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Old 02-26-2018, 09:11 PM   #1
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Tire life expectancy

Can anyone give their experience on tire life. I have a 40 foot 2 axle 6 tires. New tires or retreads? Any input is appreciated.

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Old 02-26-2018, 10:39 PM   #2
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Can anyone give their experience on tire life. I have a 40 foot 2 axle 6 tires. New tires or retreads? Any input is appreciated.
I'm gonna be watching this one...I'm wondering too

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Old 02-27-2018, 05:31 AM   #3
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Bus tires (like care or truck tires) wear differently depending on the way they are driven and on what.
I bought 60,000 miles tires on the rears. I didn't like the idea or retreads - but I know many use them. I mostly drive backroads - and some highway, maybe a cow pasture or two - but my expectations is that they will be there the 60K miles, likely more. The previous tires were from 2009 - and the bus (a 2000) had 290k miles when I got it. They had decent tread left - they were just worn oddly.

Keeping them properly inflated and a balanced load will certainly prolong the life of the tires - I would think.
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Old 02-27-2018, 06:41 AM   #4
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they mostly age out, check the tire date code. first two numbers are the week it was made and the second two are year. its a four digit code. most say dont run anything older than 8 years old on the front and 10 on the back. retreads are illegal on the front. from what i understand retreads dont like to sit in one place for long periods of time, makes them fall apart.
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Old 02-27-2018, 07:10 AM   #5
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they mostly age out
Exactly!!

I use the 7 year rule of thumb that is used by most motorhome/coach folks.
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Old 02-27-2018, 07:14 AM   #6
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I know peoiple like to age out tires... I look for actual tire wear and damage.. weather cracks, tread separation, etc regardless of age.. many RVers put covers over their tires when parked to keep UV from damaging them. since they often put far less miles on their rigs than what the tire wear would be.. tire inflation is extremely iomportant on our busses.. under inflated tires will wear out or fail catastrophically.. its more important than ever on our busses to make sure the tires are properly inflated..

im not a fan of re-treads but people use them.. as mentioned you cant use retreads on the front.. ive also heard that retreads dont fair well for vehicles that site for long periods...

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Old 02-27-2018, 07:42 AM   #7
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We had a semi throw a retread at us on the way to the skoolie swarm the other weekend. Not the first time that has happened to me, in fact I can think of two other times in my life that it happened. Now I know the smell of it happening. I've never witnessed a real tire fail on someone else's vehicle. Anecdotal I know but I won't run a retread.
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Old 02-27-2018, 08:03 AM   #8
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We had a semi throw a retread at us on the way to the skoolie swarm the other weekend. Not the first time that has happened to me, in fact I can think of two other times in my life that it happened. Now I know the smell of it happening. I've never witnessed a real tire fail on someone else's vehicle. Anecdotal I know but I won't run a retread.
Be aware that semis tend to run faster, and carry much higher loads. Re-treads are a different proposition on a fairly light bus at reasonable speeds.
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Old 02-27-2018, 09:49 AM   #9
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Recaps on the rear are OK. NEVER run them on the front.
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Old 02-28-2018, 07:02 PM   #10
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in truck use I have had as many tires that are not retreads blow out as retreads. Inflation, overwieght, hot days, all can cause trouble. Had not heard about sitting a long time effecting retreads, hmmm might look into that. I have not priced new tires for my bus yet, and it has been a while since I have since I have sold my larger trucks.
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Old 02-28-2018, 07:33 PM   #11
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tires age out, I now have all new tires , did the steers 2 summers ago, and the drives last summer. I'm not a fan of retreads, they can do a lot of damage if the blow apart on you, think of all your holding tanks, pipes, wires, etc that you might have under your bus, blow a tire at hwy speed, and a chance of a lot of damage.
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on a side note, my drives where snow tires, where like new when I bought the bus so I left them on for 6 years, new tires are summers, big difference in noise, and worked out to 1mpg more, I did the math, and the tires will pay for themselves in a couple years, we use the bus a lot
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Old 02-28-2018, 07:35 PM   #12
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I do a full DOT inspection every year and they go buy the 7-year date code.
My tires look good but they aged out this year.
For me it is 1800$ minimum for 6 new sneakers.
From what I understand you can only run steer tires or all position tires on the front 2.
The rears can be anything not aged out.
My bus has tires on them with the school districts name melted in and say regroovable but have not found anything that says anything about a regroovable being a retread?
Either way all of mine aged out?
The 1800$ was being cheap but I really want to put all position tires all the way around so I can always pull a spare from the rear if needed to the front and have a retread as a spare for the back.
That's to the tune of 2600$
Don't want to carry two different spares but I might be making room for them anyway
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Old 02-28-2018, 07:38 PM   #13
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I once in the 70s attempted to ride my Triumph 500 chopper to Calif. from Ct. I was about an hour into N.Y. when about a 3' chunk of retread left the truck in front and to my right, hitting me in the right knee and almost taking me off the bike. Scared the fark out of me. I turned around and went home. Hitch hiked out to Calif. and came back later for my bike.
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Old 02-28-2018, 07:44 PM   #14
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I have a close friend that a full chuck took him off his bike across the chest on the interstate.
But as mentioned those are at higher speeds and a lot heavier weight than what we will put them through.
Not saying I want to buy any but not saying I won't when in a bind.
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Old 02-28-2018, 09:41 PM   #15
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I suspect most people who see tire bits assume they are a retread. If you look closely the tread on a retread does not have any cords in it, just rubber. Many of the tire "treads" you see on the road have cords hanging out. This is total tire failure not just a tread coming off.

