TYRE TALK

DAVE MORLEY GIVES YOU THE CAR ADVICE YOU NEED – AND MAYBE A BIT ABOUT LIFE AS WELL

Now here’s a thing: Flat tyres. Dunno about you, but when I was a fair bit younger than right now, country roads and highways were absolutely dotted with the twisted, munted carcasses of exploded tyres. Truck tyres, mainly, I guess, but you never had to walk too far along a country road to find a mangled hunk of rubber that used to be a Vredestein or Kleber (remember those guys?).

But these days? Hell, you can drive for miles even on crapola outback roads and not see a dead ’un for hours. At first I thought that maybe the trucking industry had moved away from retreads. But nope, it seems the retreaded truck tyre is still very much a thing and with good reason. Apparently it takes about one-third of the oil to retread a good used truck-tyre carcass than it does to make a brand-new hoop. And hey, if they can land passenger jets on retreads…