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Does anyone here have experience with siped tires? Does siping really help with traction in general and, if yes, what about snow traction in particular?
I assume siping has no effect on fuel economy, or does it?

Thanks in advance,

For those who don't know, there are 2 types of tire siping:

1) The kind the tire maufacturer puts in the molds. These will always have a small gap in them. In some respects, these are just very tiny grooves.

2) The kind put in after the tire is made - and that's probably what we are discussing here. these typically have no gaps and are produced by a series of circular kife cuts:

http://www.barrystiretech.com/tiresiping.jpg

Needless to say, there is a charge for this service.

There are a lot of claims about this process - some true, most NOT!! So what is the truth?

1) This will violate the tire manufacturer's warranty. It is altering the tire and that is expressly forbidden by every tire manufacturer's warranty.

2) Wet traction improvment: Yes (No effect of hydroplaning resistance)

3) Snow traction improvment: Yes

4) No affect on wear? No, this adds more movement to the tread elements - which is why you get wet and snow traction!!

5) No effect on fuel economy? No. Movement = heat = increased fuel usage.

6) Dry traction: worse.

7) Ride: No effect

8) Handling: very slight degradation in crispness. Where you would see a major change is in grip (traction)

Overall, I'd recommend forgoing the treatment, except to get the last bit of wear out of a set of tires in an area where slow speed wet traction is pretty much the only issue.

Wonderfully detailed response with much reasoning to back it up.
Thank you.