Retreads Are Not Your Parents’ Tires Any More

For Harvey Brodsky, no negative comment about retreaded tires goes unchallenged.

After an Indianapolis television station ran a two-part program titled “Treading Dangerously,” suggesting that retreaded tires were prone to blow apart, Brodsky, who is the managing director of the Tire Retread Information Bureau, fired off a letter to WISH-TV producer Clayton Taylor, chastising him for ignoring most of the materials provided by the Pacific Grove, Calif.-based organization. Brodsky also demanded airtime to respond.

A similar report that aired on an affiliated station, WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, Ind., “did a scurrilous job” and was, Brodsky said, “the single most damaging attack against retreading that I can remember.”

week later, Brodsky wielded his pen again in response to a letter to the editor in the Vero Beach (Fla.) Press Journal. The writer had suggested that recapped tires should not be allowed on truck-trailers because of danger posed by tire debris on the road.

“The true cause of tire failure which leads to tire debris is faulty maintenance,” Brodsky replied, adding that retreaded tires are safely used by airlines, school and municipal buses, emergency vehicles and truckers.

When not challenging news reports in defense of the integrity of retreads, Brodsky is sounding an upbeat message about the state of the commercial tire retreading industry.

In fact, these are “glory days” for retreaded tire users, he said.

For the full story, see the Jan. 22 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.