Are retread tires safe to use or should i keep well clear of them??

lilboomer25

I had a set of retreads on a car once, it came that way when I bought it from my aunt, she wanted me to have good tires. aound town they were fine, the first road trip when they could heat up, I lost 1 after abut 75 miles, put on the spare and lost the second one after another hundred. after buying two tires and was headed for home I lost a third one an hour from home. put on the spare and bought 2 tires when I got home. I would NEVER-EVER buy a set of retreads. They take the casing from woreout tires and glue new tread to it, they rely have no idea what condition the steel belts are in or the abuse the tires may have seen.

gonzo18u

Re-treads from Major Tyre Retailers are `safe`.
others (or un-knowns) have a tendency to detonate at the most in-convenient times.
Major Brands have a high Limit of Quality to them and they can`t afford to be doing "shonky" manufacturing.

dependent on your Budget and the use-age of the car , i would recommend fitting retreads to the Rear tyres , ONLY , as a blow-out on the fronts will cause an incident.
for around town driving = re-treads.
for lots of Highway driving = go a full set of brand-new.
(simply for the safety factor)(and the Warranty that you get on a set of 4).

please drive to with-in your own limits.capabilities and always consider......Safety (yours and others) "first"

p.s. ......run the re-treads at about 2-5 psi over the recommended pressure , this keeps them `cooler` at road speeds and stops them from de-laminating too soon.
don`t forget that a re-tread is a tyre that has already been used and abused , before you got them.

oklatom

If you drive a truck, 18 wheeler, retreads are a way to save money and are generally safe. You can't use them on the steer tires though. Passenger cars should not use them.

FORD-MAN

More problems than they're worth , why do you think they are not legal as steer tires on big rigs.

wvparanormal

Studies show that Retread tires are as safe as virgin tires. It kind of makes you wonder why they are illegal on the steering axle then doesn't it.

In the US, I don't think it's even possible to get a retread for a passenger vehicle anymore. It's cost prohibitive considering the price of new tires.

On drive axles and trailer axles of big trucks, they are safe as long as they are properly maintained. All of those peeled caps you see on the highway are there because the truck driver was too lazy to check the air pressure with a pressure guage.

talon699

I didn`t know they still made retreads except for large trucks, and only on the rears , not on the front axle. Yes they are safe for the most part

bungee

best to stay clear. they have been worn out once. you can buy a new set for not much more than retreads.

St N

Most of those chunks of tire you see along the highway come from retread tires on big rigs. Retreads are illegal on the steer axle but allowed on the rear axle and trailers. For a passenger vehicle, I'd stick with new tires. Do you want to be driving when a retread throws the tread or even blows up?

Grimace

Depends on what you use the vehicle for. If your just running around town, retreads are fine.But, if you are doing a lot of highway driving,go with new rubber. Most retreads are speed rated to 115kph. Some as low as 90kph. So if you are doing long high speed trips the retread can heat up causing tread separation. This is why you see those big chunks of rubber on the freeway, not around town. In most cases it's not the tyre's fault. It's operator error. Todays retreads are safe if used as recommended by the manufacturer. Hope this helps.

UCANTCME

If you have just a regular vehicle then buy a set of new tires, re-threads are mainly used for big trucks to keep the cost down......

RetreadInfo

Let me comment on some of the information here that is incorrect: With respect to rubber on the road and retreaded tires, there have been a number of studies done collecting and analyzing the rubber we all see on the road. Most recently, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a study in 2008 (Commercial Medium Tire Debris Study - Report No: DOT HS 811 60) in which they collected almost 1,500 pieces of tire fragments from the roads. The study concluded that the fragments they found were from NEW and retreaded tires in equal proportion to their service on the roads and had little to do with the manufacturing or retreading process. The top 2 types of damage they discovered from the debris studied were the result of road hazards (39%) and excessive heat (30%) from improper inflation or other abuse. If you replaced every retreaded tire on the road today with new tires, you would still have tires coming apart and the same amount of rubber on the road. Retreaded tires are safe and can be legally used on steer axles (except for buses). Retreaded tires are used safely every day on airplanes, school buses, fire engines and ambulances, trucking fleets, taxis, Postal Service vehicles, military vehicles and by millions of motorists. Lastly, retreading is very environmentally friendly. The manufacture of a new medium truck tire requires approximately 22 gallons of oil, but it takes only seven gallons to retread the same tire. Every year in North America, the use of retreaded tires saves hundreds of millions of gallons of oil and keeps millions of tires out of landfill. More information on the environmental and economic benefits of retreaded tires can be found at: www.retread.org

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