Treadwright Tires? Yay or nay?

[mark_themachinst_guy]

I'm all about budgeting my build. I don't have expendable income to blow on the most expensive name brand things for my FJ. I've been looking at tires for the past few months, wanting to upgrade from stock 31's to 33's for a little more ground clearance and all that. I already have a bilstein 5100 "lift" with spacers in the rear so I know I'll clear 33's
I've been looking at Treadwright tires. They seems to get good reviews, but being they are re-molded tires I'm a little concerned about thier quality. They aren't "re-treads" they're "re-molded" meaning the whole tire is remolded basically into a brand new tire. If they were re-treads I wouldn't be considering them as much as I am.

Does anyone here have any experience with Treadwrights? Good or bad things they can tell me to sway me over the fence? Just north of $800 and free shipping for 5 mud terrain tires is pretty hard to beat...

 

[Ben Cleveland]

I looked at treadwrights SUPER hard. Seriously considered them. However, I found some seemingly non-biased reviews on youtube that confirmed your concerns. They're a budget tire, and quality is questionable. That was my conclusion. Look up reviews on youtube, I found those helpful. I won't be purchasing treadwrights myself.

 

[CR-Venturer]

In my opinion, if there's anything you should be spending money on, it's tires. A good set of tires is, in my opinion, the single most important upgrade/investment for your vehicle in terms of off roading, overlanding etc. Absolutely nothing is more important in terms of mods. I have probably one of, if not the tightest budgets of anyone here, which is why my $1800 Craigslist CRV is still almost completely stock, but I bought a set of 4 General Grabber AT2's almost immediately after I got my vehicle. Couldn't be happier with them - outstanding tires that have massively increased the capability of the rig vs stock tires.

I've got no experience with them, but Andrew St. Pierre-White of 4xoverland fame swears by BFGoodrich AT tires, and he has decades of experience overlanding in Africa and Australia, and probably many other places.

My advice is buy the best tires you can afford that suit your needs, and cut corners elsewhere. Best of luck!

 

[m_lars]

My brother bought a set of 5 of the Treadwright Warden (BFG AT look alike) in 285/75/17 They were super heavy, took too much weight to balance and had a horrible ride. By the time he went through the trouble shooting process and determined it was the tires treadwright said he was past warranty, or something to that affect.

The best bang for the buck I’ve found (my opinion of course) is the Falken Wildpeak AT3W. They look a little tame, but everyone seems to rave about them. Reputable company, good traction, mountain snowflake rating and same ballpark as the treadwrights. In my size I can get 5 for the price of 4 BFGs or Duratracs. They’re what my next set will be.

 

[smritte]

My brother bought a set of 5 of the Treadwright Warden (BFG AT look alike) in 285/75/17 They were super heavy, took too much weight to balance and had a horrible ride. By the time he went through the trouble shooting process and determined it was the tires treadwright said he was past warranty, or something to that affect.

I had a buddy that had this issue. He brought them to me to balance because the tire shops couldn't seem to get them right. I have a Road Force balancer at work. That will show you if the tires and or the rim's have issues. The runout (wobble) on the tires was horrible, the rims were perfect.
I don't normally put large tires on that balancer but, I have done quite a few and I always do mine. He contacted the tire manufacture and they said I didn't know how to balance them properly and his rim's were probably bent. He ended up buying some BFG AT's. Those balanced nicely

Scott

 

[m_lars]

I had a buddy that had this issue. He brought them to me to balance because the tire shops couldn't seem to get them right. I have a Road Force balancer at work. That will show you if the tires and or the rim's have issues. The runout (wobble) on the tires was horrible, the rims were perfect.
I don't normally put large tires on that balancer but, I have done quite a few and I always do mine. He contacted the tire manufacture and they said I didn't know how to balance them properly and his rim's were probably bent. He ended up buying some BFG AT's. Those balanced nicely

Scott

I’m curious, did your friend’s had a patched in chunk of tread? On my brothers they all had around a 2” chunk of tread and 2 seams instead of one. It was like their tread mold was too short for the circumference of the tire it was on.

Maybe they’re OK on the smaller sizes because I’ve read plenty positive reviews, but no mention of sizes.

 

[Ben Cleveland]

I found this review helpful and informative.

 

[smritte]

I don't recall that. It's something that I would have noticed though. Im not too keen on anything that's re-manufactured when it come's to tires. I do know they have to be DOT certified but don't know what the requirements are.

