Has anyone here used Dura-Dressing www.dura-coating.com.The hay farmers here in valley swear by it to prevent cracking and dry rotting for their tires on everything. My son used it about 6 months ago on his RV and the tires still look like the day it was applied his tires don't even collect dust. My only concern is the cleaner is nasty like a acid and it streaks the Alcoa but it cleans off easy.I just wonder if the streaks will come back Ricks hasn't (yet)
thanks for any replies before I spring for 75 bucks for the kit
Now you have me curious too. I am too lazy to put those covers on the tires...
I use No Touch Tire Care on all of my rigs. Goes on as a foam, i let it sit for a minute and then use a rag to wipe it. By doing that i don't get streaks on the tire and don't get anything on the wheels. I get it at O'Reillys, been using it for years.
Cliff you know me with wheels and tires, 303 em n' forget it. ;)
Best thing to keep your tires looking good and crack-free is to keep them clean and drive them.
Quote from: richard5933 on October 21, 2021, 04:04:22 AM
Best thing to keep your tires looking good and crack-free is to keep them clean and drive them.
Richard I live in AZ tires and batteries do not live long here
At the FMCA convention in Gillette Wyoming this summer, they had a seminar with a guy whose job was to analize tire failures. Been doing it for 40 years. Said the early cracking was caused by the extreme heat and dry weather out west that not as prevalent in the east. It helped to draw the oils out of the rubber faster. Also said the best way to take care of the sidewalls was just soap and water and no tire dressing of any kind..
He discussed many tire failures he analyzed over the years that were ultimately not caused by the tire failure, but external damage, sometimes done hundreds of miles before failure, including poor repairs. Included many cutaway images of tire carcasses to demonstrate his findings over the years. I missed the first few minutes, so didn't hear what tire manufacturer or industry he was employed by. His opinions seem to be well revered in industry.
Quote from: Ed Hackenbruch on October 20, 2021, 09:14:39 PM
I use No Touch Tire Care on all of my rigs. Goes on as a foam, i let it sit for a minute and then use a rag to wipe it. By doing that i don't get streaks on the tire and don't get anything on the wheels. I get it at O'Reillys, been using it for years.
I have used 1 touch tire treatment over the years it doesn't last and collects dust ,I want something I don't have to work at every 2 weeks
Quote from: Van on October 20, 2021, 10:14:32 PM
Cliff you know me with wheels and tires, 303 em n' forget it. ;)
I have used 303 for years just looking for something better,Tom came over and left me a gal of 303 yesterday,lol since I have this friend that does Alcoa's (you) I am going to give the Dura Dressing a run, it is doing good on Ricks tires amazing good
Quote from: luvrbus on October 21, 2021, 06:09:33 AM
I have used 303 for years just looking for something better,Tom came over and left me a gal of 303 yesterday,lol since I have this friend that does Alcoa's (you) I am going to give the Dura Dressing a run, it is doing good on Ricks tires amazing good
:^
303 over here too.
We cover the tires with insulated backed pvc covers. Their black so look normal and really protect the tires from ultraviolet degrading. When the bus is set up for camp between the awnings, tire covers and window sun screens - the only exposed surface is anodized aluminum & solar panels... :^
Quote from: luvrbus on October 21, 2021, 05:22:08 AM
Richard I live in AZ tires and batteries do not live long here
I get it that the sun is stronger down there, but how much protection can any of these products provide. I'd love to see a real-world test of tires using the various products before I'd spend any more money on them.
I used Aerospace 303 in the past on my previous tires, and while it looked great for a short time after just a few weeks of normal weather up here you couldn't even tell it was still on the tires.
The tire engineers are aware that their products will be in the sun all the time. I have to imagine that they figured that into the formulation. If something as simple as a spritz once in a while could truly lengthen the life of the tires I assume that the engineers would have told the R&D people to start selling it themselves, or even to include it in the formulation to begin with.
At some tire places I have been to told us that these tires will look good with most of the above products but that tires rot from the inside out and the oils will come out slowly if you don't wash and agitate the exterior of the tires. He said to use black scrubby pads on them and drive them as much as 100 miles a month if possible. That keeps the natural oils in the rubber distributed correctly.
Our size tires are meant to be driven, not parked.
No effort will be made, or makes any sense, by the manufacturers when almost all of their tires are doing 100k+ a year.
Shade them or not, at your $$$ peril...
happy coaching!
buswarrior
303 is a proven product to cut UV. How effective on rubber tires is the question. Rubber is porous so it seems any material applied that provide UV protection needs to remain on the surface or in rubber right near the surface. If the product is designed for this material it seems it can do a better job both near term and over time.
The challenge is finding the products that are made ground up for rubber tires rather than some multi-national making some stuff up then putting different label designed by marketing to sell it into different markets and applications. I'd bet far more tire products on the market are the same used for boat covers and backyard plastic furniture, etc.
What needs to happen here is some real research into the chemical and materials that work best for rubber tires. I'm sure they are around but need to find the real products designed best for tires.
Quote from: windtrader on October 21, 2021, 10:02:48 AM
303 is a proven product to cut UV. How effective on rubber tires is the question. Rubber is porous so it seems any material applied that provide UV protection needs to remain on the surface or in rubber right near the surface. If the product is designed for this material it seems it can do a better job both near term and over time.
