[smallpoxgirl]

Does anyone know, is there a reason that used tires can't be recycled? Seems like you could melt down the rubber and reuse it, and recycled the steel and reuse it. Maybe it doesn't work that way though.

[dohboi]

Generally with recyling of anything other than glass and maybe aluminum, the quality degrades with each recyling, so you can't make the same product. As far as I've heard, tires have been shredded and used in roads, but I haven't heard of them being made into new tires.

But that's just off the top of my head.

[pup55]

i$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 's') there a reason that used tires can't be recycled

[bratticus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://www.spokanejournal.com/spokane_id=article&sub=3632]Tire dealer mines rich vein (link)[/url]
By Mike McLean
Spokane Journal of Business
June 12, 2008

...“We didn’t do much sales in the U.S. last year,” he says. “We buy and send tires overseas.”...

...Servine says some brand new mining equipment is sitting on blocks for lack of tires.

“We have open orders with some customers,” he says. “If we find two tires for them, we buy them. If we find 12, we buy all 12, because we know we already have the customers.”...

[Tanada]

Speaking of Tires I am in need of a new set and have been doing a lot of boning up on the subject to balance fuel economy, bad weather/road conditions and tread life for my next set of tires. One of the things I have re-discovered is that higher pressure promotes greater fuel economy and then I had a startling thought. For many cars in the USA you can substitute LT (Light Truck) tires for P (Passenger car) of the same size. This would allow you to go from a typical tire pressure of 32 psi to 65 psi, which should give you a significant improvement in fuel mileage.

Have any of you done so and if so how much difference did you notice in comfort and handling vs improved fuel economy? Higher profile tires are inherently more efficient if properly inflated and LT tires start with an aspect ratio of 75, at least I have not seen any for sale below that ratio. The OEM tires on my wife's car are P195/60R15, the only LT tire assembly of the same size is the smallest available size without special order, the LT175/75R14. On the ground the two tires are only .3 inches (7.6 mm) different in circumference causing less than half a percent difference in speedometer accuracy. However it would mean buying an additional set of rimes for the car to minus size by 1. If the fuel economy improvement is enough it will be worth it, but I am hoping someone has real world experience to back up that belief. The OEM tires have a max inflation of 35 psi while the LT alternate tires are rated for 50 psi.

Another factor is the LT alternate set would be 20 mm narrower than the OEM set, which gives better traction in snow or muck and more resistance to hydroplaning when the tires are half through their tread lifetime because the vehicular weight is concentrated in a smaller footprint.

Thoughts or real world experience anyone?

[SeaGypsy]

I had a set of aircraft tyres rated to 120psi on my motorhome, which gave a noticeable bit of extra mileage. Drove around Australia a few times with a variety of tyres, these lasted the longest and gave easy streering (unpowered) as well. More than anything I found to improve mileage slowing down on the highway to about 45 to 50 MPH (70-80kmh) was the really big one. I was getting 8km/ litre- 20mpg out of a small diesel driving a 4.5 ton vehicle at these speeds on these tyres. I got them off an old airforce friend for nix.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'I') had a set of aircraft tyres rated to 120psi on my motorhome, which gave a noticeable bit of extra mileage. Drove around Australia a few times with a variety of tyres, these lasted the longest and gave easy streering (unpowered) as well. More than anything I found to improve mileage slowing down on the highway to about 45 to 50 MPH (70-80kmh) was the really big one. I was getting 8km/ litre- 20mpg out of a small diesel driving a 4.5 ton vehicle at these speeds on these tyres. I got them off an old airforce friend for nix.

[SeaGypsy]

They fit straight on an Isuzu 4.5 ton truck. They had a slightly elevated profile, about an extra inch in diameter to LT tyres and a straight flat tread. From memory they were 18 inch 24 ply.
Here is a site in Oz selling used aircraft tyres:

http://www.airecy.com.au/TyresList.html

The ratings blitz anything else on the market for strength, the straight tread is very efficient. You can get any size up to 22 inch wheel size.

I got about 50,000 km out of them with not a single flat ever, and that was driving on extremely rough roads about half that distance.

[Revi]

I noticed the last time I bought tires that the price had doubled since the last time I bought them. Ouch! I was wondering why. They told me that the Chinese were to blame, because they couldn't get tires from there or something. Who knows? I figure it's another thing that is getting more expensive. I always wonder how everyone else around here can afford such expensive tires. They all seem to be driving big trucks with big tires. They must not be paying the mortgage or something.

[SeaGypsy]

In much of SE Asia people run their tyres to the metal because they can't afford even retreads. Driving at night in Manila it's common to see sparks flying off worn out tyres, the police have given up enforcing laws about this.

[the48thronin]

The difference between low pr 24.5 tires and rims. and 1100 22.5 ( standard profile) is less than 2 pounds per tire. The air pressure ratings are the same 110 pounds in my class. The tread depth of a drive type tire is 31/32s of an inch new. Virgin tires last me 400,000 miles Then I can sell them for 75$ casing fee to a recapper who recaps them. If I have need I put them instead on my trailer.

I use the lowprofile 22.5s on my truck , My wife uses lp 24.5 Our mileage expectations (usable life of tire) are equal. Because of GEARING my truck gets maximum fuel mileage at 58 MPH and my wifes aerodynamic truck gets the same at 58 or 74 MPH but loses almost a mile a gallon to go only 65 MPH due to being out of the power curve on the motor between gears.

They are touting new low rolling resistance tires as 6 percent fuel savers, but it is a scam.

