Tired Tires (1 Viewer)

[MrMoMo]

Hey folks, looking for general opinion here... I know some will feel strongly, and people will likely disagree with others opinions, but, that's what internet is for right?

I run Treadwright Wardens on my 1993 FZJ80 LandCruiser. Yes, re-treads. I know many are against the idea, but I love them.

Previous to the wardens, I ran the Treadwright Mud Terrains. Loved them too.

Over the past few weeks, I've been painting my wheels one at a time, and rotating them. 1) because my wheels were badly rusting, 2) because I needed to rotate my spare in, and 3) I was chasing a vibration...

Part way through the painting, I did determine that one of my wheels has an issue, so it was gong to get pulled as the "spare" when I was done painting all the wheels, and i'd take it in to get balanced/checked out.

So, on Monday of this week, I finally got to that stage. Pulled the bad wheel off and swapped my "spare" in its place now, I had not previously rotated my spare wheel in (bad practice, I know, shame on me), but it was the first wheel I swapped in when I started painting the others. That said, it's been on the truck for a little over a month, previous to which it was always stored inside the back. So, I probably have about 600 miles, max, on this tire (and approx 20,000 on the others)

Now, Monday was a holiday, and I didn't go anywhere. I did check the air pressure when I put it on the truck, and it was low. So, naturally I filled it. No issues going to work or back, no big bumps, all pavement (mostly snowy!)

Tuesday I went to work, didn't notice any issues at all. This morning as I left for work, it was obvious there was a problem. Probably had about 5 psi in the tire. Swapped the tire out and continued on with my day.

Tonight I was expecting to swap out a valve core, or valve stem, figuring I probably damaged it when I was cleaning the rim (I didn't de-mount to paint). I aired up the tire and felt air blowing in my face. Found this on the side wall:

This is a tiny little area,I'd say less than 1/8" across, and it is hemmoridging air. There is zero sign of impact, no bulging, nothing stuck into the tire. Is this simply UV damage???

Being how small this is, is it reasonable to try to patch this on the inside?

If patched, is it unreasonable to run the tire, or should it get permanent "spare" allocation?

With the fact that this is a re-tread, and they are not ALL that expensive (though I'm definitely not someone with money burning a hole in my pocket) - should I just replace it with another re-tread?

FYI, the tires are just over 3 years old.

Interested in your thoughts/opinions/experiences...

Thanks!!!

 

[JohnnyC]

That looks like a puncture ... probably happened a while ago but didn’t go all the way thru... once driven started to let go a bit more till it leaked

Patch on the inside is easy ... but... most places will not do it if the tire is older and checking

Yours don’t look like they are weather cracking too bad ... it will be about $20 then remount and balance for another $15 or so

 

[Fj81]

I am not familiar with retreads for personal vehicles, but on my 18 wheelers, I used to run them years ago. On those trucks, one issue was that the casing they put the thread on might be older, and so even though you could potentially get 150k miles from the tire, usually the casing would fail. I dont know if the process is the same on these, but if so, how old are the original casings? Maybe give that one a real close look mayne it is just getting old.

 

[bigredmachine]

looks a little dry rotted but not too bad, you can not patch the side wall I would replace the tire

 

[MrMoMo]

Got the tire off today with my manual tire de-mounter. Inside does have a tiny little bump corresponding with the spot on the outside, so maybe something did poke in there - very odd though, nothing in memory that would have caused it. I wonder if someone doesn't like me...

More interestingly, there was a patch on the inside of the main tread area - I had no idea that was there, and must have been there from "new" as these have never been removed before... (?)

 

[Spike555]

I have zero problems with retreads. But you need to remember that they are used tires and may have been patched before.

If you are doing the mounting I'd patch it and make it the spare for the rest of it's life.