An old friend

[Pathkiller]

Getting my MJ back in shape, it's been in storage for 3 years on my parents' farm in Missouri. Drove it back to Virginia over Christmas and getting it back up to daily driver condition. I've owned this 1987 MJ since 1994, (14 years!) it currently has almost 175,000 miles. It has the original 4.0L engine, untouched, but I upgraded to an AX-15 and NP231 out of a '97 TJ a few years ago. It still has a Rough Country 3" lift on it I installed way back in 1994.

 

Just added a new set of TreadWright (formerly Hi-Tech Retreading) retreads in 31x10.50-15. They came on BFG AT carcasses. I'm pretty impressed with these tires.

 

Found a set of XJ buckets locally for $20. I installed them and a full center console today, pretty easy job and I'm very happy with them. Here are some pics:

 

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[tkgibbs27]

good looking mj

[mfpdm]

Those tires look great. How much did they cost, if you don't mind.

 

Let us know how they hold up.

 

:cheers:

[Pathkiller]

They're on sale through Jan 31st for $55 each. Shipping for all four to Lorton, VA was about $75. The company is in Edgemont, South Dakota.

 

Here's the website: http://treadwright.com/

 

Mine balanced pretty good but a couple of them took quite a bit of lead to balance. They drive smooth and straight though and ride great.

[joshmillslane]

Really nice truck! I was looking for a truck with those specs, but never found one around here.

 

I'm over here in Manassas with my 86 MJ Project. It's coming along, but not near as nice as yours.

[Bacon]

man, that is one of the cleanest mj's i think i have ever seen. i'm sooo jealous right now. nice truck man :cheers:

[500 MJ]

Yah - Good lookin set of wheels you have there.

[tjbliley]

They're on sale through Jan 31st for $55 each. Shipping for all four to Lorton, VA was about $75. The company is in Edgemont, South Dakota.

 

Here's the website: http://treadwright.com/

 

Mine balanced pretty good but a couple of them took quite a bit of lead to balance. They drive smooth and straight though and ride great.

 

You cannot pass safety inspection in VA with retreads. Hope you haven't ordered them yet.

[JeepcoMJ]

 

You cannot pass safety inspection in VA with retreads. Hope you haven't ordered them yet.

 

bah, that's simple to get around. toss a set of other tires ya got on there, for the inspection (good ones).

 

easy way, borrow them from a buddy if you don't have them. toss yours on after inspection, then don't get in a wreck.

[tjbliley]

And pls don't drive near me, cause I don't want to be there when they turn in to gators and kill somebody.

[Pathkiller]

You cannot pass safety inspection in VA with retreads. Hope you haven't ordered them yet.

 

As you can plainly see in the pictures above, they are mounted. Thus, yes, I have already ordered them.

 

From the State of Virginia's Administrative code, which you can see below, there is absolutely nothing in there about retread tires being illegal. If you have information to the contrary I would appreciate seeing it.

 

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504 ... C30-70-130

 

9. – INSPECT TIRES, WHEELS & RIMS FOR:

 

* Condition of tires including tread depth.

* Mixing radials and bias ply tires.

* Wheels that are cracked or damaged so as to affect safe operation.

[Pathkiller]

Furthermore, upon further investigation, it appears you are not only wrong about the legality of retreads, you are completely wrong. The State of Virgina commissioned a study on whether to regulate the use of retreads in 1999 and actually came out strongly IN SUPPORT of them.

 

http://www.retread.org/PDF/Study_VA.pdf

 

Some of the report's highlights:

 

"All previous studies, including this study, have determined a small percentage of the rubber on the roadway actually comes from retreaded tires that failed due to production standards related to the retreading tire industry. Examination of the debris reveals many of the tires are new and have never been recapped. Careful research indicates that perception is not reality in the majority of the actual cases. New tires will fail the same as retreaded tires under similar conditions."

 

The study recommends:

 

"Based on the results of this study, this Committee does not recommend the development of

state standards. There is a misconception that all tire debris problems are attributed to

retreading operations, which is not factual. Furthermore, imposing standards would only

affect the 3.5 percent of retreaders that operatei n Virginia.

In lieu of developing state standards, theC ommittee recommended the following action:

0 Concentrate on public education concerning proper tire maintenance and the

importance of maintaining recommended air pressure in tires.

0 Encourage key members of the tire industry to maintain strict industry standards and

follow recommended practices and processing guidelines.

0 Forward all available information to the National Highway Transportation Safety

Administration for their review and consideration in developing Federal Standards for

recapped tires designed for large commercial motor vehicles."

 

Furthermore, the US Government uses and highly recommends retreads, and companies such as FedEx, UPS and the US Postal Service use retreads on their vehicles.

 

If you are worried about my tires becoming "alligators and killing someone" you are entitled, but you might as well be worried about getting struck by lightning because it's far more likely.

[tkgibbs27]

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/ara_retreadedtiresth

 

Retreaded tires are performing flawlessly all over the world in all types of weather and on all kinds of terrain for all types of vehicles - from school and municipal buses to emergency vehicles to trucks to commercial and military aircraft.

 

The General Services Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the White House (through Executive Order 13149) all strongly endorse retreads as the tire of choice for government fleets, as well as for all commercial vehicles.

 

 

 

didn't know what retreading was about so i checked it out earlier and was kind of skeptical if they would be safe or not. so i did some research. they sound pretty safe to me. and are a hell of a lot cheaper.

[tjbliley]

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504 ... C30-70-130

 

is the section of the ispection rules and regs that I have been told applies to retreads. Number 12 ni this section of the regulations regarding inspections.

