Too sipe or not too sipe?

Me too. Thats my hope

 

When I asked them about siping, that's what they said. They will only sipe the two center rows of tread blocks. I asked why not the out blocks and got two answers. One said it is hard on their equipment. The other said their research showed the biggest impact is from the center lugs.

 

My question is if siping is so great why do manufacturers that design, test and construct the tires not sipe them from the factory?

I know manufacturers sipe some of the tires that are made but not all tires come from the factory siped. Around the Pacific NW it is a very common practice.

 

The quicker your tires wear....the sooner ya gotta buy new ones.

 

I appologize for being a noob, but what is siping?

 

a machine rotates your tires and makes cross cuts into your treads. This helps the tread split during movement and cut through water, snow,etc and keeps better grip on dry road. At the expense of faster wear

 

This may help to explain what siping is.
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/tireSiping.dos

From the Discount Tire doc.

Why Don't My Tires Come Siped From the Manufacturer?
Our siping process doesn't remove ANY rubber from the tread allowing the individual sipes to support each other. A molded sipe leaves vacant gaps in the tread. Siping creates edges without gaps. To sipe (in mass production) after the molding process would be too expensive and time consuming for the manufacturer.

 

I have the stock Dunlop AT20 tires and as much as I would like to get winter tires or even just better A/T tires like Michelin AT2s, I just can't afford it right now and winter is fast approaching. I've read a lot of bad reviews on the stock Dunlops in ice and snow...this has me very concerned. I don't drive fast in these conditions...will the tires be fine with conservative driving habits? Would siping dramatically help give these stock tires more grip?

 

not a mud tire but, I just ordered a set of Cooper Discoverer ST's. Gonna have them siped and studded for winter. Pretty excited, never had a studded tire before.

 

Wow. Never heard of "siping". Good information here.

 

Especially since you are out in or , i would recommend getting them siped. i spent about a week with my at20's in our chicago winters and I literally couldnt make it down the street unless i was in 4hi. It was ridiculous that they would put this junky of a tire on a truck

 

My current winter setup is a set of 17 inch TRD Sport wheels with the stock Dunlop AT20 tires that I found on craigslist.. I have run them for the last 3 winters.. While I am not nearly as comfortable on them as I was with my previous BFG AT's, they have gotten me around for the last 2/3 harsh winters without siping.

07- 5 Feet of snow
08- 8 Feet of snow
09- 6 inches of snow
10- TBD

 

I think I am gonna take my dremel with a small blade and cut two slots in each of the center lugs and see how it works. Im gonna start shallow tho, so if it doesnt work well they will wear off. Maybe 1/8"

 

The problem with that is my guess the cut slots wont be equal in length. So during movement when the rubber flexes you'll have uneven flex from the sipes which will cause weird behavior and extremely fast wear n' tear on your tread.

 

I would not get your tires siped if you drive on small rocky surfaces at all, ESPECIALLY shale. Shale is bad enough on tires, but on a siped tire it really finds the way to get in there and rip them up. If you stay away from surfaces like this in your driving, go for it, it's cheap and supposedly gives a dicernable difference.

 

To those that researched it. Discount tire will be able to do the center lugs only??

 

Has any one siped BFG TA KO's? IF so what was the result on snow/ice?

 

I have about half the tread left on my duratracs. I'm wondering about siping them to keep them for another winter but i dont know if i have enough tread left to do it. Otherwise the new 'tracs are going on

 

Why doesn't Toyota make a solid-axle diesel for us to buy in the US?

It's a matter of expense and "good-enough".

http://www.dickmantires.com/sipe.html
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/tireSiping.dos
http://www.lesschwab.com/siping.asp

A fun read: http://www.overdriveonline.com/feature-article-siping-strides/

 

I have been having Discount Tire do just that for two decades or so