Tire Siping - Good idea, or bad?

Tire siping has become a popular way to improve traction with all types of tires, not just off-roaders.

Actually, the practice of siping has trickled down from the heavy truck industry where getting some extra mileage from a set of tires is very important when you drive more than 250,000 kilometres per year.

Due to the obvious advantages of tire sipes, most manufacturers have been working cuts or "sipes" into their tread designs over the last few years.

Details... Cutting head Starting point Groovy! 2nd pass Completed Swampers BFG MTs

A good example of this is the Blizzak ice tire. Interco (makers of the Super Swamper) noticed how many of their tires were being siped soon after purchase. As a result, they have come out with a new Radial Swamper with sipes already cut into the tread. BF Goodrich are following suit with their new All Terrain tire.

What is tire siping?

The basic idea is to create extra biting edges in the tread pattern without giving up the ability to self-clean or "chuck mud". The extra edges also serve to dissipate heat in the tire, which in turn will extend the tread life. After all, when most good off-road tires start at $200.00 each, any way to make them last longer would be most welcome to all of us. However, here in Canada, it might be difficult to find a shop that has the equipment to do the work. Your best bet is to try a heavy truck shop.

Why sipe?

In the case of the Swampers pictured here, the sound level on the street has been drastically reduced - now they are 'almost bearable'. With all those extra cuts, the braking capacity has been increased, and trail performance has been enhanced without any extra damage to the tread. The increased capabilities of the tires in deep snow and ice have been very noticeable.

You may notice we cut only the inner blocks on the Swamper to help reduce chunks being ripped out of the outer lugs. Though we wheel our Swamper-equipped Jeep quite hard, the tread hasn't sustained any extra cuts or 'chunking' (pieces coming off of the tires). In fact, the cuts close to the block edges that we were sure would come right off are all still there.

Because the Wranglers we siped were in worse condition (about 40% tread left) when we started, they have not fared as well. Small pieces have separated from the tread blocks but nothing drastic.

Should I sipe?

I've been paying attention to other wheelers with siped tires, and the trend has been much the same as our experience with the Swampers. Give it a try you will probably find increased tread life, lower noise in bias ply tires and enhanced driving performance. What more could you want?