Cheap A$$ Truckers
 

I was driving in the left lane of intestate and a recap bounced up in front of me. Not sure if car ahead hit it or a truck threw it off. Couldn't avoid it without hitting a car or the barrier and couldn't stop. I checked it later and expected to see all kinds of damage. Several years ago I had one to hit me and it wiped out the front "bumper cover." $2,000 to replace and paint a new one.
Fortunately this time all I saw was black marks on the lower edge of the bumper cover, area underneath the fog and DRL's. Thought I would need to get a touch up guy to buff and paint it. Then I rubbed it and it came off. Today I used tar remover and everything came off. No damage at all. None underneath that I could see.
They really ought to outlaw retreads on trucks. The highways are littered with them. DOT's refuse to take responsibility for damage and insurance companies will reduce payment saying you should have seen it and avoided it.

There is endless story about recaps. The shops claim they have lower thread failure ratio, than some new tires.
But it all boils to economy. Trucks run hundreds thousands miles each year, so even the commercial tires last for very long time, at $600 a tire, do the math how much 18-wheeler will spend on new set?
That cost will come back to you in higher grocery prices.

I prefer safety to cheap groceries. If that is actually really a factor - which I doubt. If cost was a factor, we would eliminate all safety standards for trucks and their drivers, permit 100 MPH standard speeds, allow driving for 18 hours per day, etc.
While they may have a lower "thread failure ratio," that doesn't explain the treads being thrown off into traffic or where cars are driving. The recaps come off at 60-80 MPH!! If you meant tread failure, that's BS.

Cost is always a factor... whether you're talking about business or government.

But when new tires fail, they don't come apart in a long ribbon of rubber that threatens vehicles behind.

Ahhh... is that what causes those messes whenever I see a rig on the side of the road?

Retread tires usually fail one of two ways... 1) the Sidewall explodes, in which case the rig driver will usually pull over to inspect whether just one tire or more, and 2) the tread's bonding with the carcass fails, and the tread peels free in a long ribbon of rubber that weighs several pounds.

I've personally been behind three rigs with this type of failure. Luckily, I was able to slow and avoid the ribbon of tread in the road. In 2 of these cases, the rig's driver did not know this happened and kept trucking down the road, because the delamination did not issue an exploding sound.

The scariest of these I experienced once on my way to Houston on I-10. There was the whole thread of a tire laying across the travel lane covering the whole lane and it was curved enough it stayed on its edge. Luckily I-10 in this location has four travel lanes so I had room to maneuver around it as hitting this about a foot tall object at 85 MPH could have made a little mark on my car.

Called 911 to inform about the danger but naturally they never returned the call telling if they did anything about it.

I did hit a small piece of tire rubber once before the above on the right side. Inspecting the car did not show damage but a couple of weeks after the hit the right side hockey stick DRL went out and I had to replace it.

Or more likely the driver didn't care and/or wanted to avoid having to do something with the dangerous object he left in the road. Much less deal with drivers hitting it.

As I noted earlier, these things can be costly if they hit the "plastic" bumper covers just right. That is what happened to me. It hit the front of car vertically and cracked the cover from top to bottom. The "bumper cover" basically is the whole front of the car.

I hit a discarded retread that tore a huge hole in my drivers side underbody insulation. That felt-like material is no match for that hard rubber. I also ran over a large section of retread at night with a Corvette and it tore the entire splitter right off. I agree, it’s bullshi t and if a truck loses a retread they need to stop and remove it from the road. The wheel wells should have sensors that inform these truckers that a tread just let go. Stop the truck immediately and walk back to remove it while dodging traffic.

I should have added to my earlier comment.... When the tread delaminates, it barely makes a sound noticeable to me in my car. Especially if it's a tire on the last axle of the trailer, as was the case in the two examples I saw where the trucker kept driving. If I were driving that 18-wheeler, I would not have noticed, either.

In the other example, the tire delaminated in the forward trailer axle, or one of the tractor's axles... I didn't see which. In this case, the rig's trailing axles bouced over it, causing quite a ruckus felt throughout the drivetrain. The trucker felt it in the cab, and immediately put on the brakes and pulled to the curb.

So, I don't necessarily blame a truck driver for this. Instead, I have learned not to follow a big rig for any length of time, certainly not tailgating one. There is always a passing lane or two on the interstate. If he's driving the speed limit or above and I don't want to pass, I just back off 1/8-1/4 mile or so and follow with my eyes peeled so I can react in time.

