Treadwright Tires

[SCRunner12]

Ok so instead of thread jacking the other guys thread I thought to make my own and let the discussion continue here.

I have been looking into tires for a while and was planning on going with Duratracs, but at 190 a tire I doubt I could afford them anytime soon. I looked into Treadwrights and have spent close to 30 hours looking at all the threads google could produce. 95% of the negative reviews were from people who haven't ran them and compare them to semi tires. The other 5% are from people who didn't like the balancing issues or ride after they were put on.

The other issue I have come across is airing down the retreads. It will void the warranty from Treadwrights, but I have never seen anyone have any issues or tread separation due to this. I'm not too worried about this because I will be airing down hopefully once a month and no serious rock climbing from me in the near future.

If they were so prone to fail then I would expect a lot more threads started about it. I could probably find more threads about BFG's failing at highway speeds (granted a vast larger volume of BFG's are bought and have been sold). Look at Black02, he had a tire fail at highway speed and it wasn't a retread. His was from craigslist and TONS of people have bought tires off craigslist, but no one says anything about them being dangerous.

I'm still up in the air about it and it will depend on my bonus next month. I have a daughter and her life is more important than $3-400, but I see no real hard proof not to go with the retreads. I plan on asking for casing no older than 2008 and will inspect each tire for any nicks or cuts and document them thoroughly (if I do go this route). It is my daily driver, but my 4runner will see about 10k a year and seldom long hot road trips.

I do understand anyone's hesitation or feeling of safety with a big name, but 1 or 2 failures out of probably 2000 posts I have read isn't too shabby.

 

[YotaZach85]

I have never used them but I had every intention to before I rolled my truck. As far as airing down goes, I know a guy that ran his Treadwright MTR's at 12psi on the trails and never had an issue with them. I know they say airing down voids warranty but I don't think any tire company recommends airing tires down so it's not a big deal in my book.

 

[pbcolt]

I have a daughter and her life is more important than $3-400...

That pretty much explains my opinion...

 

[A.Wilson013]

As I posted in the other thread I have a friend who ran the Treadwright "Guard Dawgs" I think, in a 265/76/16. They were the Wrangler MT lookalikes. Anyway, all 4 of his matched, and balanced with no problems. To the untrained eye, they looked EXACTLY like Wrangler MT. (same sidewall and everything)

On a few snow-wheeling trips he aired down QUITE a bit, 14psi IIRC, with no problems at all.

As I said before his ONLY complaint was the weight of them, as they put a heck of a lot of strain on his 22RE, even after re-gearing to 4.56's. He never had any problems with airing down.

About 2 months ago he got Duratracs, again, only because of the weight, and because he had some extra coin laying around.

**EDIT** Here is a picture of it

 

[quicksilvr]

I just ordered a set of 285/75R16 Warden's 5 minutes ago. 8ply, BFG casing. Total is going to be $480 shipped to my door. :bluejump:

I have zero worries...I'm excited to get a BFG A/T for half price! I never need to air down, and if ANYTHING was going to stop me from getting re-treads it would be that. But it's not a factor for me, so Treadwright is the way to go!

Oh, and I have a 2 year old and a 6 month old who be in the truck quite a bit. I'm not anymore worried about these tires than a new tire....obviously. Or I wouldn't have just bought them.

 

[econhonda]

How Michelin tires are made...

video How Michelin Tires are Made (full) - michelin, tire, tires - videos Ma-Tvideo France2


How Treadwrights are made...

YouTube - ‪TreadWright's Channel‬‏

The 3 videos to the right show how tread is removed, reapplied and cured.

It looks an awful lot like the way Michelins are made. Anyway, I've been a happy customer for 14,000 miles. $427 shipped to my door too!

JUST REMEMBER THAT ALL TREADWRIGHT TIRES MUST BE STATIC BALANCED, NOT DYNAMIC.

 

[DH4Runner]

I'm not going to deny it is probably a great tire. it's just the unknowns that get me. How was the old carcass treated before? No one knows.

