Remoulds

[Veryoldbear]

I need to use the A34 quite regularly. Just about every time I go up or down I see a tyre remould where it has come adrift. How come that HGVs are allowed remoulds, whereas these were banned many moons ago for cars .....?

[Tigerj]

I thought remoulds are still allowed in cars.

[Dog Star]

I would imagine that the advent of Chinese ditchfinders has all but destroyed the car remould market.

I’m sure that all these comedy named things weren’t available back in the early 90s.

Back then you bought a Kingpin remould; nowadays it’s a LingLongLiveYouLongtime etc.

[GeniusOfLove]

Veryoldbear said:

How come that HGVs are allowed remoulds, whereas these were banned many moons ago for cars .....?

There is an awful lot more material in an HGV carcass to dispose of than for a car, so from a cost and environmental point of view remoulds are a good idea. I do recall seeing the odd tread that's come away but only a handful of times, I imagine a supplier of remoulds that fail frequently wouldn't last long given the cost and time impact each time it happens.

I don't think they're banned for passenger car tyres, I just don't think anyone bothers when Chinese ditchfinders are so cheap?

https://btmauk.com/policy-positions/truck-tyre-ret...

"A commercial vehicle fleet with a retread tyre policy uses 3 times less resource and 4 times fewer tyres than an equivalent company buying single life tyres. Retreaded tyres are made to the same exacting standards as new ones and are widely used on aircraft as well as trucks and buses. Over 80% of truck tyre retreads used in the UK are made in the UK: the industry supports 5,500 jobs, many in deprived areas.

However, in the last decade the market share of retreaded truck tyres had declined by over 30% under pressure from short-lived single-life tyres from low-cost countries. UK retreaders are now rebuilding the market share of retreaded truck tyres towards its historic level approaching 50%. This would save approximately 300,000 truck tyres per year."

I'd trust a UK retreaded truck tyre over some Chinese ste any day.

[kambites]

Retreading tyres is still pretty standard on things like HGVs, tractors and aeroplanes. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with it if it's done properly, as above the reason no-one does it with car tyres these days is that new budget car tyres are so cheap.

[GeniusOfLove]

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/features/retread-truck...

20KG in a retreaded tyre vs 70KG in a new one. Even Michelin appear to want people to do it!

[swisstoni]

Remoulds were a godsend when I was a skint teenager.
They were really cheap compared to new tyres.

Nowadays I’m a bit of a brand snob. So I have no clue how much ditchfinders cost.

But I doubt the price differential is as great as I enjoyed at local East End ‘outlets’ in those days.

[GeniusOfLove]

swisstoni said:

But I doubt the price differential is as great as I enjoyed at local East End ‘outlets’ in those days.

You'd be amazed. 285/30/R20 for my XKR, camskill unfitted price:

Eagle F1 Supersport R - £302
Eagle F1 Supersport - £252
Continental ContiSport 7 - £202
Kumho mid range - £140

Cheapest three ditchfinders are £54.80, £60.85, and £68.

You can get a set of four ditchfinders for the cost of a single proper tyre, and even a Kumho mid range tyre is nearly 3x the price of one of these turds. The difference might be even greater at your local tyre place.

225/45/R17 generic tyre fitted to everything:

Michelin PS4 - £90
Eagle F1 - £83

Ditchfinders: £40.42, £44.35, £44.65

Not quite as big a delta but still half the price. They'll be as ste as any remould too, I've bought a few cars someone has fitted ditchfinders to and some of them are quite dramatically bad in the rain.

[littleredrooster]

I think the OP may be jumping to the conclusion that all the tyre carcasses that he sees are remoulds. The vast majority that I cleared from live lanes were 'new' with no remould markings; they get punctured, overheat and the structure fails and parts company from the rim/rest of the tyre. Or - in the worst case - stay attached and catch fire!

[Smint]

Truck remoulds are still used extensively, makes more sense for vehicles that carry light loads, for those that run at max weights it makes more sense to run quality new, where i work we run max weights so only new and only premium makes and we rarely have any tyre issues.

Most times when a truck tyre disintegrates its because its developed a slow puncture which has gone unnoticed and overheated after continuous running, the driver's compulsory statutory walk around checks mean little unless the driver can guess without a gauge whether a tyre has 60 or 120psi, yes i carry a gauge so can double check any that look suspect but don't know of any other driver where i work who carries one.

I've never run remoulds on any of my cars (but used Colways on an old Range Rover offroad), and seeing the state of the roads and the incompetence of so many drivers who crash blindly through perfectly visible pot holes and can't park without driving over sharp kerbs leaves me with no confidence in getting reliable tyre carcasses for a second tread life.