Truck tire debris

[JDgreen227]

I lost the tread off of an LT235/85R16 and blew one out while I was hauling hay. The tires looked brand-new but were about 6 years old.

My Y2K GMC 3/4 ton has less than 40,000 miles on the OEM Firestones which are LT245/75R16 load range E's, and they still have excellent tread with almost no sidewall cracking and the truck is usually stored indoors. I would have no misgivings about taking it to Florida tomorrow. What ticks me off though, is for the obscene price you pay for today's new tires they should last a LOT LONGER than six years without self-destructing, as Jesse1 has experienced.

 

[Bird]

It does seem to me that there's more tire debris on the roads than ever. Saturday we just went about a hundred miles north into Oklahoma on I-35 and saw lots of it. I agree that all the possible reasons given in this thread are possibilities. In 1990, we went to Alaska and after we got to Anchorage, I found bubbles on two of the travel trailer tires. The trailer wasn't much over a year old, but I discovered I was running 7,300 pounds on two 3,500 pound axles, so that, and some very rough roads might have had something to do with it.:laughing:

But only one time have I had a tire actually loose its tread. In the Spring of 1995, I bought a used, but new looking, 5' x 10' tiltbed trailer so I'm not sure how old the tires were, but they looked almost new. And I know they were properly inflated when on the Sunday before Memorial Day, 38 miles east of Pendleton, OR, on I-84, all the tread came off the left tire, bent the fender, but the tire was still inflated, and since I had no spare, it made it on into Pendleton without going flat. And on a Sunday before a holiday, I was very very fortunate to find a "Bi-Mart" open; a membership place that I'd never even heard of. And even though we weren't members, I talked to the manager and they had two tires already mounted and inflated on wheels that fit my trailer. I could hardly believe my good fortune that day when he sold me the pair for $140.

 

[Bob77064]

Inflation is a big issue, that's why the vehicles have the TPMS (tire pressure monitor system) now. Another thing with the 18 wheelers is that recap tires have become more popular, I have even seen recaps on school busses.

 

[Bird]

Inflation is a big issue, that's why the vehicles have the TPMS (tire pressure monitor system) now. Another thing with the 18 wheelers is that recap tires have become more popular, I have even seen recaps on school busses.

Yeah, recaps get a lot of blame, but many many years ago, a study was published that made a lot of sense to me. Look at the rubber that's on the road. Does it show signs of the tire cords? Most do, but wouldn't if it were the cap and not the body of the tire. Of course you may say that the recapping process weakened the tire and caused it to blow out, and I'm sure not expert enough to contradict that, although some who are experts have claimed it isn't so. It's been quite awhile ago when one of my brothers owned a couple of 18 wheelers and he once said the best tires (at that time) that he'd found was to run new Michelins 40k miles, recap them (Bandag recapping), and run them another 60k miles (yep, the recaps outlasted original tread).

My only personal experience with recaps was when I took two Gates tires to be recapped, then put them on my 1956 Mercury Montclair convertible in 1958, and in spite of a lot of hotrodding, they never gave me any problem. Then in 1960, I bought 4 recapped tires to put on my Studebaker Silver Hawk. Again, no problems.

 

[JDgreen227]

Bird, I am usually going too fast to tell what the tire chunks really look like, but the last chunk of truck tire rubber I got a good look at was a full cap that had peeled off a recap tire in one complete donut. I stopped on a 2 lane road to pick it up off the shoulder, and I cut it to make a 6 foot long rubber edge for my rear blade, and the entire width of the tread was reinforced with brass plated steel wires that I had to cut and drill through. When you say "cords" I don't know if you refer to fabric or steel cords but the donut I picked up had "cords" inside it.

 

[aczlan]

Bird, I am usually going too fast to tell what the tire chunks really look like, but the last chunk of truck tire rubber I got a good look at was a full cap that had peeled off a recap tire in one complete donut. I stopped on a 2 lane road to pick it up off the shoulder, and I cut it to make a 6 foot long rubber edge for my rear blade, and the entire width of the tread was reinforced with brass plated steel wires that I had to cut and drill through. When you say "cords" I don't know if you refer to fabric or steel cords but the donut I picked up had "cords" inside it.

Could be a "Cold retread" where they put a "tread ring" around the "scalped" old tire rather than a "Hot retread" where the melted rubber is fused to the "scalped" tire.
See: Retread - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for some more info.

Aaron Z

 

[Mace Canute]

. Every tire I have ever had fail on a passenger vehicle or trailer has been correctly inflated. I had a complete de-capping on my pickup last spring. I had checked all the tires when I fueled up, and 5 minutes later it failed catastrophically, the rubber tread tore up the fender and liner at 70 mph on the freeway. The tire body stayed inflated, though, and was still at 30 PSI!

Here's the thing, I would never consider a truck tire to be properly inflated at 30 psi. I'd consider that to be under inflated, especially considering the load one can carry on a pick-up. The term "properly inflated" seems to be more subjective than objective.

 

[phiferpharm]

I guess age could have some bearing if you are talking about an old tire that gets recapped, but with the number of hours my son drives, 7 days a week for 5 to 6 weeks without days off, I can't imagine any tire lasting for years. I know he is paid by the mile, so if that is the same for most 18 wheelers, they got to be putting 600 or so miles a day on their rigs.

 

[Bird]

Bird, I am usually going too fast to tell what the tire chunks really look like, but the last chunk of truck tire rubber I got a good look at was a full cap that had peeled off a recap tire in one complete donut. I stopped on a 2 lane road to pick it up off the shoulder, and I cut it to make a 6 foot long rubber edge for my rear blade, and the entire width of the tread was reinforced with brass plated steel wires that I had to cut and drill through. When you say "cords" I don't know if you refer to fabric or steel cords but the donut I picked up had "cords" inside it.

They have some newer methods than the ones I was familiar with long ago. It used to be that if there were steel or fabric cords, then it was the original casing, not a recap. But that may not be the case today.

 

[timswi]

I got hit on the windshield of my pickup going 75mph last week with tire debris...Sounded like someone threw a brick at me...Left a black skid mark up the glass...Fortunately no broken glass or paint damage...That scared the beejeebers out of me..Never saw it coming.

We have TT tire debris everywhere in PA too..:grumpy: