siping tires

[Silver R/T]

Do you guys sipe tires on your daily drivers or not. Some people tell me that they sipe every tire they get while others said that siping will actually damage factory tire thread on some tires/performance tires. Not sure who to believe here.

[Neal_J]

OK, I had to google siping to learn what the term meant.  As such, I have no 1st hand knowledge.  Many benefits are promised to siping (better traction, improved handling, increased fuel economy, etc.)  However, if these benefits were real, I'd think that Goodyear, Firestone, Michelin, et al would the siping at the factory and raise tire prices and their profits accordingly winning many happy customers along the way.  That they don't tells me this is much akin to putting magnets on your fuel line to get increased mileage.  The only ones who really benefit are those that sell the magnets...or in this case cut up your tire treads.

If I were brief:  snake oil.

[Silver R/T]

Same reason they don't put synthetic oil in your car from factory, they don't install poly bushings instead of rubber, no ram air intakes, etc. To save production money.

[Neal_J]

I see your point regarding OEM. 

Mine point was that, if the benefits were truely there, the tire companies would sipe replacement tires and market the hell out of it.

[Foreman72]

in case your wondering what siping is...

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/tireSiping.dos

i don't think its gonna be worth the hours it'll take to make your own cuts int your tires...but thats just me

[lisiecki1]

i've never siped any of my tires performance or otherwise and i've never had any problems with traction, etc.  I would think siping a performance tire might actually be dangerous.....

[Foreman72]

i've never siped any of my tires performance or otherwise and i've never had any problems with traction, etc.  I would think siping a performance tire might actually be dangerous.....

crossed my mind too

[HPP]

I wouldn't try to sipe them at home. Too much work. Actually, a lot of tires come with siping, but not the same kind as demonstrated by the discount tires link. Original sipping are those little slots and divots you see in the tread blocks. Most of them do not go very deep so after a few thousand miles they are gone. Only exception I've noticed to this is some Michelins which will retain their sipping almost through the life of the tread.

I did buy a car once that had aftermarket siping in tires on it. In dry conditions it had a noticable squirm when crossing bridge expansion joints and other road irregularities. Felt a little unstable actually. In the winter it did seem to have more bite on ice, but wasn't any better in plain snow. I can't say if it helped them last any longer or run cooler.