Tire Siping

[barmanjay]

So,.. i decided to see what I can do about my baja claws,.. they are decent for off-highway use,.. but street use, they simply suck

I read up on how to sipe tires and the benefits.

By adding "slices" or "lines/grooves" this improves the flex of the rummer tread giving it more "grip" on the road surface.

Imagine little squeegee's all over the tire gripping the road.

If you look at winter tires, they have a crazy amount of lines. All seasons have a fair amount and our off-highway tires have,.. well,.. none.

I'm experimenting and siped my tires to see how well they perform on the street.

I suspect quieter road noise, however faster wear.

The problem with siping off-highway tires is when they are used for off-highway on rough ground,.. apparently because of the sipes, the tread may start to chunk apart in areas.

The proper way to sipe tires is to use a sipe knife,.. but i wasn't about to purchase one for me to possibly never use it again.

next is to make one, but I don't know where to start to make one. I opted for the construction way - reciprocating saw

I picked an 8" bi-metal/wood blade (10/14 tooth size)

My tire guy told me to go in the direction of the tread,.. but on some pages I've read to go straigh,.. I went with what my tire guy said.

took about 3 hours in total,.. my hands/arms are tingling from the vibration and I aquired a couple of blisters,.. but the tires are siped and I'll update on how they perform.

[WhiteOut]

I had Kal tire sipe my M/T's before they were installed, cost me $130 for all 5.  I get none of the roar that i was tol to expect an I'll probably see more life, not less.  They stop nice in the snow and have zero chunking so far.  If you are at the next meeting I'll show you, I have about 4500K on them now an 1 rotation

[Yellow RUBI]

Hey Jay,
Ussually when siping MTs you only sipe the center lugs leaving the shoulder solid,this helps avoid the chunking effect.

[w squared]

I paid $30 a tire at Kal Tire Chinook.

I asked the guy a more than a few questions before I turned over the keys. He suggested to me specific times to bring my Jeep in because that's when his best guy was in the siping room, that siping would lengthen the overall lifespan of an MT if done right, and also that my tires (BFG M/T's) would not have any chunking issues on the shoulder lugs with the siping that he was going to do.

He also said to me "If I screw up your tire, then I'm buying you a new tire."

Haven't given them a real test yet, but so far so good.

[barmanjay]

Hey Jay,
Ussually when siping MTs you only sipe the center lugs leaving the shoulder solid,this helps avoid the chunking effect.

Yeah I read that too,.. But I wanted to really see about chunking.

These tires don't have all too much tread left so this makes the perfect test candidate

[barmanjay]

Thought I would give everyone a heads up on the home sipe

the tires are great!! I love'em

on the snow covered roads, they handled very well this morning,.. thought I would do a slow drive down a small hill and slam on the brakes to check stopping,.. fronts grabbed very nice,.. but the rears did kick out a bit as they have much less tread than the front.

I think i improved the all season driveability of these tires incredibly!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:  for siping the aggressive tires!

I would recommend this to anyone with big nobbies!

[BlackYJ]

Siping greatly improves the performance of MTs.  I had my MTRs siped and they were amazing on the street in the winter.  After about 30K on them I still had about 65-70% left for tread.  I did experience some chunking but that was because some of the sipes were to close to the edge or they were too close together but it was not a big deal at all

I would definitely recommend having MT siped for anyone driving in the winter

[w squared]

Same results here. I've tried to "force" higher-demand situations on my tires in the past two days worth of moderately craptacular weather, and they've done quite well. Maybe not up to the level of a dedicated winter tire, but I'd say at least as well as a BFG A/T or Toyo M55. I'm using those as the points of comparison as I've driven both extensively in the winter.

[sylvrinvader]

Same results here. I've tried to "force" higher-demand situations on my tires in the past two days worth of moderately craptacular weather, and they've done quite well. Maybe not up to the level of a dedicated winter tire, but I'd say at least as well as a BFG A/T or Toyo M55. I'm using those as the points of comparison as I've driven both extensively in the winter.

how did you like the bfg at tires

[Immortal]

 

how did you like the bfg at tires

LOVE 'EM!!!

[dac]

How hard would it be to use a utility knife or grooving iron?  Where can you get grooving irons for that matter?  I've got Cooper Discoverer STT's, I'm guessing siping them would be a good idea.

[w squared]

how did you like the bfg at tires

Well, it's not a mud tire. It's going to ball up easily when you get into the nasty stuff. Also bear in mind that it won't wear quite as well as something like a Toyo M55 (but the Toyos will make your wallet cry, too)

With those two provisos, I think it's a good tire for all-around use. I've done some moderate winter and summer off-road work with them, as well as covered a lot of highway miles with them. They do quite well in snow for an AT, and seem to cope with ice very well for a non-winter specific tire. I'd have no problems running them year-round on a rig that didn't see much in the way of mud.