Reduce Tire Costs by 40% Through Retreading

 

Interested in reducing your tire costs . . . by a lot? Think retreading.

Longtime trucking editor Jim Park of Heavy Duty Trucking magazine makes an excellent case for a proactive retread program in their December 2018 supplement on tires and wheels.

 He noted “that many fleets with proactive retread programs are getting three to four retreads in a casing life, depending on the application. In fact, tire experts say getting several retreads out of a single casing can reduce overall tire cost by something like 40%.”

“Time for a bit of simple math. If you were to take a $400 tire out of service and sell the casing to a retreader for $100, the net cost of the tire is $300, using round numbers. If the casing is retread twice, or perhaps three times, the next cost of the original tire can be reduced to as little as $100.”

“Now compare the cost of two retreads versus two new tires, even at a trailer position, and you’ll see how you’re saving money twice each time a tire is retreaded.”

Nurture your casings

Of course, you have to have casings to retread to make these numbers work. The number #1 killer of tire casing is heat . . . which is directly linked to underinflation.

Park provides an interesting factoid — “Each revolution of the tire causes the steel wire in the casing to flex. A tire will go around about 500 times per mile, times 100,000 plus miles a year for a couple of years. Try flexing a paperclip like that and see how long it lasts.”

Maintaining proper pressure for the load is critical for the casing to function as designed and to be a good candidate for retreading. See this earlier blog post on this topic.

Double Coin casings are very good!

Westmoreland Tire in Alabama operates two Bandag plants, and Double Coin casings are “worth as much as any casing in the market bar none,” according to Ed Westmoreland (pictured to left).

“I was examining a casing the other day and was impressed to see that it had been capped four times,” Westmoreland noted. “It was a Double Coin.”

Here’s what longtime retreader Fred Schmidgall has to say about Double Coin casings. 

7 year, 3 retread Warranty of Double Coin casings

We’ve been tracking Double Coin casings’ performance through various channels for the past eight years. The data shows that our tire casings are extremely durable, and will retread as well as any major brand casings. So last year we decided to put our money where our mouth is . . . by enhancing our retread warranty to seven (7) years and three (3) retreads for all Double Coin truck and bus radial (TBR) tire products.

This new enhanced warranty, when combined with Double Coin’s original tread life performance, make Double Coin truck tires a compelling solution for fleets and owner operators looking to lower their tire operating costs. 

Please click on the banner below if you would like to learn more about our retread warranty and Double Coin tires in general.