Regroovable tires

[Alaskansnowbirds]

Maybe not very technical, but something I don't understand....

Every time I kneel down to take the air pressure in the coach tires I see the word Regroovable on the side wall of each tire. Does this really mean that the tread can be re-cut after some degree of wear?

Everyone I've talked to says that we'll replace the coach tires before the tread wears. So what's the meaning of regroovable? Is it conceivable that I'd need to re-cut the tread at some point in time?

Tom,

On our Westours tour buses in Fairbanks we ran regrooved tires on the tag axle. By law, new tires have to be on the steering axle. When the tread on the steering axle got down to where they needed changing we regrooved them and put them on the tag axle. When they wore down we had the caseings retreaded and ran them on the drive axles. We had a regroover in our shop. That way we only had to buy enough new tires to replace steering tires each season. We kept retreading the tires for the drive axles until the casing went bad.

 

[Tom]

Interesting Don. Sounds like you got maximum use out of the tires.

 

[Chet18013]

Regrovable, also means that the tires have a trade in value when you purchase new ones. Go to a big truck tire dealer and be sure to ask for the trade in when getting new ones. This is good arguement for replacing every 5 years also.

Chet18013

 

[Jeff]

If you are trading in 5-7 year old tires how can they use them for recaps, the sidewalls are still too old?

 

[Chet18013]

I've always got a trade in on mine, which are 22.5" truck tires. The tire companies will use them for trailer tires. When I had an 18 wheeler, thats what I used on my trailer.

Chet18013