Tire siping at home.

[bosro]

3rd winter on the Duratracs.
What little snow we've gotten in SE Alberta has made me realize the tires are a bit sketchy now.
Have had a tire groove for years,I groove dirt bike tires all the time.
Realized flipping the blade...it's a siper now.
Less than 2hrs....we will see how it helps,tires are getting changed before next winter no matter.

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[spiritrider1]

3rd winter on the Duratracs.
What little snow we've gotten in SE Alberta has made me realize the tires are a bit sketchy now.
Have had a tire groove for years,I groove dirt bike tires all the time.
Realized flipping the blade...it's a siper now.
Less than 2hrs....we will see how it helps,tires are getting changed before next winter no matter. View attachment 97307 View attachment 97309

View attachment 97305

View attachment 97306

I have the same tread cutter and do the very same thing by flipping the blade. I've posted about it a few times on this forum but never got any responses. I firmly believe its improved my tire's grip, not just in snow but all inclement weather.
I always 'freshen up' my tires around mid-life by opening the tread stabilizing blocks, re-cutting the disappearing groves, and adding sipes.
The picture below is my stock Hankook AT2 at about 24k miles. I cut the areas circled in blue.

I use this cutter and different size cutting blades depending on width. Depth is adjustable.

This is after cutting groves and adding sipes in the meatiest areas of tread. I don't have pictures of cutting the narrow groves available. These are mid-life pictures on my phone. I just did another freshen up at 40K miles during an oil change but I didn't take pictures. I'll have to snap a few when I get home. (Rode the motorcycle to work today )

Those thin sipes don't look like much but I firmly believe they have given a lot of grip to my tires and it seems to have added a little life as well. I only did the fronts last time due to the F-150 being very hard on the outer edges. The rears were not bad so I didn't do them at the time. The ones in the pictures above are currently on the back again and look far better than the fronts which I just did but don't have pictures of yet. But I can say the siped tires have lasted longer.
Opening the groves allows water to be evacuated much easier and reduces hydroplaning.
But I would not recommend doing that on new tires since the tread blocks being taller need stabilization. Otherwise they will squirm and heat up causing more wear and degraded feel/performance.

 

[GIjoe]

I just bought a hundred dollar tool off Amazon, holds 6 blades but I only used 4. Only took about 20 minutes to do all 4 tires. I’m really impressed and can’t believe I hadn’t looked into this soon. Wet traction is dramatically improved and tires feel like they grip the road now. The blades only cut down like 2-3mm.

 

[bosro]

Just by driving a bit today I can feel the tires being a bit softer.
Without doubt traction will be better....wet traction was very bad too.
New set of tires is close to 2k here,

I just bought a hundred dollar tool off Amazon, holds 6 blades but I only used 4. Only took about 20 minutes to do all 4 tires. I’m really impressed and can’t believe I hadn’t looked into this soon. Wet traction is dramatically improved and tires feel like they grip the road now. The blades only cut down like 2-3mm.

I thought about that one but since I already had the tool and lots of blades I didn't bother.
Out n about today and the tires definitely feel different.
Wet traction was horrible,let alone ice.
Supposed to snow tomorrow.
Almost 2k for a new set of tires or do this.
Pretty sure I'm gonna be happier with the siping compared to what they were.

 

[bosro]

I can say without doubt the siping has made a very good improvement on slippery terrain.....wet pavement and ice.
I'm very happy with the result and how easy it is.

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