Cutting traction grooves in NDCC Tires?

[houdel]

A couple of posts have mentioned that one reason that NDCC tires have less than ideal traction in snow and wet pavement is the solid rib that runs along the centerline of the tire between the lugs. In essence, on hard pavement you are basically running on a solid treadless tire without any cross sipes to flush out snow and water to improve traction.

Back in the day, I had an old GMC 6600 series HD 2x4 truck with 20" tires. Some of the tires were fairly bald, so I bought an electric tire regrooving tool to deepen the grooves so I could keep using them a while longer (the tires were marked "Regroovable", I didn't use the truck much, and a new set of tires would cost more than the truck was worth).

My thought would for the NDCCs be to cut some diagonal grooves across that solid center rib. Not sure of the pattern, or how wide or deep to cut the grooves - certainly no deeper than 1/2 the depth of the lug. Maybe a criss-cross pattern alternating from the "lead" side of one lug to the "trailing" side of the opposite lug, alternating directions between each pair of lugs. Just something to break up that solid rib in the center of the tire and make a channel for snow and water to escape. Don't know how long it would take, but the electric tool I had worked pretty quickly, probably about 1/2 hour to regroove a standard commercial straight rib tire.

And yes, regrooving tires IS legal. Most new quality commercial large truck tires are marked "Regroovable". Don't know about NDCCs though, I'm sure the military never did such a thing. But I'm pretty certain the NDCCs have enough rubber that I could do this at without any risk as long as I was careful enough not to cut too deep (which I wouldn't).

What are your thoughts? I'm sure it can be done safely, do you think it would help improve traction in snow and wet pavement?

For more info:
http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/tech/sipe/
http://www.can4x4.com/articles/siping.html

ADDED 4/16/06 - I just went out and looked at the OE NDCCs on my truck - they are all marked "Regrooveable"!

 

[cranetruck]

Lee, I actually went as far as getting the siping tool.

I think the military may have tried it, some years ago, I saw deuces at Memphis Equipment (PA) with siped tires, although, thinking back, they may have been retreads with a pattern, which included fine grooves...

Other than the wet pavement traction problem, I don't really have a problem with the NDCC's.
Siping by hand would be the preferred method since a machine may cut the edges of the lugs causing chunks of rubber to break off. I have tried the tool I have on a "scrap" tire and it an easy process.

If, in the quest for new tires, I end up with NDCC's, I'll go ahead and sipe them.
Below is an image of the tool (from ebay of course).

 

[vbrescueman]

I noticed that a couple of my ndcc tires have the addt'l grooves cut in them. They came that way from uncle sugar.

 

[cbvet]

Vbrescueman,
Any chance you can get some good close up pics of the pattern used?
Eric

 

[ken]

I've got a few of those tires with the "V's" in the lugs. I can't tell if the work better than the others, since they are placed next to them. I do know that ND's are almost USELESS in the mud!!!. The tire chains i got make all the difference. I can go through mudholes without locking the hubs that prevously got the truck stuck in 6X6. Mabye groving the center rib would give them a extra biting edge. I would think they may wearout quicker though.

 

[vbrescueman]

Finally got some pics of the tire grooves for ya'll. All the tires are oe and are marked regroovable

 

[vbrescueman]

Grooves

Heres the pics