Have you checked your spare tyre?

[facthunter]

IF your spare is no good why have it at all? Under inflation and high speeds ruin tyres fast. Retreads are a waste of time. Older tyres compound goes hard and performance on a wet road deteriorates. They last/wear longer though. Nev

[spacesailor]

I used " retreads " for many years , purchased from the retreading factory . 

Very occasionally , retreaded my 'owned ' tyre . So knew what the carcase was treated like .

I never had a blow-out , from a retread , but had lots of rim separation on cheap radials .

spacesailor

[onetrack]

I've got some Michelins on my little old 5 tonne Isuzu truck (8.25R16's) that are over 30 years old! - and they're still going O.K.! The tyre companies are the ones saying tyres are only good for 5 or 6 years - guess why?

I can recall when the local Michelin agent (Bell Bros. in W.A.) used to recap Michelin truck tyres with Bandag recaps, they'd buff a letter off the "Michelin" name on the side of the tyre to show the number of times the tyre was recapped.

I remember seeing recapped Michelin truck tyres, where there were only the "I" and the "N" left visible, from the Michelin name on the side of the tyre!

[spacesailor]

Wasn't " Bandag " the horrible tread thrower .

spacesailor

[onetrack]

Not in my neck of the woods. The Bandags were very good, due to their tread band design. It was the everyday, molded recaps, that threw treads here.

[Jerry_Atrick]

When financial needs must, I have had retreads and for my driving they weren't too bad..

 

But, as a year 8 teacher drummed into us, when driving, there are only 4 bits of rubber between one and eternity, so have always gone for the best I could afford.. And even then. sometimes they weren't right for the car. Years ago, I had a MQ Patrol LWB and went to Bob Jane T-Mart to change the tyres. They recommended some Bridgestones that weren't cheap but on the Patrol, they were useless - especially on tram tracks - they's slip and slide on them even in the dry. So back to the shop the ague about it and the agreed to change them and giving e a heavy discount on the new ones (I think Dunlops of some sort).

 

 

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

The tyres I've bought over the years were pretty good. There was one new set though, Toyo, that had one faulty tyre that threw it's tread after 12 months. I never expected that to happen. I got the local newspaper to take a photo and do a write up about it. The news got around and when I went back to where I bought those tyres to get a replacement for the crook one, he said I could have a Bridgestone. He'd sent all his Toyo radials of that same type back to the wholesalers. He couldn't take chance on another one throwing a tread.

 

Other than that, all other tyres held together, some lasting longer than others, some went hard and wouldn't wear out. The retreads I've had, not many, bought them for budget reasons, they were good too, that surprised me, they did some long trips,

[pmccarthy]

I have cars and bikes that do very few Km. I change the tyres every 10-15 years just to be safe.

[Jerry_Atrick]

When I had my motorbike and commuted on it,  I could not believe how quickly the tyres were eaten up.. Rarely did they get more than 10,000 miles; usually 6 - 7 thousand miles.

 

[Litespeed]

On bikes I have never got more than 10,000 km before changing and sometimes far less.

 

I found the older big bikes with narrow tyres ie BMW'S, Moto Guzzi etc were very sensitive to tyre quality. The Metzlers were perfect, the Pirelli and Michelin's not so much lone term, they would scallop the edges. The Bridgestone was track awesome but wore badly.

 

My Michelin experience on cars has been excellent- always on Euro machines. Toyo makes very good sport/track tyres at reasonable prices.

 

Retreads? Only experience was a brothers old EH, it threw a tread and we ended off the road and the guard was stuffed. No thanks that was lesson enough.

[facthunter]

Rarely get 1/2 the mileage with a retread. Crap tyres will spoil a good car. Nev

[red750]

When I was cleaning my stuff out of my 1996 Festiva to go to the wreckers, I checked the spare tyre and was amazed that it looked like it had never been out of the boot. I only owned the car for two and a half years, and only once drove more than 30 km. My average travel was about 100 km per week, 3 return trips of 22km and the rest in short local trips. Apart from 1 5km stretch with a 70kph limit, the rest was 40, 50 or 60 kph. I have no need to use freeways, which are not free anyway. I haven't been into the CBD since before Covid, and would probably use public transport anyway.

 

 

 

 

[ClintonB]

14 hours ago, spacesailor said:

Wasn't " Bandag " the horrible tread thrower .

spacesailor

One of their factories was across from me in Nemigha when I got started.

[old man emu]

The problem with having tyres retreaded is not so much the replaced tread material, but the state of the sidewalls and rim bead. These are made from "strings" of various materials and impacts with bumps and kerbs, or simply the flexing that they are deigned to do can fracture those "strings". The minor fractures cannot be detected visually, so a tyre with damage in those areas could pass for retreading. Also the material from which the tyre is made will suffer damage from UV light and heat changes. 

 

Some one has said here that, despite their initial "highish" cost, the outlay for them is a good insurance purchase.

 

NB: I used the word" strings" because I could not think of either the correct term, not a simple way to describe how a tyre is made.

[onetrack]

Modern tyre construction designations in the image below. The "plies" are made up of "cords", which are usually made from Rayon or Nylon. 

 

New tyre manufacturing is extremely tightly controlled, and is actually a highly complex process. Retreading should be under the same conditions as manufacturing new tyres.

 

Good tyre retreaders inspect used tyre carcasses with great care, and reject any that show even the slightest signs of damage, rubber hardening, previous repairs, or overloading.

 

Anything even slightly suspect would be rejected, there are tens of thousands of used tyre carcasses to choose from for retreading purposes.

 

https://karyapolymer.com/what-are-radial-tires/#:~:text=Each ply is made up,fabric or steel and rubber.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 09:25 AM by onetrack

[spacesailor]

Those new ' low profile ' tyres have little in strength in the wall area .

The neighbours nice new Tesla has had a tyre replaced , due to wall chaffing the gutters edge .

Now he's done it again & pulled a fifty-cent size peice of rubber off the sidewall .

So another new tyre needed. ( to replace a new tyre ) . 20inch hight 35 profile. 

A 265. 65.15 tyre has the rim above the kerb hight .

spacesailor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

On 22/03/2025 at 9:41 PM, Litespeed said:

Retreads? Only experience was a brothers old EH, it threw a tread and we ended off the road and the guard was stuffed. No thanks that was lesson enough.

Mine were on a 68'Falcon ute I had in my younger days. I was short of a quid but needed tyres so looked at retreads and checked how well the edges of the treads were bonded to the case. I found some with good bonding and gave them a go, half the price of new tyres, wide and sexy looking on the chrome wheels. The bonding was so good, it was hard to tell them from new tyres, and if I remember correctly, they were still on the ute when I sold it a couple of years later. I was quite impressed, and at least they didn't throw a tread like my brand new Toyo tyre did. I must have struck it lucky with a good retreader. who ever they were. Quality bonding I reckon was the secret to good retreads.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Was that an XT Falcon? Although I come fro a "Holden" family, I had one of those and they were quite alright for their day.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

3 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Was that an XT Falcon? Although I come fro a "Holden" family, I had one of those and they were quite alright for their day.

It was an XR, I had to think for a minute, the first one of that new shape. Their front suspension was a bit weak and they came out of wheel alignment fairly easily and had to be checked often, even if only by eye or a piece of string, to save money at the mechanics. But once out, it was off to the mechanic.

[facthunter]

You have to hit a kerb or something Hard to put them out. At least they Could be set up well., " Mustang Bred" commenced in 1968. Nev