Are converted buses still subject to DOT regulations?

[Zork]

The reason why DOT specifies such high requirements is because commercial vehicles get a lot more use and abuse than non-commercial vehicles. That is why non-commercial vehicle regulation is left up to the states. It is not reasonable to state "virgin rubber only" when the vehicle will never see the kinds of loads and abuse that commercial vehicles get. RVs almost never see loads approaching the limits of the chassis.

[Seriousracer]

So
It’s your life your investment only. Why go half ass? It’s only 1200 to 1600 dollars comparatively to the rest of your investment. 12000 for your investment?
Dot standards aren’t that high in reality.
But
My life my investments doesn’t matter to you. I get it

End of pissing match you win.
Ohh by the way that semi gets less mileage then some motorhomes.

Edit
You have read elsewhere get the bus weight for axle weights.
I am pretty sure that you are no where , even near correct especially on a driver forward bus of “that they will never see load or abuse that a dot vehicle will”. I would argue it is more in your sense because of lack of maintenance and lack of knowledge to most who are in the Skoolie builds.
Thank god the big nasty big rigs have to go through a yearly dot and daily pre trips.

[Zork]

Originally Posted by Seriousracer

Ohh by the way that semi gets less mileage then some motorhomes.

Truck drivers drive an estimated 140 billion miles every year, and a single semi drives about 45,000 miles a year on average. According to the Federal Highway Administration, long-distance trucks travel upwards of 100,000 miles a year. 42% of all miles driven by commercial vehicles are driven by semi trucks.

With BS like yours, you're right, I win.

[Zork]

Originally Posted by Seriousracer

End of pissing match you win.
Ohh by the way that semi gets less mileage then some motorhomes.

Truck drivers drive an estimated 140 billion miles every year, and a single semi drives about 45,000 miles a year on average. According to the Federal Highway Administration, long-distance trucks travel upwards of 100,000 miles a year. 42% of all miles driven by commercial vehicles are driven by semi trucks.

With BS like yours, yes, you're absolutely correct. I win.

[Seriousracer]

Originally Posted by Zork

Truck drivers drive an estimated 140 billion miles every year, and a single semi drives about 45,000 miles a year on average. According to the Federal Highway Administration, long-distance trucks travel upwards of 100,000 miles a year. 42% of all miles driven by commercial vehicles are driven by semi trucks.

With BS like yours, yes, you're absolutely correct. I win.

Lol what bs did I say ?
Between our three semis we don’t do 45,000 a year.
Like I said “that semi does less then most motorhomes “

Come up to speed son the fact you seem to think it okay to tell an armature that tires don’t matter is the true bs
And your comment ( not a direct quote ) dot is overly regulated for commercial Motor Vehicles only. Is Bs there for sure. I even said as a cdl holder the regulations are not tight enough.

Enjoy being uninformed undereducated or what ever but don’t spread your bs of basically tires don’t matter. They carry the load they start stop and steer you. They matter more then the coolness of the build you are doing. They are designed for different positions on a commercial vehicle steer drive or trailer. Which just because you don’t use a bus for hauling passengers or commercial usage doesn’t mean the tire technologies don’t apply for positions.

[Dirtdoctor]

As stated before. Steer tires virgin rubber is what you want. Why would you risk an accident on your lives and investment. As a commercial trucker how has seen accidents - let’s say you crash and someone dies- investigators will find you had the wrong tires on amd your insurance will not cover you. ignorance is not an excuse. Plus it
Gives skip lies a bad name when folks skimp and ignore rules amd laws. Buy good steer tires.

Cheers

[BeNimble]

Don't buy an old school bus if you can't afford their true cost..
16in tires are relatively cheap. I note I found some 2018 22.5 truck tires for cheap ($60) so if you wait and keep looking, some used ones might show up.

[Zork]

Ah, I get it, small change fleet boy likes to lecture people on how much they think they know about everything. Got it. If steer recaps were anywhere near as dangerous as your imagination claims, they would have been banned long ago. Lawsuits would have killed them. And that must explain why Fedex and UPS both use retreads for steer axles.

Motormouth.

[john61ct]

Repeatedly stated that was their preference

and to each your own

your dollars your lives

You do you

[Seriousracer]

[QUOTE=Zork;436384]Ah, I get it, small change fleet boy likes to lecture people on how much they think they know about everything. Got it. If steer recaps were anywhere near as dangerous as your imagination claims, they would have been banned long ago. Lawsuits would have killed them. And that must explain why Fedex and UPS both use retreads for steer axles.

Motormouth.

Best you can do??

Your right small fleet. With a heavy haul trailers.
What’s your experience.?
Ever drive anything over 26k? Cdl ? Your spewing a lot of Internet facts.

We use recaps on the farm truck steers. Difference though

Basically they are on city and regional. No line haul Guys want them atleast the ones I know.
Yah they use them. Didn’t say they don’t
Didn’t say they were bad but if the carcass of the tire is already six years old would you want it on your steer of your bus??

It’s your investment it’s your life.
In reality trying to protect my investment my life
From people who don’t know.
I am pretty sure you fall in to that.

So what bs did I miss. You still have to point out the bs your upset about.
Come up to speed here son.
Argue like you know it.
Oh just throw poo. Your good.

[Zork]

Motor-mouthing awayyy... motor-mouthing awaaayyyy... LOL! Marine Corps, with experience driving rigs that make your tonka trucks look like... tonka trucks. My point has been made, thank you for helping me make it. Cya.

