Tire retreads, danger or valuable resource?
All of us probably drive down the expressway and see the fragments of blown tires littering the road. This highlights two points. One, all of tires need to be replaced is obvious, and are those retreaded tires that blew? If retreaded tires are blowing more often than non retreaded tires, should we keep using them? If we do, we will save huge amounts of oil by retreading as opposed to replacing worn tires. There is much written already about the safety of retreaded tires, and the NHTSA has guidelines which must be followed. It seems that if the guidelines are followed, the retreads are safe. If they are safe, we should be using them, for sure.
[Source: Treehugger and NHTSA]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TX CHL Instructor 6:03PM (6/11/2007)
I recall from about 30 years ago some retarded Texas state representative got his nose all out of joint about seeing a bunch of separated tread on the highway on the way to the capitol one day, and when he got to his office, he immediately drafted a bill to outlaw the sale of re-tread truck tires in Texas.
He quietly withdrew the bill when it was pointed out to him that about 90% of the separated treads came from new tires, not re-treads -- despite the fact that re-treads made up more than 10% of the tires in use.
Separated treads are generally caused by road hazards, improperly inflated tires, or mis-aligned wheels.
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Minny 9:31PM (6/11/2007)
Yeah dude tires are made from rubber (Rubber come from a plant), plastic though are made from oil (From underground caves and stuff)...umm so yeah we're not really gonna save on oil whether we use rethread tires or not
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fadetoblack51 11:10PM (6/11/2007)
^^^^ Natural rubber is almost never used in and industrial use. It is all synthetic. In fact, it was part of the reason goodyear is so famous.
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MikeW 1:03AM (6/12/2007)
Can they retread those superwide tires that replace duallies?
retreads get better mileage.
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Chris M 3:39AM (6/12/2007)
The most common cause of tire tread separation is overheating, which is usually caused by excessive flexing in underinflated tires and/or overloaded vehicles.
There is little difference in reliability between new an retread tires, but there is a big difference in reliability between underinflated and fully inflated tires!
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BC 8:26AM (6/12/2007)
If you live in an area with winter weather, google Green Diamond tires. Remanufactured winter tires born in Iceland, but now the have a US manufacturing facility (I think).
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