MT/R's in snow

Inc · **Posted:** Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:49 pm

dieselenthusiast wrote:

Good job INC, that’s a perfect “visual” illustration. What you have identified as sipes is what I would call grooves. I was thinking that the smaller wave-like sipes were only the small slits on the tread blocks. In this case scenario, you are referring to sipes as the grooves in-between the blocks. I guess my definition of sipes has broadened.

Yeah, not sure if people make their own thin sipes. Never seen it. Only ones I've seen are the bigger ones like the pics. I supposed it could be done more thin though, not sure. Cool way to make your tires custom and perform in ice, snow, rocks, mud etc.

InCommando · **Posted:** Sat Jan 31, 2009 3:37 pm

Most people refer to the big stuff as "grooving" a tire and the small slits are "siping" a tire. The small slits work differently then the big grooves. Tire places like Discount used to have a machine to "sipe" tires. Siping is primarily an aid on icy or wet pavement. I can't post pics from this computer, but if you look up the tread of a true winter tire like a Blizzak DMZ3 or a Nokian you can see the thousands of small sipes. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... zzak+DM-Z3 or http://www.tirerack.com/tires/BigPic.js ... zzak+DM-Z3 You can see that each block has about half a dozen sipes in it while the grooves seperate each block. ( BTW: this tire kicks butt. I have them on the our minivan)

The downside to siping is that, off-road, it can lead to "chunking" where pieces of the tread break of as the blocks left by the siping are too small.

Inc · **Posted:** Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:52 pm

InCommando wrote:

Most people refer to the big stuff as "grooving" a tire and the small slits are "siping" a tire. The small slits work differently then the big grooves. Tire places like Discount used to have a machine to "sipe" tires. Siping is primarily an aid on icy or wet pavement. I can't post pics from this computer, but if you look up the tread of a true winter tire like a Blizzak DMZ3 or a Nokian you can see the thousands of small sipes. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... zzak+DM-Z3 or http://www.tirerack.com/tires/BigPic.js ... zzak+DM-Z3 You can see that each block has about half a dozen sipes in it while the grooves seperate each block. ( BTW: this tire kicks butt. I have them on the our minivan)

The downside to siping is that, off-road, it can lead to "chunking" where pieces of the tread break of as the blocks left by the siping are too small.

You say "tomato" I say "tomahto". :roll:

InCommando · **Posted:** Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:11 pm

Yeah, but you put an "e" on potato! LOL That ought to split the readers along age lines.....

Guest · **Posted:** Sun Feb 01, 2009 3:12 pm

WTH are you talking about?

MT/R's in snow

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