I almost always use the cruise control on the interstate, and I usually pass large trucks on long upgrades, where they slow down, and my little merc just purrs past.

This thread reminds me of a Rule of Nature that I've discovered ;)
As long as you're in a work truck, daily beater or similar scratch-is-no-big-deal vehicle you are perfectly safe.
However, upon selecting a nice W212 as your conveyance, it will immediately become a magnet for road debris, potholes, stuff flying out the back of trucks, gravel trucks, tires, treads, and every fool behind the wheel.

A similar thing happened to me about a month ago in my 2015 CLS. A guy in front of me hit part of a tire and rocketed it into my grill. It destroyed the grill and cracked the bumper. I got a quote for $3,500 to fix it. I went for a second quote and according to my wife, “I happened to run into a sales guy” and then I drove away in a 2020 GLE and traded in the CLS. I had been wanting an SUV for a while and used the damage as an excuse to pull the trigger.

To the good, I've learned that other drivers generally leave me alone in my Mercedes. Driving my wife's Hyundai, Texas driving cretins freely mess with me in traffic, cutting me off, late braking up my tailpipe, etc. But when I drive the Mercedes, these same morons give me a wide berth. I've concluded that they think I must have an attorney on speed dial, LOL.

The only drivers that play games with me in my MB are other Mercedes drivers, Bimmer clowns, Lexus loonies, etc. We must all have lawyers, I guess.

Reminds me of an old movie quote (might have been either Steven Segal or Clint Eastwood), when something nasty happened "again" he exclaimed. . . "What am I, a *****magnet?"

Honestly, there are days on which I am positive my car has become invisible. Just as I am sure that new drivers are now trained to "Wait for the traffic, then pull out of the driveway into the street" and "As soon as you see a car in your rearview mirror, jam on the brakes."

Yes they do.
Google Firestone lawsuit. I was a part of it, when I used spare Firestone tire on my truck.
Tire look new, but after couple hundreds miles, the thread come off and bend 3" tailpipe on my flatbed and taking off my mudflaps. Good thing it was flatbed, as other reports were not only saying about multi-thousands dollars body repairs, but there was good number of deaths attached to those tires.

Not sure if I'd prefer to be invisible or just surrounded by complete maniacs. I had a hauling big rig try to pass me on the right shoulder once. Which is to say, basically in the gutter. Two lane road and I was going like 50 in a 45. I used to have respect for truck drivers because I considered them decent drivers and they have to put up with *******s on the road all day... now I just think they're piles of ****.

Yup, as usaa calls them - “bit by a road gator.”

i know, because within the first week of owning my current GTI, I had a retread go right into the front of it at 65 mph, took out the front bumper and bent the passenger side rocker panel. Had I not been able to slow down a bit to time where it was going to hit, I’d probably be dead. It went under the car in front of me and shot 10 feet in the air as it came out the back, right into me. Was heading right towards my windshield.

Not defending the driver here, as they are required to take responsibility of their entire rig once they are in control of it, but most only own the cab, and the retreads are on the trailer they’re being paid to tow. The trailer owners are the cheapest POS’s in the game and should be sued to hell and back.

Good point on who owns and maintains what.

Are semi's the only one that can get retreads? Not that I would want them, but it seems fair right? Not.........

Wikipedia has interesting information on retreads(recap). Seems light duty delivery trucks are the largest users. Some tire bodies will run for 600,000 miles. Whoa. 20% less cost than new. The biggest thing I learned is the amount of the environmental impact recaps have. Less rubber in land fills is good, I guess.

I've been commercial equipment hauler in my other life and even I did not drive semi- I had the same rules for managing books.
There is lot of misconception about truckers.
Most of them are employees, who earn not much more above minimum wages.
So for them only way to make decent wages is putting long hours, that DOT is limiting.
That puts lot of stress on overworked driver and fact is that lot of them don't represent IQ you see on Mercedes forum. Some of them barely speak English.
When you see semi with "RV-style" cab on the back, that will be owner-operator what is different World.
In California I usually drive 40 mph faster than average semi. When one cuts me off with 50 feet to spare, that makes for quite a situation. Just another day on the road.
Right now, on my vacations I drive my pickup with big camper on it. I set CC at 60 mph in states where semis are allowed 70 mph. So now I annoy them ;)

Hahaha. Fantastic. How soon until we see you on one of those YouTube videos of semis smashing into other cars though...? =\

Fixed that for ya!