Friend of mine pointed me to a website called treadwright.com, he says they make really good recaps, and everyone he knows in Wyoming is running them and have no problems. The cost of them are almost HALF of what a set of new tires cost. Was wondering what you guys think of running recaps, my pickup is an 04.5 35000.

Thanks

 

I have them on my truck. I have a spare set of rims and got a great deal on 8 used recaps about 3yrs ago, so I mounted the caps for winter tires. The only time I would be nervous would be towing heavy in hot weather. Mine are Bandag caps and have held up very well. As long as they are capped by a reputable tire company I think you'd be fine.

 

Bandag recaps have always been the best. I wouldn't run them on the steering axle. I wouldn't hesitate to run them on duals.

 

I run the Treadwright tires on mine. No problems. Balance pretty well too. I don't tow heavy any more though.

 

Going by heavy truck standards I believe that it is illegal to run recaps on a steer axle.

Ok, maybe not illegal, here is a good article.

http://www.moderntiredealer.com/Arti...eer-axles.aspx

For me I've seen to many of them on the road and exploding in my windshield, next to me, run over several and seen the carnage of smaller cars that were not as lucky as I am being in a truck. My business name is on the side of the truck and a tire explodes that means the guy in the Mercedes(you know the $100,000 one that you never see) will be calling me and my insurance company. My opinion, old tires are best ground up and put into playgrounds.

 

When I drove OTR we never put a cap on the steer axel only new, heck some of the recaps we used were on there 3rd or 4th recapping, the first an second recapped tires ran okay buy 3rd & 4th time of being capped they were known to either lose the cap or have a sidewall blow out.

 

Don't see as many caps thrown all over the highway like I used to.
Either the truckers aren't using as many caps or they've gotten better at making the caps stay on.

 

You can run them on steering axle no problem.go to retread.org for info on safety concerns. I have been running Treadwright tires on my trucks for a while now and I like them

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Up this way, DOT says no go on the steering axle. And I fully support that directive. It's ok to single out a drive, and put one of those on the front to get you home in a bad situation, but only new tires go on the front.

The way they look at it. You can blow a drive, and still have control, you can blow a bunch of drives, and still have control, you blow a cap off a steer axle... you have greatly diminished control, and shrapnel coming at you from the tire. Not a fun situation.

I am not saying that new tires are infallible, they blow up from time to time. I've had it happen. No fun at all.

Also, with new tires built today, I have been seeing a LOT of heavy spots and separations in steer tires. That really bugs me. Until there are enough complaints to warrant an investigation, we're hooped though.

Also, up this way, for pickup truck size tires, recaps aren't really any cheaper than new. Sad I know, but such is the nature of the beast called greed.

 

My first set of recaps was back in 78 and on a midsized car. All 4 pealed in the Nevada desert. Got home on 4 mismatch used tires found at stations along the way. My next set was around 90 and went on a Chevy LUV. They were the Bandag ones that had walnut shells in the compound. They wore quickly but had great traction on the ice. I looked at the Green Diamond ones, but I just won't trust them.

 

I might put some on the drive tires, and just put new ones on the front, $12-1500 is just really tough to stomach for new tires.

 

Just dropped $1200-1300 on new yokohamas about two weeks ago. Not my favorite thing to do every year but has to be done. Like eating, sleeping, dealing with the fact that Obama is still president.

 

To each his own I guess.

 

While everyone trusts their life to recap tires every time you get on a large aircraft (unless the aircraft is brand new and the first of the original tires hasn't worn out yet,) I have always looked at my vehicles tires as what comes between me and an accident and not all tires are created equal. I'm not saying recaps are bad there are just better tires out there. One accident more than pays for the best set of tires.