The LRR tires have only 19/32 tread depth when new and were tested against new 31/32 depth tires, over the life of a tire when the tread gets down in the 19/32 range you always see a slight increase in mileage, and when it gets down to 10/32 you see even more due to the loss of weight in the wheel/tire assembly you are turning. DUH!

Most drivers lower dual tires down to 100 PSI for a better ride and don't realize they are shaving 100,000 miles off the life of a tire and losing 10 percent of their fuel mileage.. But then most do not have that accurate a record keeping system anyway.

Truck tires in the USA can only be recapped if the carcasses are less than 4 years old by reputable recappers, my carcasses are at or beyond the 4 year mark before I take them off and replace them with new virgin tires. ( I take mine off at 5 to 7 32nds)

Trailer tires are even when new only 17/ 32s or less tread depth Typically they are 11/32. My drive tires with 400,000 miles on them usually go onto my trailer for 2 more years and are removed when they get down to the 3/32 area at which time most recappers will still accept them for trailer recapping but not all recappers due to carcass life span lmits.

ps I only purchase tires that have MADE IN USA on them... my friends who buy Chinese brands get less than 200,000 miles out of them.

[Tanada]

For those of us not driving trucks of either heavy or light variety there have to be trade offs for passenger car tires. Anyone have any data?

[the48thronin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'F')or those of us not driving trucks of either heavy or light variety there have to be trade offs for passenger car tires. Anyone have any data?

[pup55]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')or many cars in the USA you can substitute LT (Light Truck) tires for P (Passenger car) of the same size. This would allow you to go from a typical tire pressure of 32 psi to 65 psi, which should give you a significant improvement in fuel mileage

[vtsnowedin]

A lot of good points in the above posts. I would add only that the tires for a car a designed with a certain amount of flex in the sidewalls. This comes into play when you need to make a sudden lane shift at speed. In testing they call it a J turn. A deer jumps into the lane your in. you yank the wheel to the left then back to the right. How well the car responds to this depends on a lot of things between the road and the frame with the tires being one of them. The longer the full width of the tread pattern is in contact with the road and not skidding the more control you will have. Switching to stiffer sidewall tires will reduce this time and make your car less responsive. Saving a little gas will seem silly if you roll your car or run off the road into a ledge because you started skidding twenty feet sooner then you would have with the right tires for the car.

[pup55]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')aving a little gas will seem silly if you roll your car or run off the road into a ledge because you started skidding twenty feet sooner then you would have with the right tires for the car.

[Revi]

Tires are expensive. There are a lot of people around here with $200 tires. That means when they wear out the driver needs to cough up $800. Remember retreads? It may be time to figure out some other cheaper, but still safe kind of tire in order to keep our cars running.

[pup55]

I keep thinking there will be a renaissance in that business at some point... Back in the stone age, a retreaded passenger tire would sell for about 1/3 the amount of an original one.... so you figure that for a 200 dollar tire, some schmoe might pay 65 or so to get a retread, and the cost to do the retreading is sufficiently low that there could be a little business there....

The thing that killed it was the imports, obviously. On some of the low end vehicles it's still possible to get a chinese tire for 75 or so, and at 25 dollars a tire it's practically impossible to recover the casing, pay for the tread rubber, do the actual retreading and redistribute it to the customer for that....

Plus it's nasty work.

Truck tires work, though, I think the new ones were about 400 dollars, last I checked, and you could get a retread for about 100-120 so that starts to work economically....especially if you can retread the same casings 3 or 4 times...

You're always going to have the stigma of the old days, when a lot of people were in that business who had no idea what the hell they were doing.... but in a world of no interstate highways, annual vehicle travel being under 5000 miles per year, and low speeds, the performance issues were manageable.

Nowadays, your friend is going to expect to drive those high performance retreads at the same 110 mph that he would the OE tires, without fear of failure, and at the same ride quality as the original tires.... that's the hard part.... people are more tuned into ride quality than they ever were back in the dinosaur era....at least for the time being.

[vtsnowedin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'T')ires are expensive. There are a lot of people around here with $200 tires. That means when they wear out the driver needs to cough up $800. Remember retreads? It may be time to figure out some other cheaper, but still safe kind of tire in order to keep our cars running.

[the48thronin]

Truck tires 22.5 low profile.. if you buy 8 at a time you can get them in a lug tread from a cheap brand at 3200 ( price includes them giving you $75 dollar trade in or you pay more.

The brand I buy ( Kelly made in USA ) 8 new drive tires 4,000 dollars includes 45$ trade in for a recappable casing) or you pay more.

Accutrac recaps made in Kentucky , (they will only cap bridgstone or michelin casings) $280 each casing must be less than 4 years old and only certan steer tire casing accepted.

low budget USED tires any brand your risk 5/32 tread at a truck stop $300 used recaps same stipulations same tread depth $250.

The chances of capping a casing more than once... zilch!

The chances you can save money buying cheap tires or recaps....NONE!

IF you have a mega fleet and own your own recapper... you can pretend to save money and hold out hoping they pass cap and trade. Sell your carbon credits from recapping maybe?


Back to reality 400,000 miles from 8 drive tires ( half will last more than that but none will make 500,000 most likely. You will also use 4 steer tires and have all of them suitable for trailer mounting, you will only get 45$ for the casings on the drive tires and 50% of them will have been rplaced between 300 and 400 thousand anyway. The chances you can wear all 8 tires out at once....NONE!

Why do they sell used tires and recaps at truck stops.. because fleets hire people they do not know including a certain number of thieves. You see fleet drivers carrying home the flat/blown tire to prove they didn't sell it. The fleet buys anything that will get their truck/trailer to their own shop and then they put on tires and sell the used ones locally and they make thier way back to the used tire rack at the nearest TS or to a capper.