Grooving and siping 11.00R20 XLs?

[LanceRobson]

One of my deuces has singled 11.00R20 XLs on it and it's M105A2 trailer. The hubs are flipped.

Since the truck does get use on snowy and icy roads and off road on the farm and in the woodlots, I am thinking of grooving and siping them.

Any thoughts?

How deep of a groove?

One groove and two sipes per block?

Seems like a straight forward and easy project while doing the fall service on the truck.

Thanks

Lance



DISCLAIMER: No, we're not farmers! We lease the fields. We wanted the big old house and the two big honkin' steel buildings with concrete floors.

 

[gimpyrobb]

This was done by a member over on the 715zone. He and the tire shop agreed to do only the inside lugs, as siping the outside would lead to tearing the outside lugs up. Thats all the info I could provide.

 

[CGarbee]

A nice article on siping/grooving tires can be found at:
http://www.4x4wire.com/tech/grooved_tires/

The guy in the article only worked on the center blockes of his tires in order to avoid chunking of the edge blocks.

Bjorn has posted a few times on this site (including posting photos of his non-heated siping tool showing its use) concernign siping of his NDT's. My memory is that his cutter was way less expensive than the heated knife that can sipe or grove, but if you are only siping or are on a budget it may be a better deal.

 

[LanceRobson]

The electric grooving ans siping tool is less than $70 on Epay, so it's not a "deal breaker"

The blocks on the XLs are pretty hefty and I'm not too worried about chunking. If this project happens at all, it is a ways down the road. I'll wait to see if someone with experience in doing this, who has driven on them for a while, chimes in.

It would be an awfully expensive "Aw, S#@t!!" to mess up 9 of these things.

 

[CGarbee]

I have no personal experience siping or regrooving...
Howerver, I have taken a lot of chunks out of hte blocks on my XL's over the years (1100r20 for the five tons, 1100r16 on a M37) in "regular" highway and farm use. I have not had problems with chunking on my XZL's on my M37 in a 900r16 but the block size/shape is a bit different in this pattern.

I'm planning on regroving the 900r16 XZL's and my 1100r20 XL's when the tread wears below an acceptable limit (about 25% is my current thinking) and, ultimately, will be taking them to my local Michelin retreader for a renewal...

At my current wear rates, I suspect that I will be regroving tires next summer.

I'll be interested in hearing about your experiences.

 

[simp5782]

Did some tire cutting today to get more use out of my 16.00 Michelin XL. They were worn down but still have some ok tread depth so I thought I would cut them down in the middles and then do a little extra cut. One tire I did the big # 32 blade that is 3/4" in size and the small ones and the trim work I did with a #4 blade. ... Which one do yall like better?