If you race on dirt you know that track conditions change throughout race day and many will ask how to increase traction on tires. From a high grip surface that can be wet and slinging mud to a shiny black or even hard and dusty surface as the laps pile up and the sun goes down, tire traction can change dramatically. While there are different tire compounds you can choose from to aid in traction depending upon the track’s bite, one thing many experienced racers do is modify their dirt tires by adding grooves and sipes to the tread blocks.
What is tire siping and grooving? Well, grooving is just that, cutting grooves in the tread where you are removing rubber, while siping is where you make a thin cut (like a razor blade) but no material is removed. These cuts can be made in various widths and directions to enhance traction and get the tire up to temperature faster but can also be used to increase a tire’s longevity by helping it run cooler too. It is all in how the tire is cut.
Learning how to cut a tire with a tire groover and sipe your own tires is a bit of a black art, but a good racer will keep a logbook of modifications and can reflect on past track conditions to see what size groove and angle worked best previously. The same goes for tire siping. Often you can lean on a fellow racer for grooving and DIY tire siping advice or reach out to the tire manufacturer for suggestions on how its tire products react to certain grooving and siping cuts. Regrooving tires that have been sanded down and brought back to life is one way to save some money in your race budget too versus buying new rubber for your race car.
Siping tires on your dirt racer takes some effort, but our Econ-o-siper tire siping tool is built to take it. We start off with a fiberglass reinforced polymer handle for strength and attach it to a beefy tubular body that can take the pressure of cold-siping your racing tires.
Then we finish it off with one of our solid brass #4 cutting heads ready to cut 7/32-inch sipes into your racing tire’s tread blocks. Our tire cutting tool is designed to work with all Speedway Motors tire grooving iron heads and blades, as well as the heads and blades from the Ideal Heated Knives brand that we carry, allowing you to choose the exact sipe spacing you desire. A single thumb screw retainer makes tool head changes quick and simple.
We carry a full lineup of cutting Tire Grooving Blades and Tire Grooving Heads (the heads and blades must match in size and used together) for our Econ-o-siper. You will install the appropriate size head into the tool first, followed by the matching cutting blade, set to the depth of your choosing. Generally, you will want your sipes to be 1/8-inch to 3/16-inch in depth and no more than 1/2 the depth of the tread block. Most racers will find having more sipes on the front tires and less on the rear is the best combination. Sipe spacing is also determined by the size cutting blades used, with the further apart the sipes the cooler the tire will run.
While siping your tires takes some trial and error and an ability to read a track surface, in the end, tire siping dirt track racing tires with additional sipes is just another tool in a racer’s toolbox of tricks and tips to help them get to the front of the pack and stay there until the checkered flag drops. It does not matter if you are racing a Late Model or Sprint Car, doing some competitive rock crawling, rally racing, or even mud drags, modifying your tires with our Econ-o-siper tire siper is sure to benefit your racing program by providing the ideal tire, making your tires grip the surface better and put just the right amount of heat into them.
Summary: This is a great tool to have laying around the shop or even at the track. Its effective enough to get the job done yet cheap enough to not break the bank. the price obviously reflects the performance of the tool. I made a quick video highlighting its performance here: https://youtu.be/Cqiuuou-jsA
Yes, I recommend this product.
Summary: Reasonabley priced but needd to be corded with heating element
Yes, I recommend this product.