I have always been curious about High-Tec Retreading in SD. I have seen their adds in the back of the off-roading mags for many years and am just wondering if anyone has ever done any business with them. I don't want to be leaving "dead tread" all over the highway like a semi, but their prices are just too amazing. Thanks.

www.high-tec-retreading.com (http://www.high-tec-retreading.com)

Sorry this is of no help to you but that greendiamond rubber compound they have looks interesting.

My experience with retread tires was OK with light weight vehicles however on a old Dodge Van (Tradesman 2500 Series) I could not keep the treads on. Don't think I'd run them on a 9200 GVW truck unless I never got out of town. Delivered cost of the Greendiamonds is only a couple of hundred less than brand new tires. Guess I'd rather part with the bucks to feel better running in the heat at 70 mph.

I don't want to be leaving "dead tread" all over the highway like a semi.

www.high-tec-retreading.com (http://www.high-tec-retreading.com)

U mean GATORS, when the come off they do a LOT of damage.

Notice how most truckers won't run recaps on the steer axle, u lose one and it'll take the fender or hood :mad:

DOT bans the use of recaps on the steer axle of over-the-road Class 8 equipment.

Lose a steer tire @ 80,000# @ 65 + mph, look out Leroy !

Idahofox

Edgemont, SD is about an hour and a half south of me. I just bought a used 03 GMC D/A EC SB, and it needs tires pretty bad. Shocks are bad, look like they've been bad for a while. You can see where the previous owner replaced two tires because the ones on the front had been worn out. So, I'll have to put on a set of Bilsteins before it makes sense to get to the tires. When I'm ready, I figure I'll give the boys down at High-Tec a try. It's going to be a little while before I can get it done, but I'll ressurrect this thread with my impressions when I do.

FYI -- a while ago I called them to ask some questions, some of which people have raised here... Their claim is that the process they use to fuse the new tread onto the tire core makes delamnination pretty much impossible -- they say the core buffing, adhesive, and vulcanizing processes have come a long way from traditional (i.e., semi truck) retreading. I also asked about whether the green diamond compound would affect fuel mileage; they said no. One big advantage to a retread they pointed out is that the tires end up truer and rounder and quieter than most anything you can buy off the shelf. One down-side is that these guys don't offer any road hazard insurance. A lot of the guys I work with are loggers, and many of them run these on their trucks (mostly 3/4 and 1-ton diesels, some duallies with utility beds) with pretty rave reviews. These guys are not easy on a pair of tires, and they travel a combination of highway and off-road coming to/from job sites. Food for thought, anyway.

Alright, I'm resurrecting this thread because I ran down to Edgemont yesterday and picked up a set from High-Tec in 235/85/16. Got their AT-D tread pattern (like a Dunlop Radial Rover) with the green diamonds. First thing I'll say is that this place is clearly a mail-order business, and not real good at taking care of in-store customers. It took numerous phone calls over the course of three weeks before he finally had the tires in the size I was asking for. Then, when I got down there yesterday (after driving 80 miles) they said they couldn't install the tires for me because they needed to leave early that day. I almost told them to Censored off at that point, but I took a deep breath, loaded the tires in the Max and drove back. Got them installed yesterday evening, so here are my initial impressions from about 25 miles of driving:

1. They've got a fairly loud whine right now, but it seems to be quieting down a little bit.
2. I'd forgotten how skinny 235/85s look. Noticably taller than the 265/75s I was running, but no clearance issues with the couple torsion bar cranks I'd done earlier.
3. Quality seems good -- unless you're familiar with the various brands and their tread patterns, it'd be difficult to tell you're running retreads. The cores on the ones I got were from Michelin LT/X's, blackwalls, look nice.
4. There's some noticeable tread squirm. I really hate tread squirm. It didn't feel as bad this morning as it did last night, so maybe it'll go away. If not, I'll be taking them back.
5. I bought five tires, and they ran $70 apiece. Mount & balance was $60. Cheap is good.
6. I haven't had a chance to get it off the pavement & check out the "green diamonds," but may get to do that this afternoon. I'll post again with more impressions as time goes on, but feel free to fire questions off at me.

I have run two different sets of thier retreads on my Nissan 4X4 (31X10.50X15) with no problems at all. Each set lasted approx. 35-40,000 miles. I have tried the A/T tread and the M/T tread. Liked them both. Shipping was always fast. I will probably run them on my Dmax when I need new tires. The ONLY drawback I see is that on a few of the tires the retreading process kind of scarred up the whitewall lettering. The last set I had were on Goodyear cores.

Any thoughts on whether the whine and tread squirm are gonna go away?

