Tire Siping

[Alan Peters]

I've never heard of this term, but I was getting my tires rotated and balanced at Discount Tire this morning and was trying his hardest to sell me on this. I have Goodyear Fortera with only 9K miles on them. Has anybody heard of this and can recommend?

 

[Wolf Wilder]

 

[JerryW Gilliland]

That was the major feature that sold me on the Michelin LTX tires.

They do that at the factory.

 

[Jerry Gerner 2]

Growing up out in Oregon and Washington state everyone in my family did that to their tires to help with driving in the winter. It helps all year round. You can do that yourself with a dremel tool .

 

[Scott Tanner]

I cannot believe they would even think of doing this to a tire and assume the liability for any tire failure. As soon as they touch the tire with this procedure, the tire manufacturer's warranty and liability goes out the window... The theory works, I had a set of Goodyear Arrivas in the 80's that outperformed true snow tires... :blink:

 

[TomT]

If it's so great why don't all tires come with this?

 

[Aaron Yarbough]

If it's so great why don't all tires come with this?

That's the question...

 

[Wolf Wilder]

And this is their answer....



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.

 

[Todd Z]

Never siped a tire in my life.... Never needed it...



Todd Z

 

[Wolf Wilder]

I'll never know..



In my world..we dont cut up new tires..



Some swear by it..others dont..



I guess it is something that has to grow on ya..

 

[Richard L]

I had my 2003 Sport Trac's OEM Goodyear Wranglers siped at Discount Tire, and we all know how poor the traction is on those Wranglers. Well, it made a dramatic difference in the wet weather traction. It did not do much for slipping when accellerating, but noticably imporved cornering and stopping. Siping made a scary tire acceptable. I don't know that they would do much in snow since the sipes are small, but they might help a bit on ice. We don't get much snow or ice down here in Texas.



As for any tire warranties, NO. Siped tires do not void the tire warranty as long as the siping did not contribute to the tire failure. I bought the road hazard and lifetime balancing for my Goodyears and asked the manager at the Goodyear srore and that's exactly what he told me. He also said that he did not even notice that the tires were siped. He did say that if big chunks of the tread started coming off the tire, they would probably suspect that the siping caused it. But it will have no effect on the warranty for the main reasons why tires fail. They fail for defective plies and sidewall defects



Every time you drive you vehicle, the tires will get varying degrees of cuts in the tread. Most are shallow but the deep ones are usually called flat tires



...Rich

 

[EddieS'04]

Cant really give an answer. Ive heard too many pros and cons. IMO, I think it might depend on the type tire itself. If it helps.

 

[Karen Smith]

We sipe our race car tires all the time!

Never thought to do it to our street vehicles.