I was all about trying out the treadwrights. I actually had them in my shopping cart about 5 times. I guess it's just a peace of mind thing for me plus that roll over didn't help matters any.

Not trying to be a ****, but the reason y'all are scared is because you don't know what you are looking at. I manage a fleet of 18 wheelers and we use a combination of re-caps and virgin rubber. I am quite familiar with the tread separation characteristics of each. This tread separation was caused by overheating of the carcass, not the fact that is was a re-cap. The tread separation and the fact that the tire was not virgin rubber are independent of each other here.

Look at the tops of the sidewalls. Intact.

That is the only type of tread separation that happens to re-caps that does not happen to virgin tires.

Bottom line... the tire would have looked the same if it had been a virgin tire.

Actually, the bottom line is, no matter how the tire failed, it failed resulting in a roll over. Separation or blowout, that some scary ****. Now I know there is a possibility for a new tire to do the exact same thing but for my peace of mind, I would rather go with a new virgin tire.

All in all, it's probably a great tire for a great price.

 

[Mr. Leary]

I have yet to see an example of re-cap Tread separation on Tread Wrights that was not caused by operator error. There is a lot of garbage floating around on the forums, most of which ignores the cause of the problem and focuses on what the re-cap looks like after the fact. I'm not an owner of Tread Wrights, but I can assue you that most of the people who post about the negatives of re-caps have never owned a set. Take advice with a grain of salt.

EDIT: That said... when I was in the market recently, I chose a lightly used set of virgin tires instead of the slightly cheaper Tread Wrights. I believe that they will return better wear and will be easier to keep balanced. IMO, they are worth more, so I am willing to pay more for them.

 

[DH4Runner]

Here's the thread... Our New Land Cruiser Saved Our Lives

I would just like that to be out there for anyone making a decision because that's what changed my mind.

 

[J-money$$$]

Im planning on a set of 315's I end up ruining all my tires out wheeling any ways. Might as well save some cash. I saw a jeep with the treadwright mt's on it wheeling John Bull last weekend. They look like nice tires.

Blowouts can happen on any tire. And you can tell how old the carcass is when they show up. READ THE DOT NUMBERS on the sidewall, they will tell you the week and year that the tire was produced

 

[Mr. Leary]

Here the thread... Our New Land Cruiser Saved Our Lives

I would just like that to be out there for anyone making a decision because that's what changed my mind.

Yeah. Saw that one. That Cruiser held up like a champ. Although I was thinking about selling it... I might keep mine so my wife can have a safe Mommy hauler.

 

[Volley]

I have Treadwrights (only about 1000 miles on them so far) and so far I have been impressed. They are a little louder than original tires, just a very slight hum that you actually can't hear with the radio on normal volume. So far they have been very smooth. I did have a very slight balance issue with one of them (I'm picky) and after contacting Treadwright, they sent me a replacement right away free of charge without needing to return the original one (I plan to use it as a spare). There are also several guys in my FJ Club that run them and have really put them through the paces with no problems. Also, FYI my truck is my daily driver and gets a good bit of use. I'll update my thread with long term reports as I get them.

 

[the great him]

I'm not going to deny it is probably a great tire. it's just the unknowns that get me. How was the old carcass treated before? No one knows.

I was all about trying out the treadwrights. I actually had them in my shopping cart about 5 times. I guess it's just a peace of mind thing for me plus that roll over didn't help matters any.



Actually, the bottom line is, no matter how the tire failed, it failed resulting in a roll over. Separation or blowout, that some scary ****. Now I know there is a possibility for a new tire to do the exact same thing but for my peace of mind, I would rather go with a new virgin tire.

All in all, it's probably a great tire for a great price.

exactly you dont know about the history of the tire before it was retreaded, im totally on like with the my life, my wife's life our children's lives and even the dogs life is all worth more than the $4-500 in savings. besides no insurance co will ever pay out(for your vehicle or personal injury) if they find out you have retreads, its that simple. and if you think for one moment that they wont find out your so far wrong its not even funny. maybe if its only a little fender bender they wont look too deep, but if there is an injury and or other vehicles involved and a tire blow out (even if it wasnt the cause of the accident) the insurance co will blame the tire, and will not pay, clameing you put and "unsafe" item in/on your vehicle.

