By Colin Wood
Nov 30, 2020
In an effort to reduce overhead—as well as reuse tires instead of throwing them in the dump—some heavy truck tires are specifically designed to be retreated for future use. Here's how the magic happens.
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11/30/20 4:29 p.m.
Mostly I wonder why it isn't a crime to allow trucks to run tires to the point where they randomly explode and throw rubber shrapnel all over our interstate highway system. The next time you drive a stretch of interstate, take note of just how much truck tire debris is laying in the shoulder. The current policy of running a tire until it explodes and then replacing it really ought to be re-examined.
11/30/20 4:39 p.m.
If you notice, most of them still have good tread. I was always told that they blow primarily because of heat and load, not due to being worn out
11/30/20 4:40 p.m.
But who is going to spend the money to have it changed? That is, potentially, a lot of dough to shell out in opposition to the trucking companies. Would probably get politicized as an added roadblock to anything happening. To be clear, I'm in favor of preventative tire replacement, particularly after seeing what those things can do to someone in the crummy position of "near" them when they blow. (Mythbusters)
11/30/20 6:21 p.m.
if you drive much in Europe you will not see all this rubber on the road ,
can you imagine going down the autobahn at 120mph and big chunks of truck tires are in your lane !
Do they retread tires in Europe ?
11/30/20 7:02 p.m.
A year ago I hit one of those highway gators. I was between semis and didn't have an out. The world is poorer one AMG air dam. :(
11/30/20 7:03 p.m.
A local tire company has had the NC contract for re-treading truck & school bus tires for around 30 years. There's been some controversy over the past few years, not sure they still have the contract.
The owner of said company seems to have a lot more $ than I have.
11/30/20 7:07 p.m.
Also, we had a Bandag in Athens. TIL that it's part of a network now owned by Bridgestone.
11/30/20 7:39 p.m.
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
Typical failure causes are heat from running low pressure, overloading (possibly due to its partner being soft of failing), physical damage to the carcass, or puncture leading to the first two.
Running them to the point of failure due to wear isn't likely and can definitely lead to headaches if subjected to a DOT inspection. Once you include that it is significantly cheaper (and a lot less aggravating) to have them changed out at a shop than having to pay to have it done on the side of the road, its doubtful they are purposely run until failure.
11/30/20 11:43 p.m.
Actually it IS a crime! Many other factors cause “gators” in the road. Being run to failure, intentionally, is almost never one of them. As was pointed out, it’s way less expensive not to. The wildcat truckers of the 70’s are no more. Except for log trucks. Don’t think many of them know how to spell safety
12/1/20 12:46 a.m.
Tires basically generate heat by flexing, which means that most heat-related failures started as either underinflation (could be gradual or sudden loss of pressure) or overloading. Pretty much any case of a tire separating into more than one part is heat related. Since pretty much all heavy trucking uses tandem axles, overloading of one tire is something that can occur BECAUSE of underinflation in another. I.e. one tire loses pressure and stops carrying its share (and gets hot and eventually flies apart) and the adjacent tires go from loaded appropriately to overloaded. This can cause cascading tire failures, and it may not be immediate. So the ruined tire gets replaced, but the adjacent ones probably don't and they may fail at some future date for seemingly mysterious reasons. Some tires and their symptoms of failure are separated from the driver by 65 feet and 10s of thousands of lbs of damping weight, so the solution here is basically TPMS. It's been required by law on all passenger cars for 12 years now. The lobbyist-per-driver ratio of the general public is very poor compared to the trucking industry, but there are also a lot more regular drivers ignoring their mandated yellow warning light than there are 'underinflated semi tires with no warning system' on the roads at any given time, so basically everyone sucks.
I thought the retreading process video was pretty interesting. The 'find holes with sparks!' thing was cool and I had no idea it existed, but it makes sense and as a mechanic i do the same thing with plug wires somewhat regularly so it feels relatable. I also didn't know that the 'cushion' belt layer existed. One thing i thought was sort of ironic was that the tire casing was 'trued up' by shaving/grinding before applying the new tread belt, but nothing is done about the horrible (if i can see it on video) runout of the new tread layer after it's applied. I mean, I get that it doesn't matter much in this application, but it's ironic and makes me think getting the consistent geometry on the shaved tire carcass might be more important for the assembly of the new layers than it is reflecting any concern for how lumpy the finished tire is going to roll. I'm still highly curious about 'fixing' tire runout with tread shaving. I hear there is a truck shop near me that can do it. I am really curious to talk to them about whether they can/would do it on 'consumer' vehicle tire/wheel assemblies as there are a ton of tires that I would gladly make the tread depth uneven on by grinding it down to 'lowest common denominator' tread depth if it made the tire 'drive better' until the lowest spot goes bald.
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