Scott

 

[smritte]

So watched the video. First off he said they are not retreads but remolded. Go watch a how its made on retreads, the process is almost the same. Next is one issue people don't know or may not understand. It has to do with a tire dry rotting from the inside out. This is caused by moisture in the air turning to acid and seeping through the tire carcass. The RMA (rubber manufacturers association) suggests tires not be sold older than 5 years for this reason. Not only does the rubber break down but the layers of metal and cloth cording rot also. They use an old tire carcass.
I may have the math wrong but I know I'm close. 1 once of im balance on a standard passenger car tire at 60 mph is around 3 pounds of centrifugal force. On 33x12 tires its much higher. The guy on the video said a half a pound of imbalance. The tires I balanced were more than that. He also said they were not round.
So much for "remolded" tires. Ive balanced retreads with around an ounce. Why are these better than retreads?

Im sure they work well in the mud but so do my nitto's and the other mud tires I've run.
Im running Coopers on my Cruiser now and I love them. Their priced reasonably.
Good job on the video @bencleveland . Who is the narrator by the way?

Scott

 

[m_lars]

In the videos he said they flex well when aired down, that is not what I saw. They had the stiffest sidewall I’ve ever seen.

I also think they’ve gone up significantly in price. When I first started last ok’ing at them they were significantly cheaper than the “new” competitors. That’s not really the case anymore.

 

[sabjku]

In my opinion, if there's anything you should be spending money on, it's tires. A good set of tires is, in my opinion, the single most important upgrade/investment for your vehicle in terms of off roading, overlanding etc. Absolutely nothing is more important in terms of mods. I have probably one of, if not the tightest budgets of anyone here, which is why my $1800 Craigslist CRV is still almost completely stock, but I bought a set of 4 General Grabber AT2's almost immediately after I got my vehicle. Couldn't be happier with them - outstanding tires that have massively increased the capability of the rig vs stock tires.

I've got no experience with them, but Andrew St. Pierre-White of 4xoverland fame swears by BFGoodrich AT tires, and he has decades of experience overlanding in Africa and Australia, and probably many other places.

My advice is buy the best tires you can afford that suit your needs, and cut corners elsewhere. Best of luck!

I guess I'll chime in and say that I 100% agree with what CR-Venturer says. I absolutely understand building on budgets, been there and done that on numerous other vehicles in the past when I was younger, but even then, I viewed tires as the most critical safety item I was investing in. It's what comes between your vehicle and the road at 60, 70mph+ going down the road-a blowout at 70mph can be fatal. With that said, there's no reason to buy the most expensive tires out there, but I would at least invest in reputable, branded, tires, if at all possible.

 

[Lindenwood]

I ended up passing due to balance concerns and the fact that the Guard Dogs are very loud (I had some on my old Samurai).

I did indeed go cheap, however, and have been happy with my imported MTs that I also bought for $800/5. 18 months and 9k miles on them.

I have also heard nothing but great things about the Falken Wildpeak AT3W.

 

[MA_Trooper]

Looks like the decision has been made. But I'll chime in anyway. I look at it as a safety concern. I have two children still in rear facing car seats in the back. I need to have confidence in my tires. I wouldn't get on a plane that didn't have a pilot in the cockpit. I've seen the numbers and I know that planes can land themselves with I lower rate of error than landing with a pilot in control. But I still want a pilot. Even if the retreads (or "remolds") had a lower failure rate, I just don't have confidence in them. That said, I know a few people who had their treadwrights for not very long before delamination occurred. Perhaps remanufactured tires just can't stand up to being aired down and beat on. I'm sure some small street tires on a civic would be fine as you are maintaining the same tire pressure and not running em into sharp rocks and stumps. IDK. I just don't have much confidence in them.

 

[Lindenwood]

At least early on, it was a known issue that airing down was the single bigger killer of re-treads. Almost all of the actual Treadwright unsafe delaminations I'd ever heard of were at least strongly correlated to airing down or otherwise running under optimal pressure.

Also, we have to remember, at some point you have to trust that the DOT wouldn't certify tires that don't meet what are actually pretty strict modern road safety standards in both performance and manufacturing.

But, ultimately, with the pretty significant jumps in pricing over the last 5 years or so, there are plenty of similarly-priced new tires with equal or greater physical performance, but which also may not suffer from the noise, weight, balance issues, and low-pressure delamination risks often associated with these retreads.