all and I'm looking for something cheap and can handle snow pretty well. I came across these and wanted to hear your thoughts on it. Too dangerous? Safe enough for city driving and light offroading?

https://www.tirerecappers.com/tires/...d-all-star-at/

 

I didn't even know you could buy retreads anymore. Back when I drove truck the guy I worked for bought them for rear of a tandem. Wish I had a buck for all those hours I spent waiting along side the road for the tire shop to bring a fresh one. AFAIK they are not legal on front axel of large trucks.

 

I used them for winter tires from 1976-78 on a 1971 F-100 Bumpside and newer had aproblem with them. My late Grandfather used them for winter tires on his pick-up trucks from the 1940s until he had to stop driving in 1977, they were either Hercules or Mohawk winter tread tires with saw dust melted into the tread, he never complained about them.
Being objective, I haven't used them since 1978, and haven't realy heard anything one way or another on re-tread tires. However, if I was to use them, I would use them strictly for winter tires. O, before I forget, I kept the two re-tread winter tires when I sold my 1971 Bumpside and used them on my 1979 F-100 for the long 1980 Thanksgiving weekend drive from Bremerton, WA back to Pittsburg, PA. I was changing Navy duty stations from Bangor, WA to Gulfport, Mississippi and taking vacation (leave enroute) back home near Pittsburg, PA.

 

The problem with recaps is they're no better than the used case they on. with all the cheap tires these days I wouldn't chance getting some off breed garbage casing.

They're a poor way to go in my opinion.

 

I concur. And off road use can pull a recap off a case quicker than hiway driving.

 

Check out treadwrights if you're interested in retreads. They've stepped up their processes and aren't as crappy as they used to be.

 

The Treadwright tires would probably be a better bet than the retreads. The Treadwright tires are "remolded" rather than "retreads". Meaning they are stripped down to a used carcass and put into an injection mold and new rubber is molded around a used carcass. Including the sidewall. The sidewall has a remanufactured date and says Treadwright rather than whatever brand of carcass was used.
A retread basically has new tread glued to an old tire. Once the glue comes loose or a chunk falls off they fly apart.
I bought a set of Treadwright tires and they look awesome. They use the old BFG A/T tread pattern. Mine balanced like used tires but not an unreasonable amount of weights to balance.
I cant say much for how they perform yet because it's a project truck and hasn't been driven more than a quarter mile. But for $400 for 4 235/85R16s delivered to my door I was willing to give them a try.


Sorry, not on a Ford. Lol.

 

I ran recaps in the 70s and 80s because that's all I could afford and never remember having a problem with one. They were especially popular for winter tires as EQCMCAT mentioned and a lot of people used them. Also popular for the bigger pickup tires like 33 x 12.5 16.5s. Recapping shops were more common then and I'm sure the skill sets needed to do them correctly were more plentiful as well. I bought a set of recap aggressive winter tires for my plow Jeep 6 years ago and they are still going strong but this vehicle does not see highway speeds and associated heat.

 

I've done a lot of research on remolded and retreaded tires. Bottom line is they aren't as bad as most people think. Fun fact: most tires today are remolded tires, even the name brands (Goodyear, Dunlop, Bridgestone, etc). As long as the belts are all fine, she's going back on the road with fresh meat.

 

Does it really save you money though? I got a new set of LT tires (although, 16" and not 16.5") for $600 total for all.

 

the problem is we are no longer "Green" today everything is Throw away and Youngsters don't have a Clue... I've run ReCaps for over 50 years with no issues...

it Brings this story to mind....................

Being Green
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."
The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future
generations."She was right -- our generation didn't have the 'green thing' in our day.Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.

So they really were recycled.But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.But too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart young person...

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to **** us off...especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced know it all who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

Author UnKnown but Kudos to them

I'm pretty sure Modern Manufactured Retreads avoid using a bad carcass by careful inspection.... you had 2 types back in the old daze Cold or Hot Vulcanized

. In addition, whether a retreadable carcass can be reused depends on the type of tire. The following retreading limits apply:

• Car tires: 1 time
• Light truck tires: Generally 1 time
• Truck tires: 1 to 3 times
• Aircraft tires: Up to 12 times

 

Hear hear! Somebody needs to 'splain that to Scoldilocks and the rest of the Chirren who think they got it all figgered out.

 

Back in the '70s, I used a lot of recaps. Used them on my VW, my '69 Dart Swinger 340, my '65 GTO, my '70 Chevy CST-10, likely some others. I've run them at the dragstrip. Run them on the street, and some back roads and out there on Lawyer's road for contests. I never once had an issue with a recap except they did wear faster due I guess to softer rubber, but they would hook. Several times I was given worn out never been capped tires by a friend or etc when they got new ones, was exciting to have matched sets. You could buy a recap for $20 when the same tire new was $50 or more.

At one time, when I drove a 66 passenger (big) school bus in a city of 7 major hills, my bus and one other were chosen to try Bandag Cold Caps on rear on as new tires were wearing fast. I got two school years out of mine, and I was hard on it. 366 - 4bbl BBC w/ 5 spd I did wear some brakes. When I hauled mail up & down Rt 29, my boss also used Bandag recaps exclusively on the rear (Ford F-350s with big boxes).

Friend of mine who owned a gas station and a sweet hotrodded '66 F-100 Short Bed with 351C & C-6 & custom interior & A/C & Cragars and etc ... used Bandag cold cap recapped BF Goodrich Radial T/As that wore like iron, but they weren't so sticky. I think they used same rubber as tractor trailer tire caps.

I never ran a recap on a motorcycle.

 

I remember some of the outfits that sold Recaps used to have a machine to "True" the tires but that was years ago in Florida... back in the 70's ... I haven't seen that lately but I can say all the Aircraft that I work with on occasion still run recaps .... maybe that should scare you

Then again when was the last time you heard about an aircraft Crash being blamed on a Recap ????

 

the internet was full of posts claiming Retreads were Illegal............... SMH

https://www.treadwright.com/blogs/tr...-tires-illegal

I get Idiots every day telling me it is illegal to run retreads.... tell that to the Pilots of the next Plane you board