Tire Siping - Gimmick?

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

BBDartCA

Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
648
Location
Washington State
I've always considered tire siping to be akin to the under body sealer dealers try to sell when buying a new car.

Why would you want a tire shop to sipe new tires, when the tire company spent considerable time and money in R&D of the tire and its tread design?

I have a truck I bought with near new Multi-mile tires that were siped when first put on. Now chunks of tread are flying off the tire. Where the chunks are breaking away is also where the sipe cuts are. These are Les Schwab installed and siped tires. Funny thing is, Less Schwab alsways advertising how their sales reps run out to the parking lot to greet customers. Each time I bring in this truck and I say I have a warranty issue, the reps run away from me! Comical.

Whats people's thoughts on siping?
 
Like you said - gimmick. I believe that a leading consumer research magazine did testing and concluded that more harm than good was done by siping.
 
I have had siping done to my truck tires, but the siping was done when the tires were brand new. I have no way then of knowing the difference.
I have never experienced chunks of tire flying off. If that was the case, then I would be greatly concerned either about siping or if the siping was correctly accomplished.
If the tires are good and they did the siping, and you are having a problem, they should make it right. If the reps run away, run after them.
 
I have always considered siping a gimmick. I think most tire manufacturers recommend not siping......


So this last Seattle snow mess (now), two different guys are swearing by it. But not for rain or dry (they both said it's hype for rain). It goes like this - certain low cost tires for daily beaters when siped new, greatly increases snow and ice traction. Both made it to work, no problem.

EDIT: GOOGLE = tire sipe hype
 
Last edited:
Interesting you should bring this up, I just saw this for the first time at a tire shop 2 days ago and I was curious what it was. Thanks =)
 
On tires with factory siping,then no its not needed.

On mud type tires with large voids and no siping,then yes it helps.

My Jeep has BFG mud terrains, unsiped they'd pretty much suck in the rain or snow.

I had them siped when I bought them,they've worked very well in the snow and ice we've had in Western Washington the last few days.

I actually drive my jeep off road,and have never had any issues with the tread chunking.

I'm a firm believer in siping mud tires.
 
Just spent a little time online about siping. I get a mix review, but does seem there may be an advantage for the aggressive truck tire. Other than that, the improvement on manufactured tires over the years have come a long way regards to design etc.
The aggressive truck tires were the only tires I had siping done on, so kind of fell in line on some of the reading I was doing.
I don't know, I probably did it back then because my truck buddies were doing it, and on the same note there was no thought for the non truck tires.Just happened without much thought.
I only did a little online reading about siping.
 
Interesting comments. It makes sense that the little edges would bite into ice and compact snow. Or at least in theory it does.
My Dad is a real skeptic on most things. But he buys into the Les Schwab tires, customer service, and lastly the siping.
 
When I lived in Denver in the mid 90's. I had my new tires siped at America's. I didn't know any better. I moved from LA to Denver. I never drove in the snow before.

I feel siping is nothing more then a profit producer for the tire shops. They charge what $10.00 per tire? Why destroy a good new tire that engineers spent countless months designing?
 
Consumer Reports: "Stick with the sipes that your tires come with. Adding more, called siping, can hurt dry performance and longevity. Remember that even new tires don't grip as well in rain or snow as on dry surfaces."
 
Originally Posted By: Tortured_Soul
Consumer Reports: "Stick with the sipes that your tires come with. Adding more, called siping, can hurt dry performance and longevity. Remember that even new tires don't grip as well in rain or snow as on dry surfaces."

Having cited this source, there will now be a stampede of people screaming that siping is really the greatest thing to have ever been provided by tire retailers.
 
I've siped a huge variety of tires, custom studding, all sorts of trials and errors to create a better winter tire. I do believe in the traction gains absolutely, I've taken great tires and made them better.

Nokian Hak 10, older generation 235/85-16
116619672_MBgr6-L.jpg

Nice skinny profile for cutting through slush, deep tread, good stud count, but minimal siping in the center. Doing the centers gave this tire better bite than the newest generation Hak LT, it worked great.