I have yet to see an example of re-cap Tread separation on Tread Wrights that was not caused by operator error.

that line is the biggest cop-out, its like the FAA saying it was pilot error... they only reason they say that is they cant positively with out question determine the exact cause of the crash, so the just blame the pilot who is dead... -ever notice how in 99.9% of the cases where they call it pilot error the pilot and or copilot is dead and cant tell investigators what went wrong... saying it was operator error that cause the tire to "malfunction" is total BS, a tire is not a mechanical device, it has no operator persay, the vehicle is operated by a person. i dont trust recaps or what ever you want to call them and i never will. i almost had a friend killed by one on the freeway one off of a truck(not a semi but a commercial one ton pickup) separated and came through the windshield at 75mph on hwy 99 in ca. put a good friend of mine in ICU for 3 days, i was sitting right behind him when it happened. -the truck was empty too, there was no "flap flap flap" or any warning that the trucks tire was about to separate, it just did.

 

[DH4Runner]

I think the operator error he is referring to is under or over inflating the tire, burnouts and running trails at a lower pressure. Stuff like that.

 

[Mr. Leary]

that line is the biggest cop-out, its like the FAA saying it was pilot error... they only reason they say that is they cant positively with out question determine the exact cause of the crash, so the just blame the pilot who is dead... -ever notice how in 99.9% of the cases where they call it pilot error the pilot and or copilot is dead and cant tell investigators what went wrong... saying it was operator error that cause the tire to "malfunction" is total BS, a tire is not a mechanical device, it has no operator persay, the vehicle is operated by a person. i dont trust recaps or what ever you want to call them and i never will. i almost had a friend killed by one on the freeway one off of a truck(not a semi but a commercial one ton pickup) separated and came through the windshield at 75mph on hwy 99 in ca. put a good friend of mine in ICU for 3 days, i was sitting right behind him when it happened. -the truck was empty too, there was no "flap flap flap" or any warning that the trucks tire was about to separate, it just did.

Actually its not a cop out, its facts. Like the fact that any tire will fail if you drive it at 20psi at 70mph in 100 degree heat for hours, or the fact that people blame retread construction for sidewall failures, which has nothing to do with the cap and everything to do with the original construction.

Sorry to hear about your buddy. Sounds like a scary accident. However... you have no way of knowing if that tire was a re-cap or not. Tread separation happens regardless, and it is a common misconception that all those gator backs you see on the road are all re-caps.

Look, bro... I do not have any interest in TreadWright or any other tire manufacturer, but I do consider myself pretty knowledgeable in this subject. I run a fleet of over 220 trucks. Tires and failures are an everyday thing for me. I also occassionally get memos from recording hotlines regarding re-cap tread that hits vehicles behind it... from trucks that are running 100% virgin rubber.

In my experience, tread separation:

1) happens primarily in summer time
2) happens on all tires, re-capped or virgin (except super singles... we have had some issues with the re-caps for these big suckers)
3) is ALWAYS assumed to be a re-cap, whether it is or not.

 

[Nelsonmd]

that line is the biggest cop-out, its like the FAA saying it was pilot error... they only reason they say that is they cant positively with out question determine the exact cause of the crash, so the just blame the pilot who is dead... -ever notice how in 99.9% of the cases where they call it pilot error the pilot and or copilot is dead and cant tell investigators what went wrong... saying it was operator error that cause the tire to "malfunction" is total BS, a tire is not a mechanical device, it has no operator persay, the vehicle is operated by a person. i dont trust recaps or what ever you want to call them and i never will. i almost had a friend killed by one on the freeway one off of a truck(not a semi but a commercial one ton pickup) separated and came through the windshield at 75mph on hwy 99 in ca. put a good friend of mine in ICU for 3 days, i was sitting right behind him when it happened. -the truck was empty too, there was no "flap flap flap" or any warning that the trucks tire was about to separate, it just did.