[Seriousracer]

Originally Posted by Zork

Motor-mouthing awayyy... motor-mouthing awaaayyyy... LOL! Marine Corps, with experience driving rigs that make your tonka trucks look like... tonka trucks. My point has been made, thank you for helping me make it. Cya.

Sure don’t act like a marine
Your welcome
Lol

[rossvtaylor]

Originally Posted by the7exp

Hello,

I was told this was a grey area and to ask on here for better advice. I understand that as a CDL driver your front wheels can NOT have drive type treads, but if your a private viechle as an RV does this rule still apply or can get away with it as long as the tire is SAFE. Please advise, thanks!

Hi The7Exp...this is a good question and I'll try to stay (in this part) to what I know to be fact.

I actually don't know of actual laws/regs related to tire type and positions, but that's just because I haven't seen it. I welcome a pointer to the applicable regs from anyone who has that, so I can add it to my resources folder.

I do know that Federal regulations prohibit recaps on the front of buses, but once our former-bus legally becomes an RV or motorhome...and is no longer carrying passengers...then it's not a bus. So, by definition, that regulation wouldn't apply.

As far as using recapped tires on the front, if it's not actually illegal on a motorhome, there's not any real evidence or data which supports the common assertion that recaps are more likely to fail than a virgin tire. The best study I know of was done by the University of Michigan, sponsored by NHTSA, and that study of tire debris (from the road and from tire shops) showed that both recap and virgin tires failed at the same rate.

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitst...517/102117.pdf

Now, having shared what I believe to be facts I'll share my personal thoughts here.

First, I think if people are being safe and taking care not to injure others then I don't care what they do. I do run recaps on a couple of our buses. I'm fortunate to be in a position in life where I own enough buses that I cannot tell you, without counting them, how many we have. 11 or 12? I get quality recaps based on Michelin or other name-brand cases and we've been very happy with them. Granted, I'm running those on the rear and have only run virgin tires on the fronts...primarily because some of these buses will remain legal buses. But I'll be honest, I wouldn't be afraid to run those on the front/steer position if I had to. Again, this is my own position based on experience and the best-available data/study...it's not a recommendation, primarily because I don't feel like I'm in a position to tell you what to do. But if a recap is legal on a motorhome...and if the best analysis of tires shows that a recap is no more likely to fail, and therefore no less safe...what's to prevent someone from doing it safely based on their situation?

[Iceni John]

And here's a funny example of why to have good tires on the front. A few years ago I was at ABC Bus to get some parts, and I noticed a late-model Van Hool tour bus there (ABC Bus is the USA distributor for Van Hool) owned by one of the many Chinese bus lines in SoCal that do casino trips for their Chinese clientele. You know these buses - they have signs in Chinese and English saying things like "No Spitting On The Floor". All the rear tires were some some unknown generic cheapo Chinese brand like Hu Flung Dung or Long Dong or something similar, but the fronts were new Michelin XCEs that cost over $800 each. If the notoriously-thrifty Chinese owners didn't trust Chinese crappy tires on the front and saw the wisdom of expensive high-quality steer tires, shouldn't all of us? There are some places to save money on a bus conversion, and there are other places where you should get the best you can for peace-of-mind if nothing else, but steer tires are not where you cheap out. Buses aren't a cheap hobby, and buying good tires is just part of the our responsibility to other road users.

John

[Sehnsucht]

Originally Posted by Iceni John

Buses aren't a cheap hobby

This says it all right here. I didn't want to come down hard on the OP in the first reply but honestly this has been the recurring point on this topic. If skimping on a couple of steer tires is where you are already then this isn't the venture for you.

[Booyah45828]

Retreads are more dangerous then virgins, even today, where the retreads are pretty reliable. But there is no argument against that statement, we see more retreads fail then virgins.

Money can be saved by using retreads, and fleet wide that savings can turn into a large sum. Using them on drives/trailers, the danger posed is very small, if the tire fails in the drive/trailer position, the vehicle won’t overturn or cause issues because the other tires on the axle can carry the load. If the tire fails on the steer position, all bets are off.

As far as liability is concerned, the last time that I'm aware of a tire manufacturer being held liable for a failed product was firestone in the late 90's, and that's after they proved the known negligence in court. Most retreaders are very open about the possibility of failure, as are most tire dealers.

I believe ups and fedex only use retreads on city delivery trucks, not their semi trucks, but I could be wrong. I'll ask the ups man the next time he's here.

As far as the bickering and name calling, there's no need for it, and I'm surprised a moderator hasn't cleaned this up yet. Some of you know better, others should hit the site rules https://www.skoolie.net/forums/misc....ork&page=rules

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

i will send you my rims that meet your spec if you will send me the ones you want to get rid of?
already know the answer? you already have trucks to make them spares for.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

sorry i guess i didnt get the entire thread before i posted but now i am past it.

[Brad_SwiftFur]

As a professional truck driver for over 25 years, I will not run recaps as steer tires, unless it's a vehicle that never goes fast, nor far from home/shop (within a few miles). In that case, should one fail, it's at a modest speed (unlikely to crash) and help is nearby.
You should be able to shop around and find good steer tires for around $350-400 each, you might be able to swap to a common size like 11r22.5 for some savings. Consider getting higher load range tires if the price difference is modest. I once bought some drive tires for a company I was working for and the cost difference between load ranges (of the same brand/model/size) of tire was about a buck per tire. Needless to say, I went with the higher load range rating (since we hauled heavy loads).

[o1marc]

Speaking of tires, I still have a set of 6 mounted and for sale.