Well, I tried the pro-comps *because* they came siped on the center
tread blocks. On paper it seems like a tremendous idea, but the reality
of it is that the tread blocks on a mud tire just don't have the
lateral support that the tread blocks on a passenger tire have, so the
only thing they have is their size. Siping allows the rubber to flex in
smaller pieces, compared to the original and gives you extra biting
edges, however, the few extra edges you get reduce the tire life wholly
out of proportion to their effectiveness. As an example, if you were to
gain 5% traction, at the cost of 40% of your treadlife... would you
consider it worth it? On a competition machine where that 5% is the
difference between 1st and first looser, absolutely, on a daily driver,
not so much.
Matt Beazer wrote:
>
>
> Out of curiosity, were yours machine siped, manually siped, or just
> "came that way"?
>
> I was planning on doing it manually with a hot knife, no more than 1/4"
> into the tread block, and no closer than 1/2" from the edge of the block
> to the first sipe. I was considering running a 1/4" groove across the
> block 90 degrees from the direction of travel to give it more "bite" on
> snow.
>
>
> Barry Oliver wrote:
>
>>
>> Point taken, and well, they are *your* tires... Being kind of the list
>> "tire whore" [well, I guess MM has gone through more different tires,
>> but that's because of his suspension swap] I thought Mud tires with
>> the sipes in the center [pro-comps] were the perfect compromise, but I
>> found the senter just flat wore out, and did it so fast I was
>> shocked. The tore shop though I was running too high pressure, but
>> even at 25 psi, the center still wore faster.
>>
>> On the subject of ice traction, the same rules as rocks apply. Air
>> down to 20-25 lbs on the ice, and you will be shocked at how much
>> traction you have. This works even better with MT's than AT's
>> actually. At 20 lbs, I have gone to a frozen parking lot trying to
>> donuts, and ended up just driving in circles fast...
>>
>> You may have to experement a bit with pressures, but lower pressure
>> will net you greater gains than any siping you can do.
>>
>>
>
>
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