 

I may be wrong, but I think we are talking about apples and oranges. The study seems to focus on Truck tires. It does not address light truck and passenger tires. That is the difference.

[Pathkiller]

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+reg+19VAC30-70-130

 

is the section of the ispection rules and regs that I have been told applies to retreads. Number 12 ni this section of the regulations regarding inspections.

 

I may be wrong, but I think we are talking about apples and oranges. The study seems to focus on Truck tires. It does not address light truck and passenger tires. That is the difference.

 

12. Any tire which has been recut or regrooved except commercial tires so designed and constructed to provide for acceptable and safe recutting and regrooving. (Regrooved tires must be identified on each sidewall as a regrooved tire.)

 

Apples and oranges indeed. Retreads are not recut or regrooved. Recut and regrooved is when the existing tread is cut to make the tread blocks deeper. Many commercial tires are designed to be regroovable, they can be recut as the tread wears down to provide more traction. This rule also seems to rule out siping of tires, which would qualify as recutting.

[Oizarod115]

i calculated shipping on some and it said 21$is...

 

do you know if that was for 1 tire or for all 4? i assume you had to jump that obstacle already because 21$ shipping is ALOT different than 84$ shipping when you're talking about spending 200 bucks on tires.

[WahooSteeler]

Pathkiller, good job on your homework on the study of retreads and that they were actually found to make up less of the discarded casings and gators laying around the highways than original tires. Why? Tire pressure. The number one cause of tire failure, period. I used the same report several years ago to get retreads approved for a commercial truck fleet I managed.

 

You are both right, and wrong, on a couple points. First of all, tires are governed by the Fed. Hwy Admin. Safety Regulations. States can create additional regs or stricter regs, but obviously they can't have a reg that would "lessen" the federal reg. Commercial tires are made to allow retreads, in fact, the top brands actually warranty their casings to stand up to a certain number of caps to be put on. I.E. if a casing fails inspection to accept a cap (retread), and it is determined it is structural failure and not a result of abuse or misuse, the mfr will pro-rate the cost of replacement. For example, Michelin warranty's that their commercial tire casings can be capped 7 times under normal use. Yes, like all tire warranties, a lot of it is very objective and can be somewhat easy for the mfr to deny, but the mfr's are much less likely to do this on a commercial claim than a passenger car claim because the money and competition is too great. Think large truck fleets.

 

Retreads are definitely allowed in VA on passenger vehicles. On commercial vehicles, they are not allowed on a steer axle if the vehicles are intended for highway use. As a matter of fact, you cannot even run a patched or plugged tire on the steer axle of a commercial vehicle, it has to be replaced. BUT, if the vehicle is registered for local and/or delivery use etc., i.e. UPS, FedEx, Post Ofc, Trash trucks, school buses, they are allowed to run caps on the steer axle. The reason is, since they do not run at sustained speeds on the hwy, they are very unlikely to have a blowout because it's not specifically low tire pressure that causes the blowout, but the heat generated because of low tire pressure.

 

So hey, check your tire pressure on a regular basis everybody! :chillin:

[Pathkiller]

Thanks Wahoo. There's a whole lot of misinformation and negativity about retreads. No doubt there were some really bad ones in the past, but technology has come a long way. These are essentially remanufactured tires, with the new tread vulcanized to the carcass.

[WahooSteeler]

I look at it this way. Imagine the liability of any retread operation that cut corners. Uhh, your children's children's children will still be paying for it 150 years from now. Anyway, most reputable retreaders use some pretty sophisticated equipment these days that laser scans the casing for even the slightest belt or integrity issues in the casing. The best, or "A" casings are the ones capped for over the road use and your school buses etc, the "B" casings are used for non-hwy use etc., particularly trash trucks, dump trucks etc..

 

Also, a lot of your companies like FedEx, UPS etc. will only take "virgin" casings, meaning it's the first time it's been capped, if the cap was not put on one of their own casings. That's what I did with my fleet. Most big fleets will set up a true wheel and tire program where their tire dealer already has tires mounted up such that when a truck needs "new" tires put on, the mobile service truck shows up w/4 in the back, just swaps 'em out, and takes the others back to be capped and put back in that company's private inventory. Next to fuel, tires are a truck's most expensive operating item, so it's big business.

[tjbliley]

All I know is that Every State Trooper I have asked who works in the Safety division, which administers the inspectors, has said that 'no retreads on passenger vehicles'. Next time I call to the headquarters here in Richmond I will get a Troopers name and have him give me the code sections that applies so the information can be passed on and the arguement settled. I would love to run some retreads. I think they are economic and just as good in most cases as new tires. Like you said the virgin casing thing makes some sense to me. I would use them for my trail tires but use new as daily drivers. That is just me.

[WahooSteeler]

I can tell you that as a fleet/sales/operations mgr for commercial trucks for a large company for 8yrs, the most frustrating thing was the interpretation of Fed Hwy Safety Regs. Key word: INTERPRETATION. Man, I can't tell you how many times we'd get a call w/one of our trucks on a scale or on the shoulder with Johnny Law-Dawg saying such and such was out of compliance w/our trucks etc. All of our trucks were non-cdl, and the #1 problem was that I spec'd most of them w/air brakes, to which 90% of the cops and inspectors thought that meant you needed a cdl. NO YOU DON'T. You only need an air brake endorsement (i.e. CDL) if you are hauling hazmat. Again, this is because our trucks were non-cdl. But if you are driving a truck that is cdl, 26,001 lbs GVWR or greater, yes you need the air brake endorsement in addition to the cdl requirment.

 

Now while I digress to the CDL issue, my point is the same in regards to retreads, it is widely misinterpreted as to the federal regs on retreads and caps.