Retreading truck tires aka Car Rental...
Truck tires are treated differently than car tires. Car tires usually get discarded or chopped and recycled into other rubber products. Big truck tires for 18-wheelers are more expensive and get recapped when worn. The process takes a worn tire and puts a new layer of tread shaped and glued to the original core. The process is safety approved, but not perfect. Sometimes, the entire retread tire belt begins to delaminate, bits shred off and breaks loose from the tire core. Considering the numbers of trucks on the roads and you've done highway driving, you've probably seen parts of truck tires on the roadway.While driving on the highway a few weeks ago, the car adjacent to me hit some shredded pieces of truck tire that flew up and hit the front of my car just under the bumper and grill. One piece was so large that it flipped around the tire and pulled away some of the cowling in the wheel well.
I reported this to the Highway Patrol and also my insurance company who assigned it to an authorized body shop near me. Dropping my car off, they arranged the rental company to pick me up to get a rental car covered under my insurance plan.
I'm into a Toyota Camry this week that's got 46,000 miles and very acceptable as a rental. I did a short highway trip and was totally surprised to be getting 41 miles per gallon! It didn't have all the features that my car has (like map & GPS, mirror warning lights when cars are approaching on my blind spot, keyless entry) but my last car didn't have those features either.
This week I've got several outside appointments and should be okay with gas mileage.
I pulled up a YouTube video of the process used to retread truck tires. The part I didn't like is the seam where the join at the wrap. Until I saw the video, I would have expected the entire recap to be one seamless piece pulled over the old core. It's deemed as a safe process.
Comments (11)
What surprised me is that the recap isn't finger-jointed where each end is glued together.?
Finger-jointed joins are much stronger and are commonly used in timber.
Shredded truck tires on all the highways.
The car repair center wasn't quick to answer the phone, but during the week I received 4 emails that parts arrived and they were 'on schedule' to complete my car on Friday, you know yesterday.
I got through in the morning to inquire a time so I could plan my day as I'll lose an hour or so with the return on the rental car. Their standard answer "We're still working on your car and will call you when it's time to pick it up today"
At 4pm I got the call with good and bad news... (yeah, I wasn't expecting the bad news part of this) All the mechanical and body work is done and the car is put together. The exception (bad news) is they weren't able to calibrate the lane detection pre-collision system.
My response was "Up until 2 years ago I never had a car with that safety system. Can I get the car today and come back on Monday for you to finish?"
The answer as no because insurance liability doesn't allow them to release the car if it's not correct.
Amazing.
Typically, 18-wheeler truckers appear to ignore, probably because road service could be a 2 hour delay.
Nowhere on the outside or inside of the vehicle did I see and emblems that is as different to a standard Camry. I didn't use the glove box, but took a peek inside just to be sure I didn't put something in forgot about it and saw the owner's manual... it's a Camry Hybrid!
That explains why I was getting such great mileage.