Tire Sipe
 

Has anyone had their tires siped?

Sipe your tires for better snow wheeling performance - SnowTrek.org

I would watch this although siping tires is good for snow and wet surface traction if the outside lugs are siped and you get into a rocky terrain it will destroy the siped outer lugs

i guess the article was for snow so it would be fine

More sipes == less contact area on the ground, more tread squirm, less dry traction. Generally more noise as well. Probably slightly higher rolling resistance.

It can help on wet roads or snow and ice--IF you know what you're doing. (Hint: Tire manufacturers have spent many man-years figuring out what works.)

It's not anything I would even consider doing to my own tires. Nor would I want to try hand-siped tires from a local tire shop, unless the person doing the cutting has many years of experience doing just that.

-soD

I'd do it to my tires. You California guys don't have snow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtk4ijS4gOo

I love shaved ice! :)

Well, you need it in AZ.

Tony
I put snow or off road tires on all of my vehicles. Our road here is gone from snow to ice and now mud. I couldn't be safe with hi mpg tires. The money I would save on gas would be converted to tow or body work bills.

I haven't reset the ultragauge on my van all winter. Today was the first that I have seen 16.4 since December or early January.

Les Schwab always advertised siping as a way to improve fuel economy by lowering rolling resistance. I'd be very surprised if it had that effect.

It's certainly a good idea for ice traction, but then again, snow tires come sipped from the get-go.

My recommendation is to get extra wheels and run the appropriate tire for the job. It's impossible to make a tire that excels in every performance category because most areas of performance are in opposition to the others.

I am curious how siping reduces contact area by any significant amount All the sipes I have seen are just slices through the tread block.

How does a smaller contact area reduce traction? Reduced area means more weight on the now smaller area, end result is amount friction is the same.

More squirm I get but is that a problem for a non performance driver?

Removing material from the tread block reduces the actual material that is contacting the ground at any one point. I don't know if just 'slicing' the tread on the tires without removing material is siping, but I don;t know much about this.

All the sports cars with wide tires to maximize contact patch are doing it wrong. They should be rollin on bike tires for max traction. Same with those offroaders and wide tires. This seems wrong, no?