I have never had a retread loose it's tread. Now I am not saying that is does not happen, nor am I saying that all retreads are great, however nothing to be scared of either. If someone feels better with all new and can afford them then go for it.
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Old 05-22-2019, 07:39 PM   #16
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Cut Sidewall

I just noticed a long cut in the sidewall of the outer rear dual, it is very thin like someone cut it with a knife. The length is around a foot. No cords are poking through, no bulges and the pressure has not decreased. I have only driven maybe 60 miles since I have noticed. Has anyone had experience with this? Are there any ways to repair it?
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Old 05-22-2019, 07:52 PM   #17
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I just noticed a long cut in the sidewall of the outer rear dual, it is very thin like someone cut it with a knife. The length is around a foot. No cords are poking through, no bulges and the pressure has not decreased. I have only driven maybe 60 miles since I have noticed. Has anyone had experience with this? Are there any ways to repair it?
I'm not aware of any tire shop that wants to stay in business, attempting a sidewall repair.
The sidewall flexes constantly while running down the road so they should not be repaired.
Having said that, there's an old timer near me who will put a vulcanized patch inside a tire sidewall if it's a relatively small puncture i.e.; a knife blade stuck into or icepick sized puncture. So it can be done, but he won't patch/repair the outside of a sidewall...
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Old 05-22-2019, 09:00 PM   #18
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I suspect most people who see tire bits assume they are a retread. If you look closely the tread on a retread does not have any cords in it, just rubber. Many of the tire "treads" you see on the road have cords hanging out. This is total tire failure not just a tread coming off.

I have never had a retread loose it's tread. Now I am not saying that is does not happen, nor am I saying that all retreads are great, however nothing to be scared of either. If someone feels better with all new and can afford them then go for it.
I worked at a tire retread business at one time, and looking through the trade magazines, read an item on tire blowouts on aircraft - retreads on their first and second times of being retreaded had less of a failure rate than new tires - the reason being that the casings were proven - the defective casings showed up before they needed to be recapped
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Old 05-23-2019, 05:17 AM   #19
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I worked at a tire retread business at one time, and looking through the trade magazines, read an item on tire blowouts on aircraft - retreads on their first and second times of being retreaded had less of a failure rate than new tires - the reason being that the casings were proven - the defective casings showed up before they needed to be recapped
I had forgotten about that. I have heard it too, just was lost in the dusty memory......
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Old 05-25-2019, 01:36 PM   #20
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This is the cheapest drive tire available in America that I could find. Got 4 for my bus. Walmart shipped the first set and lost them, then sent a replacement set to the local store. When I went to pick them up they had all 8 tires that were ordered and all were 8r 19.5 not 11r 22.5. Waiting on a third set.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sumitomo-...146Y/147449012
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