Siping MH tires for wet traction
I remember a thread not too long ago where someone commented about siping MH tires for traction in wet and snowy conditions. I had tires puton my car the other day and inquired with Discount Tire. ...
Forum Discussion
J-Rooster wrote:
Michelin and Bridgestone sipe all there tires before they leave the factory!
You are correct. To the best of my knowledge all commercial tires are siped except maybe for the extremely large tires. The sipes themselves are in the tread area of the tire mold. Much engineering and testing goes into tire tread design, trying to get the best of all qualities a tire needs to perform at its maximum. Even the shape of the sipe impacts the performance of the tire. It is always a battle between trying to get long wear and traction. A tire could be made to go 500,000 miles, but it would have absolutely no traction on wet or slick surfaces. I personally would never sipe a tire; I think the tire design engineers are much smarter than those people selling tires and making money for siping tires. Adding extra slits in the tire tread may improve one performance feature, but reduce another performance feature. I will trust the engineers in this case. JMHO
Ray
