Why are retreads legal again????

"Pearson Hurst" (phurst) 01/05/2014 at 12:33 • Filed to: None

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Seriously, why the hell are retreads allowed on the road? They are a hazad, plain and simple. I had to travel across the state for work the other day. A few miles from my destination, the tread on a tire of the semi in front of me peeled off right in front of me, resulting in this damage to my front bumper.

While my car is an 07, I've only had it for a few months, and it is in excellent condition, having been owned by the proverbial old lady who only drove it to church on Sundays. Now I'm staring at either paying my deductible and taking a hit on my insurance, or paying out of pocket. Either way, I'm being penalized for something that is completely not my fault. If trucks (and smaller vehicles as well) were simply not allowed to use retread tires, this would be much less of an issue. I see tread debris on the side of the road all the time, and this isn't the first time I've hit some, this is just the first time I've suffered damage in a car that isn't already a beater. Why are these things allowed on the road? Yeah, they're cheaper than a new tire, and I get that truckers need to do everything they can to reduce their operating expenses, but seriously, these things are dangerous. Fuck retreads, they need to go away, now.

HammerheadFistpunch > Pearson Hurst 01/05/2014 at 12:36

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Sorry man, that sucks

awe46m3zcp > Pearson Hurst 01/05/2014 at 12:49

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Im with you they should be outlawed. Imagine if you were on a motorcycle. Yeah they are cheaper, but when half of them fail prematurely are they really saving money?

Skif6996 > Pearson Hurst 01/05/2014 at 13:02

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You should have taken down the plate number on the truck.

Jeff-God-of-Biscuits > Pearson Hurst 01/05/2014 at 13:04

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"anybody get the number of that truck?" If you got the name of the trucking company, you could try getting ahold of them, or maybe even see about siccing your insurance company on them if you file the claim. Time, date and location should help to narrow down what truck it was, or look for the tire missing it's tread.

Rainbow > Pearson Hurst 01/05/2014 at 13:06

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Just out of curiosity, did you try to get the truck to pull over with you? That's one of my biggest fears driving, getting hit by something and the driver at fault is honestly oblivious to it. I've always wondered how difficult it is to convince them to pull over.

jariten1781 > Pearson Hurst 01/05/2014 at 13:13

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How do you know it was a retread?

Most truck tires going out are from overloaded trucks or underfilled tires. There's no way to really know if the tire that whacked you was a retread unless you inspected the carcass. NHTSA did a study a few years ago (2008? I think) and found that the failure rates of retreads and new tires were the same and the failure mechanisms similar (tread can peal off a brand new tire as easily as a retread if it was manufactured poorly or loaded improperly). Decades ago they failed a lot more often because they used carcasses indefinitely, but that is no longer the case.

BJohnson11 > Pearson Hurst 01/05/2014 at 13:26

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I read that whole article as "Why are Retards Legal", and was about to be fairly offended. Retreads makes a whole lot more sense.

Pearson Hurst > jariten1781 01/05/2014 at 14:14

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Interesting, I did not know that. I just assumes that since the entire tread peeled off, it was a retread. Thanks for the info.

Pearson Hurst > Jeff-God-of-Biscuits 01/05/2014 at 14:17

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Unfortunately, I did not. I pulled over immediately because It felt like a significant impact, and I wanted to get off the road safely and verify the damage was cosmetic, which it was. I was a little freaked out, and had my brand new boss riding shotgun. Too bad I didn't have a dash cam...

Pearson Hurst > Rainbow 01/05/2014 at 14:18

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Unfortunately, I did not. I pulled over immediately because It felt like a significant impact, and I wanted to get off the road safely and verify the damage was cosmetic, which it was. I was a little freaked out, and had my brand new boss riding shotgun. Too bad I didn't have a dash cam...

ilostmypants > Pearson Hurst 01/05/2014 at 16:21

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Plot twist!
What if it was a tire that had never been retreaded!

But in all seriousness that sucks, a few years ago the day before my birthday I had a super single(the size tire you see steering heavy dump trucks) on a drop axle on a flatbed detonate in front of me on my drive to work on the highway, and I had to steer around landing tire debris and I'm pretty sure had I been next to the tire when It went it would have large chucks threw my passenger side window and that could have been it for me and my little old pickup truck,. Glad your okay.

TheOnelectronic > Pearson Hurst 01/05/2014 at 16:56

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And on that day, someone on the internet adapted their view based on new information.

Thus began the fall of the world we thought we knew.

TheOnelectronic > awe46m3zcp 01/05/2014 at 16:57

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I ran into a tire tread on my bike. Dodged it with my tire, but it hit my (reinforced!) boot and I wasn't sure I hadn't broken my foot.

George McNally > Pearson Hurst 04/24/2014 at 20:25

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When I was a young pup (about 35 years ago) I worked in a recap shop. My dad managed a tire shop that also manufactured recaps...back then, you could also buy passenger car tires as recaps- I ran recaps on my VW...they cost 9 bucks apiece back then :-)

I don't know what recap tires are like now, but I do know that most tire failures on big rigs are due to underinflation.....too much heat in the tire (recap or not) and you get tread separation.

micael > Rainbow 02/10/2016 at 21:35

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I am a trucker and the trucker would have been found not liable. PERIOD, I'm an owner operator and the public isn't educated on how to drive around semi trucks. Simple fact you were probably following to closely. One car link for every 10 miles an hour now recommended is 1.5 car links around semis. Getting on the interstate semis are to big to always get over and let a car merge, simple fact of law merging car has the responsibility of matching speed of traffic or slowing down or speeding up in order to get on. We try to be nice and hop over to let cars merge to usually just be met with being cut off by the car we were just nice enough to allow to merge. Passing an 18 wheeler, never ever ever pass on the right we can't see you until your almost to our front fender most of the time, we well most of us will get back in the right lane and then pass on the left. Don't hang around us when you pass, get around us as quickly and safely as possible.inam an owner operator, my truck will run the speed limit, I run 70 when its 70 66 when its 65 and so on, if the speed limit is 70 why do so many of you want to do 80?? Point being ride with a trucker a couple weeks and you'll see that were abused and cars are usually the ones acting dangerously around 18 wheelers. Also most companies are switching to solid ring retreads, the old overlap retreads that come apart like that will soon be a thing of the past. Solid ring retreads don't come apart like that usually. Thing is if you had a proper following distance your car wouldn't be damaged and you wouldn't be in here complaining about truckers.