The problem with porto-walls is that they usually will wobble & slap against the sidewall. A friend a few years ago installed a set on his '79 VW Super Beatle ragtop and he experience the same problem. He purchased a new set of radials with white sidewalls.
They do look like a bad toupee Back in 1979 when I got my 66 GS all 4 tires were new bias ply re caps. I pinned the speedo a few times with no issue's, no shaking or vibrations but it wasn't comfy feeling in my head. I did notice though these re caps made for a great drag tire and hookup of the line. Only when I switched to 195 x 14 radials off a 78 Skylark and the GS easily broke them loose I realized how good and sticky those re caps were for traction.
In college I had a girlfriend who bought her sisters boyfriends Jeep as a 2nd vehicle. She didn’t use it much and only had a one car garage so to keep it outta the weather I told she could keep it in my dad detached garage if I could “drive it some”. I drove it all the time. It had retreads. Friends that followed me always commented that the rear wheels looked like they were warped. They were not, the tread wasn’t put on straight so it looked crooked but you couldn’t feel it driving. Had a section in the middle of one of the tires, about 4” wide and 10” long, just come off. Craziest thing I’d ever seen. Got new tires the next week. Mark
I’d sooner just get plain Jane black walled tires than retread white walls. Passenger car tires are so cheap. I wouldn’t risk myself, others and my car because of my wallet.
I ran recap bias-plys and radials on my daily drivers for many miles---never a problem. When radials first became popular it was said they couldn't be recapped, and then a brand called Bandag came on the market. Can't remember recaps being advertised as available anytime lately.
I have a cousin who works for bandag, Bridgestone has since bought them out. Flies all over the country and Canada as well setting up retread machines and servicing existing ones. Retreading is a huge business. Ups being one of the biggest customers for retreads.
Quite a few companies actually sell them straight to the public. Lot of off road guys run the recapped mud tires seen here: https://www.tirerecappers.com/product-category/mud-terrain-tires/ https://www.treadwright.com/
A little off the original subject (I have used quality recaps without any problems) but here's the story: About 20 years ago my father-in-law and mother-in-law were headed from Boston to Switzerland. We took them to Logan Airport and stayed with them until the Swissair 747 loaded. About 30 minutes before loading time we saw a guy in coveralls pulling a truck jack and rolling what appeared to be a truck tire towards the big Boeing. He put the jack under what was an obvious jack point and proceeded to swap out one of the two nose gear tires. It took about 10 minutes, and he headed back to wherever he came from with the jack and the removed tire. There was nothing more to it then swapping a tire on a truck. No big deal, but somehow I expected that changing a tire on a Boeing would be different then on a Mack. It isn't.
all I know about these are what I've read online http://callitw.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=1_5
Nice, James! Thanks for the link. I thought I knew all the wide white brands, but never seen those and they are downright affordable. Thanks very much again, that'll be the way I go.
Big difference between aviation standard and automotive standards. I think that most of us who grew up with our folks running retreads can all remember getting a flat or a flapper. That said, adhesive technology has come light years since then, as has tire design. I would imagine retreading a radial type tire would be more difficult due to the fact that a radial tire flexes much more than a bias ply. Tire rpm is also a big factor in longevity regarding retreads.
We use them on all of our trucks at the Post Office because they want to be "green". We have no problems on our tractors, trailers, or our straight trucks, but the 14" on our LLV's are garbage. Last week, I had to put 12 oz of weight on a 14" tire! I spun the tire on the rim, flipped it over and spun it on the rim again and it still took 12 oz of weights. I had to use tractor tire weights because regular weights took up 8" of real estate on the rim making it impossible to balance. Luckily, balance really isn't an issue on a vehicle that rarely goes over 25 mph. What makes balancing our rescraps worse is that the EPA has now banned lead weights so we now have to use steel weights that are probably 50% larger than a lead weight. I personally would not use a recapped tire on any vehicle.
Compare Coker to Diamondback: https://dbtires.com/ DB tires use new popular brand tires. I have heard Coker uses old style molds discarded from tire factories. Its not just the tread you need to worry about on retreads, its the casing. Aircraft tires are much better made then throw away car tires.
Yep, I've looked at Diamondbacks too, but they're above what I want to spend. To be honest, I'm not really impressed with the Cokers that are on it now. They wore out in about 18,000 miles, and it's not like I'm out laying burnouts in the old Cad. I also had to put balance beads in them plus static balance, because they'd never get balanced out and always had a shake from 55-65 mph until I put the beads in plus the weights on the wheels. I'm going to give the Calli tires Mr. Bulldog shared a go.
Those Calli's look just like the way DB are made. Do you select the base tire or do they? Let us know how it goes - looks like a good alternative!
I've been reading reviews and they're mixed, with older ones from a few years ago being not so happy, and later ones being good. They pick the tires, sounds like a guy gets Hankooks or one of their offshoots most the time. I personally like Hankooks, so that's a selling point for me, too.
That's my problem is I like the 3" white walls I've got on it. It makes the car, and it's the thing people like the best and compliment it on. Yeah, I can get regular whitewalls for around $300/set, but it's not going to be the same car. Kind of like if a guy pulled off his Rallyes and put on steel wheels, it changes the car so much. The 3" whites are kind of it's signature around here, everybody knows the car when I say "It's the white Caddy with the big white walls".....
