Any drawbacks to siping?

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I've seen all the advertised benefits for siping, but what are the drawbacks? To me it seems like it would reduce tire life....kind of like riding a motorcycle on the street with knobby tires...they don't last very long...
 
Doesn't seem to negatively effect the life of Michelin's LTX M/S tires, which are siped out the ying-yang
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If anything, I'm thinking it might induce more tread-squirm?
 
*IF* you vehicle has any alignment issues and you normally get cupping, siping does seem to make it worst on the wear.

More often rotations will be needed I've found out.

Bill
 
it would void your tire warranty, if that matters.

I could see doing it to something with 4/32" to make its last 10k miles better in the rain, in theory.
 
most manufacturer siped tires are molded sipes not cut sipes.

Drawbacks "CAN" be mushy handling
worse wear if your car has alignment issues or performance style alignment.

It doesnt reduce life as much as make it more sensitive to wear issues.

heavy OFFROAD use it can cause Chunking of the tread blocks.


As long as the siping is done by the manufacturer and molded in the drawbacks are usually very minimal and the advantages many.


There are quite a few different kinds of siping patterns too.

interlocking "zigzag" sipes

That help with the handling on winter tires.. etc.
 
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I've heard it is not good for high performance tires because of the compound of the tire being softer. The Discount Tire I go to experimented with it about ten years ago then dropped it altogether. I assume they experienced problems.
 
I purchased a Toyo Touring Tire with sipping added to the ticket and have found them to be very good in the wearing department. Les Swab offered the sipping and guarantees the tire across it's span of stores. I believe it a good deal if priced right.
 
Tires also run cooler with siping and this helps to extend the life of the tire as well as improved performance in the rain / light snow.
 
I think the biggest advantage is for snow and ice. I revived a set of snow tires for another year by resiping for the bottom half of the tread and it helped quite a bit. I don't think it would help much for wet driving really, my snows worked about the same as far as I could tell.
 
Aftermarket siping can be some help, but I wouldn't do it on new tires. I'd buy tires with good siping. After the tires are half worn, I'd consider siping if the factory sipes were worn away. I know that Les Schwab pushes siping hard. It is just a money maker for them. I did get some new trailer tires siped by Les Schwab for better wet braking, and there are few trailer tire options around to find good factory siping (and I had a hassle to get them to balance the trailer wheels using a lug-centric adapter on the balancer*). My experience with newly siped half-worn tires is that there is a minor improvement in wet road braking and they seemed to wear more slowly. They also lost a few small chunks of rubber out of the tread (not worrisome) and if you run on rocky surfaces expect more chunking.

*Trailer wheels are made as cheap and light duty as everything else on a trailer. Do not count on the trailer wheel center pilot hole being in the true center of the wheel--they're often just punched out close to the true center.
 
Much of the marketing hype for aftermarket siping is exactly that - hype. A lot of the claims are bogus or over-stated.

There is an advantage for wet and snow traction, but it comes at the expense of dry traction and tire wear. I don't think it makes sense for new tires, but I can see doing it for tires that are approaching wear out - in order to get through the winter.
 
What about siping a pure mud tire like an Interco Super Swamper TSL that have NO siping? Mud tires are slippery on wet pavement and snow, seems like siping would really help in those conditions. Considering doing it to mine when I get them.
 
Originally Posted By: ridgerunner
What about siping a pure mud tire like an Interco Super Swamper TSL that have NO siping? Mud tires are slippery on wet pavement and snow, seems like siping would really help in those conditions. Considering doing it to mine when I get them.


IF your vehicle is in alignment, and IF you don't mind risking chunking the trad, siping will GREATLY help:

Slippery snow traction, wet traction, and odd tread wear.

I considered siping my mud tires when I got them slightly juts so I could avoid the oddball wear patterns that mud tires work themself into.

I also posted a thread on re-siping some worn snow tires ... that didn't go over so well.
 
Originally Posted By: ridgerunner
What about siping a pure mud tire like an Interco Super Swamper TSL that have NO siping? Mud tires are slippery on wet pavement and snow, seems like siping would really help in those conditions. Considering doing it to mine when I get them.


It would seem to me that if a particular tire has issues on wet pavement and snow, then trying to "band-aid" the problem is not a good idea. A better idea would be to get tires that are GOOD on wet pavement and snow.
 
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
Originally Posted By: ridgerunner
What about siping a pure mud tire like an Interco Super Swamper TSL that have NO siping? Mud tires are slippery on wet pavement and snow, seems like siping would really help in those conditions. Considering doing it to mine when I get them.


It would seem to me that if a particular tire has issues on wet pavement and snow, then trying to "band-aid" the problem is not a good idea. A better idea would be to get tires that are GOOD on wet pavement and snow.


That's all well and good until U get into the mud which I do very often. Gotta compromise somewhere I guess or buy 2 sets of tires.
 
Siping is good for certain tires.. like mud tires that have huge tread blocks that are solid rubber. Siping is bad for other types of tires.. don't sipe any Michelin product or any snow tires ever. I've heard good and bad things from customers - some say it quiets the tires down some say it makes them louder.
 
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