Recap Tires:

[Rob]

Hey what do you guys know and think of recapped tires? Any brands better than others? Any to avoid?

I'm gonna need to buy a bunch of tires this year and have never had caps so looking for input other than a selling dealer.

Thanks,

Rob

[MidniteMechanic]

Any recap is ok. Each brand has roughly the same designs as the other. A good recapper will inspect the casing for any defects. If the casing is ok and the tread is applied correctly you will have no problems. Mostly all the tire debris you see along the road is from run flats. If a cap is going to separate it will do it in the first few miles. Brian

[HK Trucking]

Mornin' Rob.

It's best to get recaps from a dealer that sells Bandag caps.

National brand with good quality control, they Xray the casings before capping.

Some of the "local" recappers will cap anything, but the results are sometimes less than desirable.

[Rob]

Mornin' Rob.

It's best to get recaps from a dealer that sells Bandag caps.

National brand with good quality control, they Xray the casings before capping.

Some of the "local" recappers will cap anything, but the results are sometimes less than desirable.

Thanks guys, I've always heard that Bandag was a good brand, just have no experience with them at all. I've only had a single pair of "capped" tires and they were replaced because of being worn out. I purchased the truck and replaced the tires shortly afterward.

I need to purchase tires for three trucks this year and was wondering about the drives. I know they can't be run on the steer axles.

Thanks again.

Rob

[usmcjimbo]

Mornin' Rob.

It's best to get recaps from a dealer that sells Bandag caps.

National brand with good quality control, they Xray the casings before capping.

Some of the "local" recappers will cap anything, but the results are sometimes less than desirable.

Caps will work fine if done correctly. Use a good quality capper. Use only original drive or steer tire casings no older than 204 weeks for drive caps, any casing for trailers. No sidewall or bead repairs, no section repairs larger than a 120 size. Bandag makes a really good product - the reliability of cap is a function of the quality of the casing. Most big fleets cap only their own casing.

you can run recaps on the steering axle legally (only school buses are exempt) but I would not do it

[Rob]

Caps will work fine if done correctly. Use a good quality capper. Use only original drive or steer tire casings no older than 204 weeks for drive caps, any casing for trailers. No sidewall or bead repairs, no section repairs larger than a 120 size. Bandag makes a really good product - the reliability of cap is a function of the quality of the casing. Most big fleets cap only their own casing.

you can run recaps on the steering axle legally (only school buses are exempt) but I would not do it

Today I did it. I just ordered eight D4300 Bandag recap drive tires for my RL797L. I don't have any casings for the 11.00RX22.5 tire size, so I'll have to pay for them. I've got a real nice pair of Cooper CXMA-354 radials, (one new, one 85%) in the same size for the steer axle so I should be set.

I've purchased tires from Tommy House Tire for many years and the heavy truck side manager is going to personally ensure I get good casings less than two years old. I've got time before actually needing them, but they should be finished within a couple of weeks. Going to need to get my rims finished up quickly.

Thanks for the input Herb, and Jim. They actually recommended against caps on the steer axle even with their own product. It was not a consideration, but thought I would ask anyways.

I've never had a white truck before so I think that is the way this one is going with my corporate emblems on the doors. I don't know if I'll be able to get the tanks and such polished up in time for show season this year, but I do want to make some of them, especially the closer ones, and Macungie.

We'll see.

Rob

[MACKS]

If possible you should ask them if they can give you all the same brand casing,that way all your tires will be uniform and exactly the same size.

[Rob]

If possible you should ask them if they can give you all the same brand casing,that way all your tires will be uniform and exactly the same size.

Thank you. He did mention that also and wants the time to ensure it can happen. They deal with a lot of fleets from the area and have many casings ready for capping.

Rob

[r600]

Thank you. He did mention that also and wants the time to ensure it can happen. They deal with a lot of fleets from the area and have many casings ready for capping.

Rob

hey rob ,dont forget to measure the outside diameter of the tyres and match up pairs,you may find a lot of difference in outside diameter of the re-caps so matching is a must.(p.s my dad ran re caps on the steer for years with no problem 1st up caps, good cases a must!)cheers adrian

[Rob]

hey rob ,dont forget to measure the outside diameter of the tyres and match up pairs,you may find a lot of difference in outside diameter of the re-caps so matching is a must.(p.s my dad ran re caps on the steer for years with no problem 1st up caps, good cases a must!)cheers adrian

Hi Adrian and thanks for your suggestion. He actually brought that up that their capping process ensures the tires measure withing 1/4" circumference of the tire. I guess the old casing is ground to the correct diameter to accomplish this. He also stated that capped tires for trailer service were not as closely controlled as ones destined for a power unit.

