Do you think tire siping actually help?

[Wasatch Rebel]

Every time I buy some tires from Discount Tire, they try to sell me siping. I've driven a mail truck for years and one year they siped all their tires. I noticed absolutely no difference in the kind of traction I got in snowy/icy conditions. So I ask you, do you think it helps in any way? I'm thinking that if it actually worked, the tire manufacturers would do it themselves and advertise it as such. Thoughts?

 

[Jinx]

What kind of vehicle and what kind of application?

 

[ID Bronco]

I have seen improvements with siping. Tire manufacturers do it all the time, look at a Blizzak or simmilar. It has tons and tons of siping. They do advertise it as such, its called a snow tire. I do it on nearly every tire I get for my truck or Suburban. Here in Idaho we get some pretty bad weather and roads and it makes more agressive tires much better on the ice.

 

[Rot Box]

It works on ice and slick stuff very well from what I've seen. I've noticed on the M/T's tires is very quick tread wear with siping I won't ever have tires siped for that reason alone :-\

 

[Wasatch Rebel]

What kind of vehicle and what kind of application?

Most recently on my Honda Accord...of course, it has front wheel drive and gets pretty good traction on city streets. I just don't have much trouble so don't know why I would bother with siping.

 

[Caleb]

Yeah, most tires that are advertised as winter or snow tires (especially for passenger cars) are siped from the factory. I most definitely can tell a difference. We had a set of snow tires for my wife's Civic and the siping helped in a big way.

 

[DAA]

I had my last set of the old style MT/R's siped. Made a very noticeable improvement on slick and snowy pavement. They did chunk a bit worse than usual in the rocks, but not too awful.

- DAA

 

[ID Bronco]

It works on ice and slick stuff very well from what I've seen. I've noticed on the M/T's tires is very quick tread wear with siping I won't ever have tires siped for that reason alone :-\

I had my last set of the old style MT/R's siped. Made a very noticeable improvement on slick and snowy pavement. They did chunk a bit worse than usual in the rocks, but not too awful.

- DAA

My current set of tires are old style mtr's. I sipe all of my mt's in the middle 3/4 of the tread. Leaving the outer tread blocks in tact. Not much chunking results. I have done this to bfg mt's, swamper ssr's, Cooper Discoverer stt's, the mtr's and a few others and same results. It is most noticeable on our streets when it has been extremely cold and the ice is abnormally hard/packed/nasty slick.

If I lived in SLC I probably would not sipe them. I visit fairly often and my family resides there, the winters really aren't too bad in the valley. I know you get a few storms that dump a bunch but it was really nice a couple of weeks ago when I visited.

 

[sLcREX]

Someone said that siping killed the thread life? I had thought it was the opposite of it, I was under the impression it's supposed to help. But I do see that most all snow tires have a bunch of siping everywhere on them. I couldnt say how much it helps though, on dry pavement they certainly were no performers lol.

 

[Caleb]

Someone said that siping killed the thread life? I had thought it was the opposite of it, I was under the impression it's supposed to help. But I do see that most all snow tires have a bunch of siping everywhere on them. I couldnt say how much it helps though, on dry pavement they certainly were no performers lol.

Siping should help tread life, but that comes from passenger tires, not mudders with 1/2"-1" tall tread blocks. When you sipe a tread block that tall, it will introduce a lot more movement which builds heat which will kill tread blocks. It can easily cause chunking as a lot of guys report.

I think on a large mudder, grooving would provide more benefit than siping.

 

[RusM]

SIpes are good in the rain, but you guys probably don't care about that!