Why retreading exists
A tire is two things. The tread is the rubber that wears out. The casing is the structure underneath it, and it is where most of the cost of manufacturing the tire sits.
Tread wears out in a year or two of hard running. A well-treated casing lasts far longer than that. Scrapping the whole tire when the tread is gone throws away the expensive half, and that is the waste retreading exists to stop.
How it works at Purcell
- Collection. Casings are taken in at the Purcell location you deal with. 54 locations do this.
- Inspection. The casing is checked for damage, separation and previous repairs. Not every casing passes, and a plant that retreads a marginal casing is doing nobody a favor.
- Preparation. The remaining tread is buffed off and damage is repaired where repair is appropriate.
- New tread. New tread rubber is applied and cured onto the casing.
- Final inspection, then back to the store and onto the vehicle.
The retreading itself happens at a plant. A store that lists retreading is part of the program; it is not retreading tires on site.
The seven plants
Purcell runs retread plants in:
- Phoenix, AZ, 420 S 35th Ave
- Denver, CO, 3855 E 52nd Ave
- Boise, ID, 8670 S. Eisenman Rd
- Potosi, MO, 301 N. Hall St
- Cleveland, NC, 1315 Redmon Rd
- Portland, OR, 19004 NE San Rafael St
- Salt Lake City, UT, 3350 W 2100 S
Six of the seven list the casing categories they handle: agricultural, commercial, industrial, light truck, OTR, passenger, trailer, and UTV and ATV. No plant retreads tracks.
North Carolina and Oregon are served by their plants alone, which is why those two states appear in the retreading coverage below but in few other service lists.
What decides whether a casing is retreadable
Mostly how it was treated before it arrived:
- Running flat. A tire run with no air, even for a short distance, usually destroys the casing. This is the single biggest cause of casings being scrapped, and it is avoidable.
- Unrepaired damage. A puncture left to work its way through the casing becomes a separation.
- Inflation. Chronic under-inflation builds heat, and heat is what breaks casings down internally where nobody can see it.
- Age and previous retreads. Each casing has a finite life, and inspection is what establishes where in that life it sits.
The practical consequence is that the response to a failure matters as much as the purchase. Stop the unit, call 24-hour roadside assistance, and the casing usually survives.
Who uses it
Commercial fleets, for the reason above: cost per mile. Farms, where large agricultural tires accumulate hours rather than miles and the casing outlives several treads. Mines and quarries, where an OTR casing is one of the most valuable consumables on the site. Municipal and school fleets, which have run retreads for decades.