The challenge is finding the products that are made ground up for rubber tires rather than some multi-national making some stuff up then putting different label designed by marketing to sell it into different markets and applications. I'd bet far more tire products on the market are the same used for boat covers and backyard plastic furniture, etc.
What needs to happen here is some real research into the chemical and materials that work best for rubber tires. I'm sure they are around but need to find the real products designed best for tires.
You don't want to use any tire dressing unless they make a cleaner to open the pores on the tires ,now 303 doesn't even make the top 5 tire dressing .My Toyo dealer told me the Dura is good stuff so I am going with it, for over 10 bucks a tire it should be good
303 is sun screen for tires, in Las Vegas that matters, lvmci...
tire guy said no to 303 also. said soap and water and use tire covers out in the sun.
Quote from: lvmci on October 21, 2021, 02:44:19 PM
303 is sun screen for tires, in Las Vegas that matters, lvmci...
Are there any real-world tests which show that it actually helps reduce sun damage to tires?
Tire manufactures like Toyo I know for sure and probably others too apply a UV tire dressing at the plant before shipment.303 has been around for a long time and a good product, when I purchased John Deer rubber tired equipment a bottle of 303 and the cleaner always came with the tractor. Now I believe there are better products on the market than 303 and I am going to try one
Guess I am with Van and Richard. 303 on the tires and rubber fender skirts. I spray that on a rag and rub it on. No streaks so far. I make myself drive it once a month even just for an hour. Still put tire covers on until the shop is done. I tried Maguires hot rims on the Alcoa. Went back to mothers and lots of elbow grease. Much shinier and it rubbed the few streaks out that Maguires left.
Dad always rubbed them down with Ruglide.
Quote from: chessie4905 on October 21, 2021, 05:02:53 PM
Dad always rubbed them down with Ruglide.
haven't seen that product in years I used on my rubber floor board and tires on my Chevy pickup,back then tires were rubber and you open the doors and washed the floor board.Today it hard to understand the chemical compounds make up of tires
303 was developed for the space shuttle tiles, to protect from the sun rays in outer space...
Tires being composed of natural latex will decay no matter what we put on them. It's not just the sun although UV exposure speeds the decay process. I was watching a TV show where they were talking about the rubber tree farmers are mostly getting out of the biz since their land is worth more to developers than what the trees produce. Some kind of bug has already eradicated several tree farms in Asia. It was an interesting documentary and that there is no manmade replacement for the rubber used in tires. Prices will continue to skyrocket on rubber it seems. Brazil is out of the picture for the most part on rubber production.
Natural rubber is only a small component of a tire nowadays. Just looked and see that it's only about 20% of the total. Not insignificant, but certainly not the bulk of the tire.
Quote from: richard5933 on October 21, 2021, 06:04:21 PM
Natural rubber is only a small component of a tire nowadays. Just looked and see that it's only about 20% of the total. Not insignificant, but certainly not the bulk of the tire.
They knew it was coming in the 80's they spent millions trying to figure out how to recycle tires lol best they came up with was shredded tires in play grounds and asphalt.Back in the late 50' the Atlas brand Butyl tires was the have to have tires for you car 50 + years later it still used in tires, very little rubber in tires now that is why you buy new tires every 5 or 6 years now/ This why fossil fuel will never go away about everything you use in daily life is tied to natural gas and oil
This is supposedly the new thing.
https://www.cnet.com/news/airless-tires-are-finally-coming-in-2024-heres-why-youll-want-a-set/
In 1973 I once painted the tires on my car with "Tire Black" simply because I was still learning about cars. Did a smoky burnout a few days later and ran into a guy on the other side of the base a little later that day who asked me if I knew that I had lit my tires on fire? WooHoo! If it hadn't been such an aggravation I'd probably painted them it all the time after that!
Jim
They have been working on the airless tires for a few years now. The issues I see aside from what he talked about on the video, is how would the AT [airless tire] handle a hard hit. I would think running over a 2x4 or brick would flex enough to break the rim. What about mud getting into the gaps? That would affect balance, ride quality and again, compromise the rim. I have seen this in use on a bobcat somewhere and thought about the dirt getting into the spaces. I guess it hasn't become an issue in that application where the machine is traveling at 3mph? Maybe they will put rubber caps on the sides since I know we, as Americans will not adopt to some crazy looking thing on our hard earned money spent cars...
Those airless tires are pretty tough they have been used on the skid loaders for years since 2016 ? ,I tried to buy a sent for my tractor and they couldn't come up with right wheels,since it takes a wheel made for airless tire
There has been many discussions about tire material and durability. It is proven fact from the labs and research done by tire companies and the government that heat has the greatest impact on tires. Virtually all tire aging done in labs is done with heat, not UV. Which makes sense since the heat bakes all the lubricating oils out of the rubber a lot faster and stresses all the internal belts, bonding, structural stuff, etc.
That said, UV still does degrade the external tirewalls. Not sure how much surface cracking is due to heat vs UV but I'm still in the camp it helps enough to apply UV protectants, if nothing else, just for looks.
That bears out if you consider how much harder the Arizona sun is on tires than tires in Ohio.
Stagehands especially in large venues or conventions use forklifts and other motorized vehicles to bring set pieces and camera platforms and even the camera boxes to raise our boxes up several levels to our platforms. They wrap the wheels in gaffers tape, you know that as a sturdier duct tape. Those kind of tires would probably not require as much tire maintenance, a smaller market, but maybe that would be what their looking at...