Let me go a little further with this: Little over two years ago I took 16 10:00X22 tires and rims, and four 10:00X20 tires and rims them to have broken down. All of the tires were junk and unusable, and I wanted to blast and paint the rims. This was in late May, or early June and not stiffling, but hot all the same. Four of their guys busted their nuts breaking these down, (they did not come apart easily), and it was almost six hours later that I got out of there. They charge $16.00 each to mount and dismount heavy truck tires so I got out of there at $8.00 each for a total of $160.00 for the work done so far. The manager, (since departed) would not let me tip those guys for their work, so to make things right, I had a 16 gallon keg of beer, (their choice of brand) delivered right at closing time by a local distributor. When I returned to have ten new 22", and four 20" tires mounted, they got right to it without problems.

I got out of there in less than an hour with no bill.

Tommy House Tire has taken good care of my family for years and we exhibit dealer loyalty for it.

Rob

[Bollweevil]

Recaps are a viable option. Generally speaking they are only as good as #1 the selling dealer, and #2 the person responsible for their maintenance. Sounds like you have found a dealer that you can work with. That puts taking care of them right back on you. I haven"t had to buy truck tires in a couple of years, but, since a large part of their composition is derived from a petroleum distillate it's reasonable to assume that there has been an increase in cost. Since the day that I bought mu first truck tire, there has always been a disparity between what a re-caper is willing to pay for a good casing, and what he wants for it as a finished product. It is common for your $60 casing to be his $100 casing if you don't have a trade in. Check it out. It might pay to buy a couple of sets of matched casing from someone who runs over the road, and takes care of their tires. In a recent Not So Truckers News posting there was a link to the results of a federal study on recaps. Basically the consensus was that most recap failure is due to road hazard or over heating due to under inflation. I have to agree. The road hazard part is obvious. The under inflated in not always so obvious. It takes a tire guage, and someone willing to use it. I used to replace tubeless tire valve stem seals every time I replaced a tire, at about $2 each. Then I found that if I shopped around I could buy the valve stems for another 15 to 20 cents. I know I am running on about this, but my point is, for your application you could never run a recap far enough or fast enough to over heat it. But they do need some looking after. In cold weather, a tire will sometimes lose 30 or 40 psi for no good reason.

[Mackmann]

My dad has always ran recaps on his tri/axle. But he will only cap his own casings. He only caps his casing 1 time and that is it. He never has any problems at all. After the casing has been caped the 1 time it is back to buying new , once they were out they get capped. He just re-petes that and never has a problem.

[CML Service]

Hi Rob,

The fleet that I maintain I only cap my own steer tire casings for drives. Steers have never seen the torque and abuse that the drives have. X-ray or ultrasonic inspection won't show the stress from fatigue on the sidewalls. Years ago I maintained a larger over the road fleet. I did lots of busness with the tire dealers. This is what I was told and it has worked well for me. Steer tires get capped as drives. Single axle drives cap as drives. Tandem axle drives only cap as drive if they have been in light service if not they should go to trailer. Tandem or triaxel dump should only go to trailer. If a tire is managed properly it can be capped several times in this manner. Personally I have bought cap and casings but for a truck that I will put some mileage on I only want virgin steer casings. Generally a tire shop can provide you with these if you ask for them. Like so many other things knowledge is power.

Chuck

[Rob]

Hi Rob,

The fleet that I maintain I only cap my own steer tire casings for drives. Steers have never seen the torque and abuse that the drives have. X-ray or ultrasonic inspection won't show the stress from fatigue on the sidewalls. Years ago I maintained a larger over the road fleet. I did lots of busness with the tire dealers. This is what I was told and it has worked well for me. Steer tires get capped as drives. Single axle drives cap as drives. Tandem axle drives only cap as drive if they have been in light service if not they should go to trailer. Tandem or triaxel dump should only go to trailer. If a tire is managed properly it can be capped several times in this manner. Personally I have bought cap and casings but for a truck that I will put some mileage on I only want virgin steer casings. Generally a tire shop can provide you with these if you ask for them. Like so many other things knowledge is power.

