MPT-81 tire siping

[cph05a]

Do you guys sipe your own tires for winter? I'm recently bought a tire siper and trying to figure out how many sipes to do, how close together, what depth, etc. I'm curious what you guys think about it.

 

[Imurphy]

Tire siping is like taking a razor blade to cut the tread of the tire. For smaller tires you put the siping close together, the largest the tire the further apart the sipes should be. In the tire shop, we had two knife forms, one for passenger tires and one for commercial tires.

Saying you got a tire siper I'm inclined to think you have a groover. a groover cuts a valley in the tread of the tire. A groove will remove material where siping does not remove any material.

 

[cph05a]

Tire siping is like taking a razor blade to cut the tread of the tire. For smaller tires you put the siping close together, the largest the tire the further apart the sipes should be. In the tire shop, we had two knife forms, one for passenger tires and one for commercial tires.

Saying you got a tire siper I'm inclined to think you have a groover. a groover cuts a valley in the tread of the tire. A groove will remove material where siping does not remove any material.

The tool I have holds multiple razor blades at the same time and heats up to make it easier to cut. They're just straight blades, not loops. It's adjustable so I can change the spacing and the depth of the blades. I'm not quite sure what to set it to. The last time I sipped the tires I did it with a single blade and I didn't make that many cuts since it was kind of a pain in the ass.


This was how I siped them last time. I'm not sure what the depth was since I was just kind of winging it before. I'm wondering if I should have more sipes on each lug compared to this.

 

[IdaSHO]

Siping is pretty standard up here in snow country, regardless of vehicle/tire size.

From what I've seen, the depth is deeper and gapping wider, on large commercial tires.

 

[MattScott]

I think this is a great idea with the MPT81, and something I was just researching myself with this tire. I wonder what the long-term benefits are going to be for tire wear.

 

[PKDreamers]

Wow they say you learn sum thing new every day well i just learnt about tyre/tire siping ,
We dont have much snow in Australia.

 

[zip]

What are these tires on?

 

[Imurphy]

The tool I have holds multiple razor blades at the same time and heats up to make it easier to cut. They're just straight blades, not loops. It's adjustable so I can change the spacing and the depth of the blades. I'm not quite sure what to set it to. The last time I sipped the tires I did it with a single blade and I didn't make that many cuts since it was kind of a pain in the ass.

View attachment 624887
This was how I siped them last time. I'm not sure what the depth was since I was just kind of winging it before. I'm wondering if I should have more sipes on each lug compared to this.

Have not seen a tool like that before. Sounds like some fun could be had with it. I would definitely do a few more sipes on each lug.
Depth should be 2/32 shallower than the tread depth. 1/2" between cuts on large lug tires is fairly normal, but on some of the lugs you can do them closer together. The side lugs I would keep around 1/2" but the center lugs can be closer together because they are naturally less prone to chunking. I also don't cut as deep on the side lugs similar to the spacing deeper sipes can increase chunking.

 

[Fatboyz]

I'm interested to know how it turns out and how much of a difference you see. I live in Alberta and we have tons of ice and snow. I want to go to Super singles but we use our truck a lot in the winter and am concerned about performance on icy highways and roads.

 

[sierraskier]

Also following and interested in this whole process and how it improves snow/ice performance on MPT81's. Of course this is all pretty subjective and based on many factors such as where you live, how much snow/ice you drive on, weight of rig, driving ability, etc.

 

[roving1]

I kept inheriting too new to throw away but otherwise blah all seasons on a couple vehicles. I was amazed how much adding sipes improved cold wet weather performance. Honestly made a huge difference.

I would probably leave the spacing from the outer sipe to the lug end the same and put twice as many in the middle section.