Well, I've put about 500 miles on 'em now. The tread squirm has subsided for the most part. It's a little tough to tell because the truck handles a bit different with the 235s vs. 265s. Whine is still noticeable -- not intolerable, but noticeable -- gets quieter as speed increases. I'm not sure why this is the case given that the tread pattern is not real aggressive. Must be the commercial truck rubber compound. My mileage seems to have improved by 0.5-0.7 MPG, and I'd expect it to get better as the tread wears in. There's a little wobble in one of the front tires, but you pretty well always have to get 'em rebalanced after a couple hundred miles. One thing I noticed, though, is that two of the four wheels didn't need any weight at all. I figured the things would run truer than anything you could get off the shelf. Have yet to get 'em in the woods to see if the 'green diamonds' are worth a crap, but hunting season is coming up & I'll find out soon enough. You can see the carbide granules in the tread now that it's worn a bit. They're about half the size of a grain of rice. ...One thing I thought of: If it light up the tires, will it throw sparks??? ):h

Well, not that it seems particularly interesting to anyone, but I gave the retreads a shakedown run in the woods over the weekend while doing some deer scouting. Conditions weren't too bad. We'd had a heavy frost, so the roads were hardened up (no mud), but slick. Got off onto some slick frost-covered grass, too.
All I have to say is -- :cool2: .

Tires performed flawlessly, great stability, great traction, great handling. It basically drove like it was on pavement. Except for having dragged my frame and ringing the skid plate bell a few times, I was totally giddy about the truck's performance for the rest of the day. I can't wait to get it into some snow.

Out deer hunting over the weekend in 4 inches of packy snow... :ro)

Crappy ground clearance notwithstanding, I have to say the combination of DIESEL POWER and traction makes this about the best woods rig I've ever owned. It did everything I asked it to -- up-slope, down-slope, idling along, full-throttle, even those tough "oops, the road ends and now I've got to back up an icy sidecut to get out" turnarounds were no match for the thing. So anyway, on the off-road capabilities of the recaps, I'm a happy camper.

That's good to hear. How did hte whitewall side of the tire look?

They're blackwalls -- I can see where the lettering would have been carved up a bit in the retread process.

I read about these tires a few years back on the Dodge diesel forums. They seemed to love them.

I am considering a set of 265s for my truck now after the poor performance from the stock tires in only 2" of snow.

U mean GATORS, when the come off they do a LOT of damage.

Notice how most truckers won't run recaps on the steer axle, u lose one and it'll take the fender or hood :mad:

IIRC It's illegal in some states to run em on the steer axels...

Thanks for the information, Im considering a set myself. Glad to hear they have great traction.

siphon I've been considering getting myself a set of winter treads for the truck for better traction and also to save my poor welds from the salt. Think that the style that you got would be a good choice over other tires like the blizack or the cooper m+s?

Nevermind I just read about them on some various sites and these seem to be the ticket.

You got any pics of those 235's on your truck? I'd like to see how those "skinny" tires look

i got slapped by a tire on 80/94 and it took out my drivers side headlight and bracket and left scrapes in my black portion of the bumper and chrome....god only knows how much damage it would have done if it hit me square!
robert

Nevermind I just read about them on some various sites and these seem to be the ticket.

You got any pics of those 235's on your truck? I'd like to see how those "skinny" tires look

Yeah, there's a small cult of people out there who really like 'em. I'm a member of the cult now... I've been out in the snow a few times since that last post and am still pretty amazed at how well they perform. You're going to notice a pretty significant tread whine with these -- they sound like semi truck rubber, 'cause that's what they're made out of -- so I suspect the Coopers would be the quieter choice. You'd get that irritating smacking sound from the siping on the Blizzaks, I think. Traction-wise, you're not gonna beat the retreads unless you've got studs.

Make sure you get them STATIC BALANCED (vs. dynamic, road force). I had a hell of a time getting them to balance right, and this really did the trick.

Sorry, I don't have any pics at the moment. I'll look when I get home and see if I can find some. Compared to your 285s they're gonna look like pizza cutters! They look a lot taller than my 265s did to me, just because they're narrower (only a half-inch taller in reality, IIRC). You could try the 255/70s in the AT tread pattern or the 265/75 in the AT-D pattern so it wouldn't be quite as much of a shock appearance-wise. I almost think I should have gotten the 255s, but am used to the 235s now.

Awesome thanks for the info Siphon. I'll probably go with the 265's (they're not Thaaaat much smaller than the 285's I just need to keep convincing myself of this), just wanted to see how the 235's looked since they are the same diameter IIRC as my 285's.

Edit, man that D-mud in the 285 looks good too. Probably won't be as good on the ice though... So many choices!

so how come they don't list the load range of the tires on their site? wondering about the 235/85/16's.

I think it's because of the different casings they get all the tires will have a slightly different load rating so you'd probably have to call them if you need something in particular. Well, you'd have to call them to order the tires anyway, so you ask them then.

My 235/85s are E load range. Not sure about why they don't specify load range on the site -- just assumed they were all E's except the farm tires.