I cannot remember the details, but I do remember this as an area of serious discussion in design circles many, many years ago. I don’t recall whether it was implemented in some aircraft. Doing so might not be cost effective in most cases.
Discarding carcasses is like paying someone to haul away $100 bills. And when a recapper gets loose with the acceptable standards for a carcass the failures that result might rarely, if ever return and result in any cost to him so the looser the standards the more profit he is able to make. The vast majority of over the road truck/trailer tire failures occur far from home and are repaired on the roadside with the old tire being hauled away.
And with dual wheels a tire can fail and the driver might continue for hundreds of miles without ever recognizing the problem resulting in a shredded carcass that no one could ever autopsy to determine the cause of the failure. Add to that recipe for failure the drop and pick up nature of many trucking operations where the driver may pull a loaded trailer for a day or two, then drop it and pick up another and never see a trailer twice in his entire career. Compare the spare that is hanging from the rear of the truck cab to the spare that is swung under the trailer. If there is one.
"I wonder if there would be a cost gain if airplane wheels had small motors to spin them up just before touchdown instead of the shock and losing rubber to marks on the runway. "
I also remember this being discussed years ago, and the conclusion was that the cost of the system to spin the wheels before touchdown wasn’t worth it. The savings on tire wear was offset by increased brake wear and reverse-thrust fuel usage.
I’m surprised they still do recapping. The last set I bought for a car was in the late 60s. Airlines still recap because of the very uneven wear on landing. I’m told those sturdy tires are recapped up to 7 times! Of course a plane spends most of its mobile time flying and age and dirt/salt is not a deteriorating factor.
My 2 cents having driven trucks for years,most of the problems are caused by underinflation(cars too-seen cars wobbling along on low tires till they exploded)the manus have strict guidelines for recaps and a very old tire automatically goes in the scrap pile.Run a low cap for awhile and see how long they will go on a hot day before delamination,UPS used to run recaps on the front ,I think they stopped that practice-but the main reason you do not run recaps on the front of a truck is,if it delaminates,it will knock a fiberglass fender off,the current use of the “super single tire assemblys"will stop a lot the running dual wheels flat or underinflated,a simple delamintion will not create that much debris,but a tire failure will scatter debris for several yards and lastly dont dwell next to truck with a tire thats flopping around or low.
A Guy I used to work for,whose son went to college for 5 years to run a Backdump(just kidding)Had a new front tire come off the front wheel of a Mack going 85mph(bet that was interesting for awhile)all I can is"God must be with Him”
A guy applying for a job to operate a backdump will be competing with guys with masters in engineering… {
Seriously, Kevin, I agree. I’d bet that the single biggest cause of tire failure is underinflation. That generates heat and causes internal damage.
This kid is bright and strong,but you have to understand His personality and level of maturity,He is sort of one of the Chief engineers for the company now,hope He is more mature,just an example of the dangers of Nepotism.
I’m still trying to understand my OWN maturity…
There are now on the market new tractor-trailer tire designs that use one wide wheel/tire to replace the double wheels on both/either the tractor or the trailer. I’ve read that they have lower rolling resistance sufficient to more than offset their higher cost. Allegedly they’re also just as safe as the doubles. I wonder of those wider tires are being recapped.
I have seen those wider tires occasionally @tsm. Only on drive axles so far. I have been curios about them. They won’t give much in the way of time for limping to a safe and convenient spot to stop and get it repaired.
I’ve been a truck driver for 16 years, and I have seen just as many gators come off of brand new truck tires as I have off of recaps. If you think banning the use of recaps will end this issue than you do not know the facts. Before you call for a ban on something take the time to know what you are talking about. When I was an owner operator I purchased all new tires for my tractor, 2 weeks later 3 drive tires failed due to a factory defect. As a company driver I have seen a set of recaps last over 100,000 miles. If the tires are checked on a regular basis there is no reason they can’t last. New or recap proper maintenance is the key, but even that won’t make up for a defect in the tire.
I’ve seen the wide tires on trailers too, Rod, but I admit to not knowing much about them. I wondered about the ability to limp to a safe spot in the event of a blowout too.
Also consider the weight of one giant tire vs. a dual tire setup. With GCWR set by law, each pound you shave off of the “tare” is an extra pound of revenue you can haul. This is probably why I generally see the big singles on tankers and flatbeds…where you bump up against weight limits more often.
According to the articles I’ve read, the big selling point was a 20% reduction in rolling resistance and substantial reduction in fuel use. I don’t recall how much reduction was attributed to reduced rolling resistance and how much to any weight difference. A reduction in tare weight that increased freight a bit while still staying within GVW would certainly be an asset too, I would think.
I admit, I don’t know a lot about these bigger tires.
Just my 2 cents, but I think the biggest cause of tire blowout is underinflation; no matter if it’s car tires, new or recapped truck tires, etc, etc.
Shredded rubber is pretty common around here due to summer heat and the quite often heavy grain haulers and oil field rigs.
Now and then a grain hauler trailer will snap in half due to weight. What does that tell you about a load of wheat and what those poor tires are going through at 70 MPH on a 100 degree day.
Super Singles on Alcoas,save a lot of weight,I think some of them even have monitors self inflators installed,you can always carry on and ruin the rim,some rigs have them everywhere but the steering axles,makes it easier for the Police to stop a runaway truck(nobody ever thinks to hole the radiator) The next weight fuel saving deal on the big rigs is going to one drive axle vs two on the tandem.
The big tires now being used on the big rigs are called super singles. How do they work when they fail? Just like the duals work now. Consider that most big rugs have a pair of duals each side - and whatever happens to inform the driver of a failure is exactly the same mechanism that informs him with duals.
Retreading? Same as with the duals - except the tread is wider.
@kmccune, regarding going to one drive axle vs two what are they going to do about traction?
We’ve had some rotten weather here in OK the past few days and the terrain here is flat to gently rolling hills. The local news a few days ago showed some truckers backed up on the interstate here because they couldn’t get enough traction to even make it up a 2-3% grade.
The state troopers were holding them back and allowing them to get a running start at the rise one at a time.
I think the problem with truck tires is that they are meant for road use and optimized for economy over long distances. You notice how offroad or mud terrain tires use more gas? These are the exact opposite of that and designed for economy and long wearing lives, not optimum traction in bad weather.
One thing they used to do was lift the pony axle and transfer all the weight to the "live axle and I imagine they will use the the air actuated Chain like thingys(dont have a link but they work pretty good) and use standard chains.I’ve watched the videos ,pulling weighted sleds etc ,they have pretty good traction,while not as good as a live tandem,they still have pretty good traction.The two major logistic companies that are using this system have done some pretty extensive testing and seem to think that for the most part its doable,I would imagine you will see more mud and snow tires on these rigs and the DOT folks will probaly monitor tread depth pretty closely.
well, I ve loaded thousands of trailers with 20 tons of structural steel. I stand by my assertion that many re caps are hazardous and undependable.
I do understand why truckers.com and others stand behind re caps tho…, money.