I'm looking into getting a set of these tires pretty soon too. If you're looking for snow performance, definitely get them siped.
Great suggestion. Siping can help improve your tires bite on packed snow and ice. If you are shopping, we guarantee the lowest delivered price on these and we can sipe them for you as well. ($15 per tire)
I've heard Pros & Cons about siping. More pros than cons, especially on wet, snowy, or icy roads.
It gives the tire tread more "biting edges", which is especially helpful on a mud tire where the treadblocks are big and basically flat on the road.
As for off-road traction, I don't know how siping effects performance.
An easy way to see this quickly and easily is to look at ANY modern studless snow tire. There are literally thousands of sipes built into the tire. Each tread block, no matter how small or large will have at least 4 or 5 sipes cast into the tire. I just bought a set of Michelin X-Ice Xi3 for my wife's Jetta last week (Thank you Discount Tire). This allows each treadblock to have all those additional 90 degree angles to grab onto the road surface, which is critical on the ice.
Besides snow traction, I've heard that siping also allows big tread blocks to flex easier, thereby reducing friction and heat, which equals tire wear. I don't know if it's true, but "supposedly" siping increases the tire's life. Seems hard to believe, but it kinda makes sense. I've never had the time or money to test two sets of tires back to back, siped vs. not, so I don't have any test results or personal data that would be anywhere near scientific.
All that being said- I plan on having my Trail Grapplers siped because I live in the Seattle area and it rains here just a little bit from October to July (LOL!), and I live in the foothills where it snows too.
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DO NOT sipe the tires. You are not a tire engineer nor are the people offering to sipe your tires. Mud tires are historically poor in the snow. They are not designed for it, which is why they are MUD tires. I would suggest to you the Goodyear Wrangler DuraTracs. They look super aggressive like a mud tire but ride great, fairly quiet, and wear very well. It is honestly the ONLY Goodyear tire I would suggest. We do a lot odd them on the tundras and customer are typically getting 60k-70k per set. Siping mud tires has a whole world of adverse effects.
I've heard Pros & Cons about siping. More pros than cons, especially on wet, snowy, or icy roads.
It gives the tire tread more "biting edges", which is especially helpful on a mud tire where the treadblocks are big and basically flat on the road.
As for off-road traction, I don't know how siping effects performance.
An easy way to see this quickly and easily is to look at ANY modern studless snow tire. There are literally thousands of sipes built into the tire. Each tread block, no matter how small or large will have at least 4 or 5 sipes cast into the tire. I just bought a set of Michelin X-Ice Xi3 for my wife's Jetta last week (Thank you Discount Tire). This allows each treadblock to have all those additional 90 degree angles to grab onto the road surface, which is critical on the ice.
Besides snow traction, I've heard that siping also allows big tread blocks to flex easier, thereby reducing friction and heat, which equals tire wear. I don't know if it's true, but "supposedly" siping increases the tire's life. Seems hard to believe, but it kinda makes sense. I've never had the time or money to test two sets of tires back to back, siped vs. not, so I don't have any test results or personal data that would be anywhere near scientific.
All that being said- I plan on having my Trail Grapplers siped because I live in the Seattle area and it rains here just a little bit from October to July (LOL!), and I live in the foothills where it snows too.
Siping a mud tire will not increase its life. It actually does the opposite. If you notice most siping has interlocking edges which aid in traction and performance. What you get at these places that will "sipe" for you is straight lines. These have been known to cause an unstable feeling due to the tread blocks that have how been cut "squirming" under the wait of the vehicle. Also if you off-road it can cause severe chunking or tearing of the tread blocks.
Had my BF Goodridge G-Force 2" tires siped on my Trailblazer SS. Worked up in the mountains for the last 4 years and on the days of hard packed snow/ice, always was the one locally pulling SUV's and Sedans out of ditches.
Even took it out on the track at Pikes Peak International Raceway and it did well, but I wasn't really expecting much. Of course, this is not a mud terrain tire, just wanting to talk about my experiences about a tire that shouldn't have done well in the hard packed snow and ice but did with siping.
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