Chuck

Hi Chuck thanks for your insight. The manager and I had discussed the benefits, as opposed to the detriments in using recapped tires for my application. With a projected mileage of about 8000-12,000 miles annually with a maximum load of 40,000# gross, all are pretty confident that this is a good way to go. My trucks also reside inside the shop when not used or in the way of progress. This D4300 series tread pattern is said to be a good balance of wear, noise, and traction. He even says they'll take them back if I'm dissatisfied with them to purchase new.

Assuming this to be a truck I keep for several years, (I really do like it) these should be a good evaluation for me to get used to. I'll never work a truck as it was designed to do in reality, and plan to remain in the hobby stage with them.

Rob

[vanscottbuilders]

I'm in your position Rob - I will need a bunch

of new tires over this year.

With the heavy trucks and trailers, Jimmy uses new tires always.

So I thought I would use all new virgin rubber too -

but that idea quickly went away with the realization of how many tires,

and how much money I was really talking about.

I will still use virgin tires on the steer axles, as mentioned here.

But I think an easy rolling tread pattern in a recap will fine for the drives

and trailers.

My lowboy came to me with eight brand new matched Bandag 15" recaps.

They even still have the little nubs and printing on the tread!

But they are eight years old, and although they have never been used,

they have been out in the sun, and are all dry rotted and cracked.

Makes me sick to take them off and throw them out - but I don't think

there is any real good choice.

I agree with the comments about Bandag. I've never heard anything

but positive comments about their products.

Paul Van Scott

[Rob]

Recaps are a viable option. Generally speaking they are only as good as #1 the selling dealer, and #2 the person responsible for their maintenance. Sounds like you have found a dealer that you can work with. That puts taking care of them right back on you. I haven"t had to buy truck tires in a couple of years, but, since a large part of their composition is derived from a petroleum distillate it's reasonable to assume that there has been an increase in cost. Since the day that I bought mu first truck tire, there has always been a disparity between what a re-caper is willing to pay for a good casing, and what he wants for it as a finished product. It is common for your $60 casing to be his $100 casing if you don't have a trade in. Check it out. It might pay to buy a couple of sets of matched casing from someone who runs over the road, and takes care of their tires. In a recent Not So Truckers News posting there was a link to the results of a federal study on recaps. Basically the consensus was that most recap failure is due to road hazard or over heating due to under inflation. I have to agree. The road hazard part is obvious. The under inflated in not always so obvious. It takes a tire guage, and someone willing to use it. I used to replace tubeless tire valve stem seals every time I replaced a tire, at about $2 each. Then I found that if I shopped around I could buy the valve stems for another 15 to 20 cents. I know I am running on about this, but my point is, for your application you could never run a recap far enough or fast enough to over heat it. But they do need some looking after. In cold weather, a tire will sometimes lose 30 or 40 psi for no good reason.

I do take care of and maintain my tires along with the rest of the vehicle. I drove my 89 Dodge Spirit car to 392,000 miles, (2.5ltr turbo) before replacing it as it was literally falling apart. I did go through two cylinder heads, and four head gaskets during it's lifespan. Also totalled three times from being hit in the rear.

I borrowed a really neat homemade tool from a guy that maintains trucks: A regulator mounted to a manifold through a check valve with by-pass using four "whip" hoses with clip on ends for the valve stems. You took shop air attached to the regulator, and it flowed through the check valve into the manifold where the whip hoses attached. The whip hoses attached to four tires, (if needed) and it became a central point inflation system to the regulator pressure setting. The check valve had a button on the side that would let you deflate to reduce pressure in the tires. This really worked slick and I plan to make one for myself. All connected tires would inflate evenly.

Without good casings to use for a cost offset I'm going to spend near $5000.00 for tires this next year. I think with that kind of cash outlay, I'll most likely care for them properly!

Rob

[LocomotiveBreath]

Bandag caps are just fine for the drives and trailers. I would never use them on the steering axle though. In fact I've always been told it is illegal to run a cap on the steering axle. Back when I used to work on trucks for a living, I remember our tire man was in the middle of airing up a fresh 11-22.5 trailer cap (not-Bandag) when the sidewall let go at about 90 psi.

Shook the whole shop, scared the hell out of everybody, but luckily no one got hurt. We went back to Bandag after that.

[Rob]

I'm in your position Rob - I will need a bunch

of new tires over this year.

With the heavy trucks and trailers, Jimmy uses new tires always.

So I thought I would use all new virgin rubber too -

but that idea quickly went away with the realization of how many tires,

and how much money I was really talking about.

I will still use virgin tires on the steer axles, as mentioned here.

But I think an easy rolling tread pattern in a recap will fine for the drives

and trailers.

My lowboy came to me with eight brand new matched Bandag 15" recaps.