107480238_qMZSa-M.jpg
BFG Krawlers, went from scarey to bearable, still an improvement.

234312956_j9k7s-M.jpg
Fun Country II's, yes they did better in grease and winter conditions too.

Siping has it's place, but I'll say one common trait between all the tires has been chunking and reduced tread life, especially under heavy trucks with big torque like we have today, you can burn off a set of 35" BFG AT's with extra siping in one winter easy, even if you kept up with rotation. Many guys here with big lifted crew cabs hate the look of a tiny winter tire for 6 months of the year, so they usually have a set of big boots siped deep and across the face to help keep them on the road. It's also standard for fresh tires on rigs to get siped on the steering axle, it does track better on ice and snow. You have to weigh the pros/cons of doing it. It also takes a half worn tire and gives it bite again.

Sometimes $50 in siping is enough to make things comfotable for the coming winter season without having to fork out a pile of cash for winter tires. It isn't for everyone's conditions, but it does indeed improve ice and snow grip, even on a tire moulded with sipes, the down side is the increased wear.Maybe if you own a Les Shwab's tire center, I guess you could call that a benefit of siping.
 
Aftermarket tire siping has been advertised to do all kinds of things. I did a quick look to see what the current situation is - and they have toned it down a lot!

So what are the benefits?

1) Improved wet traction - and by wet traction, I do not mean resistance to hydroplaning.

2) Improved snow traction - probably the greatest benefit.

Downsides?

1) wear

2) Dry traction - but there is plenty to begin with, so this isn't much of an issue.

3) chip/chunk resistance - probably the biggest downside.

If you look at it from the tire manufacturer's point of view, aftermarket siping alters the tire - so it voids the warranty. Since most tire retailers are also the warranty point, the effect is that a retailer may do a warranty on a tire, then send it in to the tire manufacturer for credit. The retailer may or may not get credit, but he is in a good position to argue the point. I think you'll find that tire manufacturers will do a warranty on a tire except for those things that would be affected by the siping.

Looking at it from the retailers point of view, tire siping can inhance some things that have immediate impact - wet traction / snow traction - and the long term negatives - chip/chunk, wear, etc - can be dealt with later.

At lastly, looking at it from the consumer's point of view, If you are buying a tire and you need all the snow traction you can muster - buy a tire already designed for that. Siping a tire that is already an excellent performer in snow does very little. If you are buying a lesser peforming tire with the idea of turning it into a stellar performer, repeat after me: "There is no free lunch!"

But if you have a set of worn tires that just don't have the wet or snow traction you'd like - and they are going to be replaced because of that - you can get a bit more usage out of them.

And, frankly, that's where I think the true benefit is.
 
Originally Posted By: oilboy123
Interesting comments. It makes sense that the little edges would bite into ice and compact snow. Or at least in theory it does.
My Dad is a real skeptic on most things. But he buys into the Les Schwab tires, customer service, and lastly the siping.


It's not just theory - look at snow tires. I'm not sure how production snow tires have remained mostly absent from a discussion about whether siping works to increase traction on snow and ice. That's ALL there is short of studs.

Now, on the other hand, post-sale siping by some dude at the tire store? No way. I've never even heard of this until I read this thread.
 
Last edited:
I've never heard of this, I was thinking this might be an old gimmick but it is sounding like it is something new.

This combined with nitrogen could cause me to buy stock in tire retailers!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

A
Towing with Michelin or similar HT tire
2
Replies
35
Views
2K
14.1 Grms
Klutch9
An observation: lots of off-brand summer tires in Europe?
3 4 5
Replies
97
Views
4K
SwampSurvivor
I
Strange winter tire design? Less tread depth on shoulders?
Replies
18
Views
2K
vtec260
redhat
Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac RT
Replies
10
Views
2K
Rand
D
Fresh tires on the front or rear?
2 3 4
Replies
62
Views
4K
thunderous1335
Back
Top