Hey guys, I'm considering putting 285/70-17 Mud Terrains on my '03 Dodge 3500 SRW as winter tires. The truck is mostly my commuter, is pressed into farm duty sometimes. We have fairly mild winters here, usually not more than a few inches of snow at a time and usually not for more than a few days. We do occasionally get black ice and (of course, it IS western Washington) a fair amount of rain.

I'd be making a few trip to the snow where we usually try to find a Forest Service road that looks like nobody has used since it snowed. We go in as far as possible without getting terribly stuck and then snowshoe from there.

I've seen a few of the cheaper tires that didn't wear well after being siped; they got some loose flaps of rubber that either made noise or flew off in chunks. But it seems like all the quality tires I've seen that are siped did not have any problems because of it. Does anybody have experience to tell if the claims of improved wet and icey road traction is true?

Thanks,
Steve

I had my 35'' BFG MT KM's done and it made a diffrence on the road. We dont get much black ice here, but it really helped in the rain.

I had a set of 305/70/16 Goodyear mtr's siped. The traction was ridulous but I paid (am paying still) for it; I run a bit more power than normal and if you drive like you have more power than stock, you'll lose chunks of rubber. It's hard not to go over 70mph on the highway too, you'll lose chunks of rubber if you keep up the highway speeds for too long. Friggin awesome in ice, snow and sleet. My bfgoodrich all terrains that i use for the summer work pretty good in the snow/ice too, better than the goodyear MTR's (before siping), even with the softer rubber compound in the goodyears. I'd say though that if you sipe your tires you can cut tire life in half, or probably more... if that matters to you.

I have a friend who did his MTR's and because they are alot softer he does see more wear. I think with the BFG's harder rubber, its not as bad. I have around 10K on them now, and still about 75%-80% tread on them.

I had BFG muds siped on 2 different trucks. No chunking at all, and they held up decent for mileage.

I just bought my siping tool last week, and I'm going to do my BFG MT 315s soon for this winter. And from what I've seen most chunking is from machine siped tires, tires done by hand don't chunk near as much or as bad if at all from what I've seen,

Thanks a lot, it sounds like it is worth doing it. Most of my driving is back roads, under 65 MPH, so high speed shouldn't be an issue. When fuel prices went crazy I got in the habit of driving to squeeze as much mileage as possible; since prices have come back down I've relaxed a bit but still conservitive so I won't be burning them off that way.

Demon, where do you get a siping tool?

I had it done at my local Les Schwab Tire Center. I had them just do the inner lugs and only go 1/2'' deep as to avoid chunking as much as possible. They did a great job, didnt cost much, and even got a free tire rotaion out of it. :D

Got it from Evolution here in Calgary, they brought it in for me. about $100 + tax CAD. But I'm sure you can get one at just about any high performance parts store or any good offroad shop.

Mines... I can flip my blades to groove or sipe. They're horseshoe shaped blades lots of different size blades availiable. I'd say make sure you can flip the blades for dual purpose cutting, not all units can do that. And none too soon........we got our first snowfall this morning, we actually its still snowing.

250 watt Deluxe heated knife
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Ideal heated knives Inc.
New Hudson, Michigan

I've got a set of 33x12.50 Goodyear MT/Rs on my Heep. I had them siped at Discount Tire when I bought them, center blocks only. They do significantly better on wet road than unsiped (had 31x10.50 MT/Rs, unsiped, for comparison.)

They've made a trip from Chicago to Moab, with no significant chunking or additional wear. I'd do it again.

Thanks Demon, I'll look around for one.

Thanks for the info, looks like I'll be doing it one way or another.
Steve

I have a set of 285/75 MTR's on my F-350, which came off my buddies 1/2 ton chevy. He had them siped when new, and they have about 40K on them right now, and still are about 1/4 tread. There was no visable chunking when I got them, but after a few full throttle, attempts up a steep, rocky hill, there is some chunking.

So far they seem to work really nice in the snow/ice.

This is what mine looks like. Was playing with it today. Let the blade get good and hot and let the blade do the work, don't force it, it dulls the blade fast.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/luke76/Photos/Groovingiron.JPG

I had a set of 31" pathfinders (bfg at knockoffs) on a stock toy pu. kicked ass in rocks, and got great life from them (for cheap ass tires). Not much chunking, but that might have been due to the half dead 22r. If I was going to sipe again, i'd do the inside lugs only, and would sipe at 1/4" or so, leaving the first and last 1/2" unsiped to prevent chunking. Supposedly you can get better life from your tires, like an extra 10-20%.

Demon,
Quite a few years back I worked at a service station (I won't say how long ago but Self Serve was not heard of) and my boss had a Chevelle (that would be another clue as to how long ago it was) Stock car that he ran oval dirt tracks. He had one of those for cutting his tires and I remember that he and his buddies were always looking for the best cut. I think they'd cut the tires differently for different tracks, too. Hard to believe that there would be that much difference in the tracks in central Pennsylvania but maybe the way each track prepped and maintained the surface was different.

JUNKIE,
You ought to shoe-horn that spare Cummins into the Explorer!