Les Schwab Tire Centers is conducting the first recall in company history with about 41,000 retreaded commercial truck tires.

“In terms of tire recalls, this is really limited,” said Dale Thompson, chief marketing officer. “It’s limited to commercial truck tires. We’ve got our arms around the customers that have it.”

The recall was announced in March.

The affected tires were produced at retread centers in Prineville; Spokane, Washington; and Rupert, Idaho, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records. Based in Bend, Les Schwab is better known for its retail centers, where it sells tires and services for passenger cars and trucks. The company says it has 7,900 employees in 478 stores.

The source of the recall was incompletely cured vulcanizing compound, which is used to attach new tread to tire casings, according to documents filed with the safety administration. The defect could result in tire tread separating, increasing the risk of a crash, though no completely separated tires or crashes were reported.

Les Schwab identified the defect after several tires were returned with pieces of tread missing, according to a safety administration timeline. All the tires had been retreaded with a gum rubber supplied by Hexpol Rubber Compounding, which Les Schwab had used for a limited time last fall.

The Hexpol compound, which requires a longer curing time than Les Schwab’s process specified, was used on about 18,000 tires, according to the document. Out of an abundance of caution, Les Schwab expanded the scope of the recall to include all the retreads produced while Hexpol was in use. The affected tires were produced from Oct. 16 to Dec. 15.

—Reporter: 541-617-7860, kmclaughlin@bendbulletin.com