Tire Siping

Does anyone have any opinions on tire siping for off road tires?

That's an odd 'un,

Tire sipes, as I understand it, are to help deal with rainfall on HARD surfaces such as bitumen or tarmac.

Off-roading in the British Isles is more about dealing with vast amounts of mud. Sipes are not going to be of much use in these conditions, or indede, anywhere where the road surface has more poc-marks than Sid James face.

What is required, more often than not, is a good M.T. tire with large shoulder lugs to give a bit of 'bite' into slippery and soft surfaces.

Might I ask, what is the thinking behind this rather unusual question ?

Cruisermik.

Here was the problem I was trying to solve. I live in Nevada, USA, where the weather is quite dry, but when it rains (because of the long amount of time between rain) the roads get very slick with rising oils. Because mud terrains have fewer, but larger contact points, I was thinking it would provide less traction on this slick oily and flat surface, than having for example an all terrain tire, which has smaller, but many more contact points might provide better road traction in these conditions. (I had originally thought of siping as a solution after almost sliding off of a turn in the road in my freinds jeep while it was raining, and he had Interco SS's.)

Also there is something to be said about helping the tire wear slower. Because of these large contact surfaces on the tire, I would assume that It would be harder to dissapate the heat as fast as something with small contact points. The siping would allow the tire to cool faster, which I guess helps cut down on the wear. With the extremely hot temperatures here, this might also help.

But I was wondering if siping a M/T tire could damage the lugs; putting deep cuts into them. And if it would even be worth it; you know; pros vs. cons. Would the siping even improve the things I have mentioned?

wth is siping?
baffled

tire siping is where there are "cuts" put in the tires that allow water to flow through and heat to dissipate faster. Look it up in a search engine for more info.

I work at the largest independent tire dealer in the North West, and we do a lot of siping. Yes you can sipe a M/T tire, and it will make a big difference in traction on wet pavement, and on snow and ice, and will also quiet down some of the noise you get from a traction tire. And it can improve tire life because they will run much cooler. For light off roading, it will be ok. But if you do any real 4 wheeling, where you are spinning your tires on rocks and such, they will chunk out really bad. Contrary to what a lot of people think, it isn't really for getting the water out of the way. They just give more sharp cornered biting edges, which is where you get your traction. Look at a good snow tire, like the Toyo Observe, or Bridgestone Blizzak. They are loaded with siping to put as many biting edges on the ground as possible.