We've all seen them, road alligators. These menacing objects seem to appear from nowhere as we clip along at high speeds on the Interstate. They are the large remnants of tire tread separated from their vehicles, usually long haul trucks, and scattered about the roadway. What's surprising is that you hardly ever see anyone trying to clean them up.
Our first impulse when we encounter road alligators is to blame retreaded tires. However, this is largely myth. Retreaded tires are no more vulnerable to tread separation than new tires.
According to the Tire Retread Information Bureau (TRIB), a non-profit, member-supported industry association dedicated to the recycling of tires through retreading and repairing, the primary causes of tire failure stem from poor maintenance, particularly under-inflation followed by mismatched tires. TRIB maintains that with correct tire pressure, all tires will afford the best performance, tread life, fuel mileage, and safety.
Moreover, statistics demonstrate that retreads are no less safe than new tires, and, they certainly are a whole lot friendlier to the environment. Discarded tires occupy far too much land fill space, while retreaded tires extend a tire's life to the benefit of all without compromising tire safety.
The only components of any vehicle that actually touch the road are the tires. This, alone, renders them a critical safety concern. For trucking fleets proper inflation is a number one priority. It is made more so given the significantly higher costs for fuel we see currently. Time and again, it has been made clear that correctly inflated tires produce greater fuel economy.
So, operators of trucking fleets must know something from which ordinary drivers of passenger cars and trucks can benefit. Unfortunately, a majority of us tend to ignore our tires until problems arise. We get a flat, or worse, experience a blowout. It's only then that we take the time to have our tires looked at and get repairs or tire replacements.
Once that's over, we revert to ignoring them which all too often means driving on under-inflated tires. We then become a road hazard. Another thing to note is that this is especially important for motorcycle tires. And we should take no comfort in buying a cheap used car where it's common for the tires to have been sorely neglected.
While road alligators mistakenly give retreaded tires a bad name, recently there have been two tire recalls involving tread separation with light truck tires which were not retreads. One involved some 92,000 tires manufactured by the Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. and another 450,000 tires imported from China were recalled.
So, the next time you spot road alligators don't jump to any conclusions that they were spun from retreads. Look to your own tires, keep them properly inflated and maintained. That way you won't be creating any road alligators yourself, and, better still, you won't become road kill - human, that is!
