grooving tires

[tmaxxman1980]

ok my tires are in good shape but i was thinking about grooving them but im not sure it is legal for the road and if it is really worth going can some one tell me if it is and how is the best way to groove a super swamper

[thirsty]

Check out a shop that sells and installs truck tires. The shave tires sometimes to make them round.
We take new race tires for the 4 banger race cars to them to have them shaved...err I mean to check them for round. Somehow they seam to always come back shaved at angles too.

Seriously though the guys that do that would know what to do and how to do it easily. The reason we take the tires to them is because we don't want full tread. They call it grinding. Takes them about 10 minutes to cut us a car tire.

This is a pic of a brand new tire after it was umm...checked for round.

[VileZambonie]

Why do you want to? What are you hoping to gain?

[tmaxxman1980]

Why do you want to? What are you hoping to gain?

i really don't know that way im asking i don't know what i would gain if anything lol

[codyC10kid]

You might gain Wet traction and they might clean in the mud better...might have a better bight...Look neat too lol...I might groove my Cooper discover stt tires

[tmaxxman1980]

is it legal for the road

[codyC10kid]

is it legal for the road

I don't see why not...Comparing a Drag slick, they have NO tread...A STREET leagal drag slick has few groves...the more groves you have,id say its leagal

[Donut]

A street legal drag slick went through a lot of hoops and $ to get that D.O.T. legal certificate.

[78 Chevyrado]

Basically, AFAIK  If the tire is DOT approved to begin with, you can mod it and have NO PROBLEMS as people don't check for modded tires, if it had DOT on the sidewall, it's good.

With that said, If you ever get into an accident, the fact you modded your tires could be used against you by some lawyer who pays attention.  That's really the only way you'd ever have problems... 

[tmaxxman1980]

ok thanks now one more what it a good  pressure to run them on the road  they are 36x12.5x16

[codyC10kid]

ok thanks now one more what it a good  pressure to run them on the road  they are 36x12.5x16

i do believe inside your door it tells you but bigger tires?....My 285/75R16 (33x12.50R16) i run 34 psi on highway of road
Savour traction issue around 25 psi

[ssapach]

You can buy tire groovers and siping machines, which are essentially a heated blade as far as I recall.

The poor man way is with a torch and a chisel, something good like a wood carving chisel will work.  The other poor man way is with a chainsaw.......don't laugh, because it really does work.

There are a few videos of the various methods on youtube.

Not sure on legality, I usually do things like this with the understanding that I'm responsible if anything goes wrong.

[Irish_Alley]

tires have legal tread depths. now if you groove a tire you are essentially cutting out the "safe" depth. now one more thing i know from using super swampers. you might get 20k out of them because of how "soft" the rubber is. they are dot approved but that doesnt mean they will last essentially what i mean is the more aggressive the tire looks the faster it will wear. if you cut them they will probably wear real fast. i know in mini sprints we would cut tires just so they would heat up faster and they wouldnt last nearly as long. even had a problem one time when someone cut it too deep and the tire busted with 2 laps left. the driver was in first and had a good lead on everyone but with only 3 good tires it cut are race day real short. we wanted to kill the guy who cut them

[bake74]

ok thanks now one more what it a good  pressure to run them on the road  they are 36x12.5x16

      Take some chalk, like kids draw on side walks with, draw a fat line across your tire and drive down the street a block, get out and check the line.  If you have no chalk in the middle and all on the sides, you have too much air.  If you have none on the outside and still some on the inside, you need to add air.
     You want a even wear mark on the chalk across the whole tire, then you will know.  I did this all the time with over sized tires for off roading, those tires are expensive to prematurely wear them out.