2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Treadwright Recaps???

[Walleye mike]

Anybody have results with these? https://www.treadwright.com/

 

[BDaugherty]

over the years i've seen many positive reviews in various 4x4 magazines. honestly, with the recent rash of blowouts related to carcass age, i would want to be able to check the date codes before purchase. also, the tread patterns look great.

 

[mwilson]

over the years i've seen many positive reviews in various 4x4 magazines. honestly, with the recent rash of blowouts related to carcass age, i would want to be able to check the date codes before purchase. also, the tread patterns look great.

Take casings that you already have and know the history of to your local truck tire retreader. Better results IMHO.



Mike.

 

[HHhuntitall]

I bought some from this guy about 6-7 years ago... . They're in South Dakota, IIRC. He garaunteed me they'd balance within 7oz or less. He lied. Badly. The best one took 9oz. The next one took 17oz, and the rest couldn't be balanced..... I switched rims, turned them 90-180* and still no luck. The return shipping was so much, I just kept them and put them on a tractor, if that tells you anything. The best two became spares... I was really disappointed in them. The carcasses were Pro Comps, and they've held up well, as none have blown out. One tread has began to seperate, but they don't have any real mileage on them. Hard to rack up the miles at 12mph... . The tractor does have a loader on it, so it helps say they're pretty tough in that respect. Never had a flat.....



I suppose they could have greatly improved thier product, and presume they had to have, if they're still in business. If you go ahead with them, good luck. I'll avoid them the best I can.

 

[MChrist]

Take casings that you already have and know the history of to your local truck tire retreader. Better results IMHO.



Mike.

Treadwright says not to send in your casings, since you may not get those particular ones back, and it becomes less coss effective when you include shipping them there.

I spent yesterday researching Treadwright, and almost all of the reviews were from people using them for rock climbing or mud trails. I found none from people using them for high mile or highway speed/towing speed applications.

They have a few different tread patters depending on your tire size. The most common is their GuardDog pattern, which is similar to a Goodyear MTR/Discoverer STT pattern. Pretty aggressive, but most people don't complain about that. They have another pattern called Warden, which is similar to the BFG A/T, and another design, Sentinal, that is similar to a Cooper Discoverer A/T3.

I've read only a few reports of people having problems with the tires, and that their customer service is great. Seems if you have a problem and you contact them, they will get a new tire out to you at no charge. Try that with anybody else!

One of our guys with a Dodge 2500 gasser has the GuardDogs on his truck and really likes them. He has less than 3,000 miles on them so far, just back and forth to work, so no heavy work on them yet. When he told me they were retreads, I thought he was wrong. There is no indication that they are, since they don't have that tell-tale rubber blob/strip between casing and tread.

Treadwright even offers something called "Kedge Grip" which involves crushed glass and walnut shell grindings (1 mm) in their tread. Apparently, the walnut shells are sacrificial, so when the road removes the little walnut pieces, the tread is left with the walnut void, which in turn gives more biting edges to the rubber, much like sipes. I'm not sure how the crushed glass helps, but people rave about the traction in the rain and icy snow conditions. The Kedge option is $10/tire, but tires wear 10-20% faster due to less rubber.

For those with 19. 5s, they also offer 2 patterns. One looks like a good highway pattern that would do fine on snow and even wet dirt trails. The other is a very aggressive off road pattern.

I priced out (4) 225/70/19. 5s at $520 delivered to my shop. (Shipping was $84 of that price). The only drawback I could find is that the tread depth on the highway pattern I picked was listed as only 14/32". The Bandag retreads we normally get are 22/32" and cost $150/tire plus tax, but no shipping. So, roughly $30 more/tire gives me 8/32" more tread and less labor over time replacing tires, assuming I would get more miles using deeper tread...



And for the inevitable "retreads are junk" comments, let me say that I've been using retreads since 1986 and haven't had a blow-out or tread separation on any truck until last Friday... and that was a brand new truck with virgin tires!!! I thought that was funny in a way. That truck apparently ran over a board with nails, poked 2 holes, tire pressure dropped, tire got hot and blew! That truck now has 9 virgin tires and a half-worn retread. Half worn to match the outside diameter of the half-worn virgin tire next to it. (word to the wise... in a tandem/dually situation, always match tire diameters whenever you can. A full tread tire right next to a half tread tire means more weight will be carried by the taller tire, thus more traction on that tire, less on the shorter one. The tire next to it will be dragged along an extra couple inches per revolution, wearing the shorter tire and putting extra drag on the taller tire, scalloping the tread and ruining two tires... )

 

[mwilson]

I wasn't knocking retreads, we retread tires here. I'm a fan of reusing the casings and sticking new rubber on them for many applications.



What I was trying to get across was a man is a lot better off retreading what he has. A local retreader will make sure that a customer get his same tires back as opposed to the luck of the draw from a distant retreader.



Life of a retread is directly related to the condition of the casings. See it everyday.



Mike.

 

[MChrist]

Mike, I didn't think that you were knocking retreads. My comment wasn't directed to you, I just used your quote to address what Treadwright told me about sending in casings.
My comment about people squawking that "retreads are junk" was meant for people wanting to chime in and say that. . not directed to you. Although I can see how it could have been taken that way.
No worries.

 

[mwilson]

No problem, I did not take it as such.



I also tire(pun?) of people knocking retreads, the finished product is no better than the donated casing.



Under-inflation of the casing in it's previous life will bring on its early demise as a retreaded product.



Mike.

 

[Bob4x4]

I used Petes road service for big rig caps here in Cali on big rigs and lift trucks. Got to tour their cap shop as well very interesting. I would not have considered capping pick up tires back then but now with some tires at the $400+ mark maybe it is a viable option now

 

[mgonske]

I've been using Treadwrights with the Kedgegrip as snow tires (their all-terrain tread pattern) on my truck for five years. That includes pretty serious winter driving, commuting, highway trips, towing, the whole nine yards. I eventually stopped bothering with summer tires (only use them four months out of the year here anyway). I've never had a problem with the Treadwrights; in fact I've been very impressed with the snow performance over my BFG All-terrains (waited too late one year to change, and was surprised to not be able to get up my driveway with the BFGs, as I normally take it for granted with the Treadwrights).



Bottom line, I started using them for snow tires, and ended up using them full-time. That's just my experience.