They even still have the little nubs and printing on the tread!

But they are eight years old, and although they have never been used,

they have been out in the sun, and are all dry rotted and cracked.

Makes me sick to take them off and throw them out - but I don't think

there is any real good choice.

I agree with the comments about Bandag. I've never heard anything

but positive comments about their products.

Paul Van Scott

A couple of friends that haul Caterpillar equipment will not run recap tires on their trucks, or trailers. They do not stay together due to weight and heat of the application. Several years ago one of them gave me eight 9.00X20 recaps that were new, but never mounted with a Goodyear G159 tread. I installed them onto a rollback carrier that I was selling, and the purchaser ran them for at least five years that I know of without problems. He hauled and delivered farm equipment with the truck.

I've seen a lot of damage from them comming apart on trailer and trucks so I was always hesitant with their use. Then again you see so many out there that there has to be a reason.

I don't know how detrimental the sidewall dryrot would be if you are not hauling heavy. It would seem that if the tread to carcass is sound the tire could be run. I'm basing this on my own inexperienced interpretation and speaking of a minor case only.

Rob

[PedroR]

I run the cap tires, never had a problem with them, i ran the bandag 4300 cap on all bridgestone for a long time, Im now trying something different

these are michelin casings with michelin caps, the caps are very identical to the xzy2 tread on a new tire, i only cap my tires 1 time, i then sale my casings, a friend of mines buys new tires uses them and i then buy them from him, these michelins i payed $90.00 each i then payed $168.00 for the cap total of $258.00, last set of front tires i payed $445.00 on sale (michelin) thats why im going to keep running caps.

Now witch do i like best? i think i like the set that im running right now because the michelin's side wall is softer witch makes the truck ride alot smother, and with the bandag cap there was a zom zom noise when above 45 50 mph.

[vanscottbuilders]

I run the cap tires, never had a problem with them, i ran the bandag 4300 cap on all bridgestone for a long time, Im now trying something different

these are michelin casings with michelin caps, the caps are very identical to the xzy2 tread on a new tire, i only cap my tires 1 time, i then sale my casings, a friend of mines buys new tires uses them and i then buy them from him, these michelins i payed $90.00 each i then payed $168.00 for the cap total of $258.00, last set of front tires i payed $445.00 on sale (michelin) thats why im going to keep running caps.

Now witch do i like best? i think i like the set that im running right now because the michelin's side wall is softer witch makes the truck ride alot smother, and with the bandag cap there was a zom zom noise when above 45 50 mph.

Pedro,

These are actually a recap done by Michelin?

Can you give us the supplier? - It might be common

knowledge to others here - but not to me.

Thanks,

Paul Van Scott

[MACKS]

I have herd that Michelin recaps are the best,Pedro are they one peice caps or do they have seams,also goodyear recaps there own tires with the orignal tread in a one peice cap neaver tried eather one but I like the idea of a one peice cap.

[theakerstwo]

My 2 cants worth. If you have a cap running next to a non cap i think the cap will have as good luck as the tire it is run next to untill you have a low air pressure problem and run them low on a hot day grossing max then the cap will go nuts before the non cap. The cap is more than likely going to get a leak before the non cap. I have a freind that runs about 50 dry box and refers and he has good luck with caps. When i put a truck on the road i had two caps i tryed and both blowed their caps . If you run local then i seen no problem. But when you are running hurry up and go loads and ant got no time to play with like so many of the freight then stay away from caps. If you are going to run caps then get them on in cold weather. I look for DOT to out law them. But i know guys that have used them for along time so then OHWELL.

[PedroR]

The michelin i have do have 1 seam where bouth ends join, i have never seen a cap with no seams

Why do i run caps? Well i only run local (@35k miles a year) and i know where im getting my cassings from, i will not buy a cassing thats allready caped from a tire shop ever because it could be an old cassing thats been caped a couple of times

[Packer]

Did a bunch of research on this several years ago.

Bandag was the best cap at the time, with Kelly/Springfield and Bridgestone the best original and capped miles.

Also the best for casings.

We would cap in the fall and when the weather warmed up in the spring, the caps were 40-50 % worn and heat was not an issue.

We were running 100,000-120,000 miles a year and the caps were making that many miles.

Bridgestone a 100,000 miles - - -Michline 55,000 miles on original rubber.

This was in the 70's and things have changed since then, but at that time, Bandag caps were the best way to go.

Oliver now has a cap that is like the bandag, but I have no history with it.

Packer