Tire retreading is a great service to use with us at Thompson, but not everyone knows the misconceptions that are told about retreads. Many people believe the rubber on the road is caused by retreaded tires. This is a misconception. The truth is the rubber on the road comes from new tires and retreads equally. The main reason tires have blowouts are due to improper inflation and overloading truck tire weight capacity. Studies have been done at both federal and state levels proving that retreaded tires are just as safe as new tires, when properly inflated and loaded. Here at Thompson, we provide several inspections on the tires before and after going through the retread process to ensure the quality of the tire fully before a customer puts the tire to use in their daily application.

Another misconception is that retreaded tires are not used that often on vehicles. This is far from the truth. Companies with a large fleet of vehicles routinely use retreads. In the U.S. almost 90% of fleets that have 100 or more trucks use retreaded tires in their operation. 80% of commercial aircrafts flying today are using retread technology. Even both federal and state mandate that governments use retreaded tires for their vehicles. When you are driving around you won’t even notice if the tires on vehicles are retreaded or new tires because they look and feel too much alike. Retread companies produce 15 million retreaded tires every year in the U.S. for emergency vehicles, air crafts, school buses, construction vehicles, and even farming equipment. This just shows how many vehicles use retreaded tires and most people don’t even realize it.

Finally, one of the biggest misconceptions people have about retreading is retreading does not benefit the environment. Some still believe retreaded tires only cause debris and accidents waiting to happen due to the rubber on the road. Retreading provides more benefits to the environment than you would expect. Manufacturing a retreaded tire uses 90-100 pounds less raw material and 15 gallons less oil than manufacturing a new tire. Retreading tires instead of buying virgin tires helps save 1.4 billion pounds of tires from going into the landfill. Tire retreading is the greenest of green industries by cutting 24% of carbon emissions. There are plenty more benefits retreads provide to learn more about. If you want to read a great article about how Goodyear developed 70% sustainable-material tire with industry-leading innovation click here.

The reason fleets utilize retreading is due to three things it’s cost-effective, environmentally sustainable, and the safety/performance/reliability that retreaded tires have to offer. To help you increase the life span of all tires here are three tips. Make sure you maintain the proper air pressure, do not exceed weight limits, and perform proper repairs when the tires need them. If you are interested in learning more about retreads go to our Thompson Tire & Retread website. You can learn about why we believe you should buy retreads and how our process works for retreading tires.