Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

M/T Tires and Snow... (AKA: Grooving Tires)

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by bartonmd » Mon Dec 13, 2010 4:18 pm

OK, so everybody knows that M/T tires are decent in deep snow, but suck in packed snow and ice... I was going to get Duratraks or MFG AT or some other "snow tire" rated AT/MT for the truck, but got such a SMOKING deal on the set of Destination M/Ts that I couldn't pass it up... To combat the snow traction issue (and keep the good off road traction, and possibly improve it), I picked up one of those $70 "Ideal" tire groovers, and went to town... In order to keep tread strength, I only went a hair over 1/8" deep. I did one cut through each tread block (except the outside edges of the edge treads) with a #1, and I turned the #4 blade over, and made 1/8" deep sipes in only the middle treads. The sipes are just (2) in front and (2) in rear of the cut in the middle tread.

I'll tell you, these just plain old "ain't bad" in the snow, now! They still rock in deep snow, but are no longer "woefully inadequate" in packed snow and ice! They aren't honest to God "snow tires" like I've got on my car, but they really aren't bad!

http://www.idealtiregroover.com/ is the groover that I picked up... You can get them from a bunch of different places... I just googled until I found the cheapest price... I think it was around $85, said and done, with the standard #4 cutter, and adding the #1 head and blades as extra...

Image
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by irishboy02 » Mon Dec 13, 2010 5:55 pm

Nice! I was kinda surprised no one has done this sooner. This is also a great tool to get to get a little extra life out of your tires as they wear down. Also good to help performance in rain.

Great mod, well worth the investment
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by HARDTRAILZ » Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:51 pm

Looks good. Got me tempted toresipe some of my lugs.
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by Mooseknuckle » Tue Dec 14, 2010 2:01 am

I have the same tires Hardtrailz has Pro-Comps Extreme M/T's. They are awesome in the rain have yet to try them in the snow. I have heard from a lot of people that the Duratracs are a great all around tire especially for bad weather. Good job doing it yourself that is a great kit to have. Irishboy is right I'm suprised that nobody has brought this up before.
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by Trail X » Tue Dec 14, 2010 8:36 am

I remember talking about siping some on Trailvoy a couple years ago. I'll have to keep my eyes open for one of those tools... I tried with a knife once, but the rubber is waaay too tough.
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by bartonmd » Tue Dec 14, 2010 9:09 am

Yeah, I drove on some more packed down snowy roads last night, and granted the ground pressure is a little better on the truck than my car, but it does stop as well as (or a hair better than) my car does with the 2/3 tread snow tires...

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by janesy86 » Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:51 pm

Hmm, this now has me thinking of doing this to my tires now. We just got snow up here and I wasn't getting the best traction, may need to jump on this soon.
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by bartonmd » Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:24 am

I would suggest it...
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