American City & County, May 1995 v110 n6 p28(1) 
                Retreads save fleets money, outlast new tires. 
            Brief Summary: Retreaded tires last 10% to 20% longer than original 
            tire treads. San Antonio, TX, plans to save about $500,000 by using 
            retreads on its motor vehicle fleets in 1995. Hennepin County, MN, 
            also has been successful at using retreads. 
            Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1995 Intertec Publishing Corporation 
            Emery LaPoint is not talking trash when he says the city of San 
            Antonio will save almost half a million dollars this year by using 
            retreaded tires on garbage trucks and other vehicles in its fleet. 
            LaPoint, fleet maintenance and operations administrator in San 
            Antonio's purchasing and general services department, says he has a 
            total of 448 trucks -- requiring 50 -- 60 retreads a week -- running 
            on the recycled tires. He projects his savings by retreading will be 
            about $475,000 this year. 
            One concern about retreads is the sacrifice of length of service for 
            cost effectiveness. But LaPoint says, "I actually get between 10 and 
            20 percent more wear out of a retread than I get from the original 
            tread on a new tire. There is just something about the rubber 
            compound they use that helps us get extra life." 
               Amos Taylor, tire shop crew leader, agrees. "With the dense 
            rubber they put on the retreads, we actually have less downtime due 
            to flats," he says "In the hostile environments the trucks must 
            perform in, like landfills, reducing downtime as the result of less 
            flats is very important to our operational readiness." 
            LaPoint says San Antonio has used retreads since the late '60s. His 
            present supplier, Treadco, Ft. Smith, Ark., uses a process designed 
            by Bandag, Muscatine, Iowa. 
            LaPoint realizes that maintenance is a key factor in the kind of 
            service he gets from his tires. All of his trucks cross the 
            inspection lane on a weekly basis. At that time, an air pressure 
            gauge is put on all tires to make sure they are properly inflated. 
            Retreaded tires average about three retreads per casing, with some 
            casings making it to even the fourth and fifth retreading. "I pretty 
            much rely on my retread supplier to make that determination," 
            LaPoint says. "We both benefit when we can get an extra retread from 
            a casing. On the other hand, he doesn't take any chances." 
            In addition to the financial benefits of retreading, LaPoint says 
            the recycling benefits also are a plus. 
            A number of city and county governments are beginning to see those 
            advantages as well. Hennepin County (Minneapolis) has been using 
            retreaded truck tires for more than 15 years and presently uses them 
            on about 80 maintenance trucks. The county also is considering using 
            retreads on its fleet of 150 non-emergency light trucks. 
            "Since that retread delivers the same dependability and service, we 
            don't purchase new truck tires for our drive-axle wheel positions 
            unless we run short of retreadable casings," says Barbara Sutey, 
            administrative services manager for the county's public works 
            department. 
            Stringent maintenance and air pressure inflation standards in the 
            shop help assure the maximum amount of retreadable casings. Truck 
            operators also check their tires at the beginning of each shift. 
            While the savings to Hennepin County taxpayers is important, the 
            environmental advantages of retreading are becoming more so. It 
            takes 22 gallons of oil to manufacture a new truck tire, and most of 
            that oil is in the casing. It takes only 7 gallons of oil to retread 
            a tire and, each time, the disposal option is avoided. 
             
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