Ok, so you are criticizing Leary's claim as statistically invalid, and then you make the claim that just because you were related to 1 failure, they are a bad idea. I can certainly sympathize with the situation with your friend, but that is not a valid reason to draw conclusions about the soundness of the tire. You have no idea how the guy used it as you have repeatedly pointed out.

And the comparison to the FAA crash analysis is not valid either. Anyone who has done FA on pretty much anything knows that alot of the time, your analysis comes back with either no trouble found, or the defect is found, but can't be recreated in a controlled way (i.e. root cause is unknown). There is always a "last resort" cause, just look at the FSM, the last cause on any code is a bad ECU.

If we really want to talk about whether retreads are more prone to tread separation than virgin tires, we need to be looking at a large dataset under controlled conditions.

The point about insurance is interesting though. Do insurance companies actually deny claims due to retreaded tires (or can they?)? Retreads have to meet the same standards as new tires, so I doubt there is a different classification. Not saying they won't try it, but I doubt it will stand up in court.

 

[the great him]

Actually its not a cop out, its facts. Like the fact that any tire will fail if you drive it at 20psi at 70mph in 100 degree heat for hours, or the fact that people blame retread construction for sidewall failures, which has nothing to do with the cap and everything to do with the original construction.

Sorry to hear about your buddy. Sounds like a scary accident. However... you have no way of knowing if that tire was a re-cap or not. Tread separation happens regardless, and it is a common misconception that all those gator backs you see on the road are all re-caps.

Look, bro... I do not have any interest in TreadWright or any other tire manufacturer, but I do consider myself pretty knowledgeable in this subject. I run a fleet of over 220 trucks. Tires and failures are an everyday thing for me. I also occassionally get memos from recording hotlines regarding re-cap tread that hits vehicles behind it... from trucks that are running 100% virgin rubber.

In my experience, tread separation:

1) happens primarily in summer time
2) happens on all tires, re-capped or virgin (except super singles... we have had some issues with the re-caps for these big suckers)
3) is ALWAYS assumed to be a re-cap, whether it is or not.

yes i will totally agree with you that most recap tire failures are not the actual recap itself but the sidewall of the tire, very few recap tires have the tread separate(and the ones that do are generally due to super heavy loads and hot weather on commercial vehicles. now with that being said the side wall failure of recaps its 10x more common that that of a "virgin" tire, simple fact being most tires are designed to one life span(that of the tread), now when you give new life to an old used tire you are giving it a "new bill of health" with out making it new, its till an old tire, there is no way around that period. and i can even buy that a lot of people dont take care if their tires and check psi regularly enough inspect them for damage enough or as often as they should.

-the recaped tire that blew and hit my friend was not a tread separation, it was a sidewall failure from a broken belt in/on and old tire. the only way i know this is the trucks insurance co ended up taking the owners of the truck to court to make them pay for the damages cause the insurance policy stated that using recaps would void the policy... the insurance co did up front cover the injury's and all costs in the accident, but later went after the trucks owners and called us to testify in court as to what happened. we didnt learn till after all was said and done all the details.

so yeah do i think that treadwright makes a bad product no, again ive never had any experience with them and im sure their tire tread and ways of molding the tread to the tire are by and large top quality. what i am afraid of and dont like is the useage of old "dead" tires that are given "new life".

 

[the great him]

but if guys are running them and not having issues with them, then.... idk i just know that i wont ever run them and would strongly advise against it.

 

[Nelsonmd]

but if guys are running them and not having issues with them, then.... idk i just know that i wont ever run them and would strongly advise against it.

Aw, we were good until that last bit...

No problem if you will never buy them, that's your prerogative, but there is no reason to "strongly advise against them".

I am seriously thinking about them for my next set as opposed to buying used or something like that (I have used on my 4runner now), but if I had a family to haul around in it, standard parental paranoia very well might draw me away from them.

 

[Mr. Leary]

Kid, did I tell you that I really like your sig line? :bravo: