I have been kicking around ideas on how to get some extra snow/ice traction out of my 2WD. I've got about 180 Lb's in the bed, I drive/take off slowly, have a LS rear end, and bought the truck before I moved to Colorado. We have had a bit of a winter here in CO and the truck has had a couple of issues on the ice and getting going from a stop on a grade. So I was thinking about getting the BFG's siped at Discount Tire. According to what I have read this will increase wet/snow/ice traction, increase tire life (which I only kinda understand since they are cutting into the tire) and only create mild issues like a "squishy" feeling on dry pavement and a bit more noise.

My concerns are:

1) Does this really not reduce tire life?
2) How much more noise?
3) I do not plan on running winter/summer tires, just the BFG all year round, will siping the tires create a problem on this?
4) Finally, I am assuming this will void the BFG tires, but will Discount Tire's Warranty still work if the siping is done, the guy at the shop said yes, but he is a sales guy after all and seamed pretty wet behind the ears. Anyone here know?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice.

 

anyone tried this or have any thoughts?

 

I think that the BFG AT's tread is tight enough that siping wont help much. I'm not even sure that siping would be possible, since the tread blocks aren't that meaty. I think that for year round use, you've already got one of the better tires out there for traction in snow... not the best for sloppy mud, but tolerable for ice/snow.

Also, the BFG A/T tread is already pretty soft... I think you would have some serious durability issues if you siped them.


BTW, 180 lbs. is not very much at all in the bed... 500 is more like it for good traction.

 

my parents have a house in idaho so my dad thought he would get his bfgs siped. after they were siped they seemed to wear a lot faster.his truck is a f-250 though.don't know if this helps....

 

Dumb question. What is siping? ive never heard of it?

 

Thanks, I was afraid of the wear. Did the traction improve much?

Siping is a process of having small cuts in the tire to create more gripping edges to improve traction. Interesting idea if you google it.

 

What tire pressure are you running during the winter? I am not positive, but maybe lowering your pressure will get you some more traction in the snow.

 

Siping:


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




And a more non-biased review of the proccess:

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/tech/sipe/

 

Consumer reports did an article on siping once, but I don't remember the outcome. You could try looking it up.

 

Thanks for the links.

Well, I am going to get it done, I"ll report back if anyone is interested in my observations. Now I am just debating as to weather have Discount tire do it or buy the heated knife and do it myself. My current living conditions have put a real crimp on my mods as the apartment complex managers are very zealous in keeping any work from being done on a vehicle on the property.

Again, thanks to all for your opinions and input as all have been useful.

 

I would definitely have discount do it since they have a machine that will place exact cuts spaced out proportionately. Had my BFG'g At siped on my Explorer, and I still got about 50,000 out of em.

Hope that helps with the wear ?'s

 

That helps a lot, thank you. Did you have the shop do your's?