Retread Tire vs. New: Cost, Sustainability & Safety

The debate between retread or recap tires vs. new tires most often comes down to making the right decision for each specific truck within each fleet. Understanding the pros and cons of each and then properly maintaining them while in operation and inspecting them when you take them out of service can help you make the best decision for your fleet management. 

While we might assume that new tires will last longer than a retread, studies show that new and retread tires are equally vulnerable to failure and tire maintenance is critical to their successful performance.

When considering how retreads compare to new tires, many fleet managers will claim that replacing their truck tires that have worn out with new ones is very beneficial. The tires and their materials are new; thus, they feel that the tires are far from any need for potential repairs or quality issues because they are without any wear from road conditions or weather. Fleet managers will also say that replacing road-worn tires with a new tire is safer for their fleet, citing increased cushion and performance as some of the main benefits. The other common opinion is that new tires get better gas mileage than retread tires because the new casing and support layers will give them a smooth ride over the road. However, when ranked, a Bandag brand retread outperforms most new and retread tires in fuel efficiency - second highest in the category to be exact. 

With sponsorship from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a comprehensive study on truck retread tire safety which found that road hazards and operating conditions such as low tire pressure were the main causes of tire failure and that both new and retread tires were equally vulnerable to failure. The study collected approximately 86,000 pounds of tire/rubber casings and debris from new and retread tires within five states; Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, and Virginia. Samples were examined by tire experts to determine the tire type and cause of failure.

The top three reasons that the casings were removed from service at truck stops were road hazards (32%), maintenance/operational factors (30%), and over-deflected operation (14%). Analysis of tire fragments found on the roadside revealed that the two dominant reasons for their condition were 39% from road hazards and 30% due to excessive heat.

With the cost factor of gas mileage being equal, you can look at the cost of new tires vs. retread tires and see that you can gain some cost efficiency with retread tires. If you try to cut the price margin by purchasing cheap tires, you need to factor in that a premium tire/retread combination can last up to 500% longer than ultra-low-cost new tires used only once. Tire inflation, tread depth, and fuel consumption are all a part of the puzzle when looking to save money. By maintaining your tires and ensuring correctly inflated tires, fleet managers can save on their fuel spend.

If you want to consider sustainability and the environment into the cost of tires, reused and recycled materials contribute to a circular economy—only 1/3 of the raw materials used compared to new tires, contributing to greater sustainability. 

Retreading is one of the oldest examples of a circular economy, in that the worn tire is recovered from becoming waste and repaired for reuse on a commercial vehicle. When you can no longer repair the worn tire for safe use, its materials are repurposed for its next life cycle. Since 1957, Bandag has kept an estimated 300 million tires out of the waste stream – all while helping fleets lower operating costs with remolded or retreaded tires that perform like new tires at a fraction of the price.