I have a quick question about tires. My wife has a friend that can make some claims that are from way out in left field sometimes, but this one last night floored me. Her dad has a Powerstroke, not too sure what year it is but I am assuming it is a 2004 because it still has the original tires on it, but it does not have the big bar grille. The other day he was driving down the road (not sure if it was highway or surface street) and the tread of one of the tires decided to separate itself from the rest of the tire. He got it stopped and got it to Ford to talk to them about it. Turns out it caused $3,000.00 worth of damage.

Now here is the part that cracks me up. She is absolutely convinced that Ford buys used tires and "retreads" them and puts them on the new trucks; thats why her dad's came apart. Also she said that Fords were built like crap if that tire coming apart would cause $3,000.00 worth of damage. I thought about it, and Ford is pumping hundreds of thousands of tires per year (based on an article I read that says the Kentucky Truck Plant puts out 75 trucks an hour, and 5 tires per truck, including spare), and I can't imagine the type of forces we are talking about if a tire comes apart at highway speed, and what damage that could cause. Plus, out of that many tires per year, you are bound to have a couple bad ones.

Anyways, all that said, I was just curious if anybody has had any problems with treads coming off on tires, and if this "retread" claim has any truth to it. (I seriously doubt it does, but I just thought I'd ask for my own amusement). Oh, and I'm not sure what type of tire he had on it.

Thanks!

 

Ford might use cheap conti's and goodyears but I am almost positive that they do not retread tires....if they did you could tell. Its pretty easy to tell if a tire was retreaded and in most cases I think only the tires you find on Semi's(comercial high ply count tires) can be retreaded. I wouldnt beleave the whole ford reuseing tires and retreading them, if they did something like that there would have to be a Disclaimer saying so. Thats a big safey risk that would cost Ford even more than just useing new tires. Honestly all my Fords(2) have had non factorytires on them so I dont have any experiance with the factory installed OEM tires.

 

Its simply rediculas. Sounds like the tire had a defect or was just run to long and should have been changed out earlier. As to the amount of damage, that sounds reasonable. Have you ever heard of guys doing burnout contests and running thier tires until they blow. When they do they F*** the rear fenders pretty bad. its just not smart.

 

I figured her claim was not true or justified, I just thought I would check with the experts. As far as the tire causing that much damage, I dont doubt it. Thats a big chunk of heavy rubber that came loose and has some power behind it. I can't wait til she comes over the next time and I get to hear the story first hand! Thanks guys!

 

If he never filled up his tires with the correct air pressure then it might lead to the tread coming off.

 

oh, you cant put retreads on the front of a truck anyway.

 

Tread can separate, even on new tires. 99% of the time it is caused by running the tires without the proper air pressure. Air your tires down to 12 PSI or so and run it down the freeway at 70 MPH. You're going to damage something.

It's so easy to blame your own lack of diligence on bad tires or even the company that made the truck. That is one of the major problems facing society today, people refusing to take responsibility for his/her actions (or lack of action).

This is one of the reasons the safety ***** are pushing for tire pressure monitors. They assume people are too stupid to check the tire pressure............maybe in some cases they are right.

 

When I was younger (LOL!!!) I worked in my father in law's tire recapping shop. Trust me, if Ford was using recaps, EVERYBODY in the world would know it. There are too many times the buffing process isn't perfect and you'd see the result.

If he's still running factory originals three years later, I'd say (1) he's getting good service to begin with (2) the air pressures are really important on older tires simply because we tend to take them for granted (3) time to take a hard look at the other three tires.

 

Well, I have first hand experience with a tread separation. I had General Ameritracs (made by Continental), and they were kinda old, but still within age, tread, and warranty limits. I had them at the proper pressure because I was towing my 26' travel trailer and my motorcycle in the bed, so I was extra diligent about the tire pressure. The tread separated on the right rear going about 60 mph. I'm here to tell you, that is not a fun experience, especially towing that TT and the motorcycle. The left rear was coming close to separating by the time I got it to a tire shop. Got 4 new Michelins now. Anyway, did about $2800.00 worth of damage to my truck. I filed a claim with Continental Tires, and they paid to have the tire shipped back for inspection. They found no defect, but paid me $250.00 to just go away. That paid for my deductible, so I guess I"m alright. Anyway, no retreads, just not good tires IMHO.

 

I made the mistake of going with Goodyear Workhorse one year and paid for it with 3 tires seperating within 300 miles. Now I did purchase them to get rid of the Generals and ended up getting another set of Generals just to get home. After taking the tires back to the dealership I was told that I "must" have overinflated them and they would not make good on anything........stuck again.

I believe that its against the law for the Vehicle dealers to put a re-tread on a new vehicle........going to have to check on that one thought...

 

Cold capping results in most of the tread seperation you see. Actual retreads and new tires have the tread vulcanized to the carcass. It is possible for the tread to seperate, as you just saw, but it is not as likely as with cold capping where an adhesive holds the tread to the carcass.

With the number of tires Ford buys, I find it extremely difficult to believe they would use retreads. That's a lot of matching carcasses to come up with. I mean, if every Explorer gets Brand X white letters in size Y, they have to find that many tires in that brand in that size with carcasses suitable for retreading. That's a lot of scrounging.

 

I sure have had a similiar problem. And here is what happened. Ford, and all manufacturers, put wimpy sidewall tires on trucks to make for a nice cushy ride. This is all and well untill you use your truck in the rocks or run over a few curbs which will bruise the caseing causing catistrophic failure at some future date. Goodyear explained to me that this can happen soon after the rock crawling or years later but once the damage is done to these light side wall tires they will at some point come apart at the seams. Keep in mind that even if you have the heavy walled tires they can suffer the same damage if you have a full load and do a little curb, rock banging. The first one that went off on me happened just after getting off the freeway where i was going 75. I was going about 40 when she came apart with no major damage. If I would have been going 75 there would have been considerable truck damage I'm sure. The good thing is I did get an adjustment from Goodyear for the first tire even though the dealer didn't think it was due to a faulty tire but to my use of the tire. It came apart like it was a recap! After that one I had another go a few months later. At that point I replaced them with the next load range higher up.