Grooved TSLs

[cwn anwyn]

I recently got around to grooving my TSLs I purchased awhile ago. Mainly because the dang "Safety Guy" on base was bitching about how bald my back tires were getting. I was putting it off for no particular reason and I wouldnt drive my truck on days that the weather was crappy.

I decided to finish it and get them mounted before we got any real snow.

I grooved the center lugs into 3s and I siped the outer lugs 3/4s of the way out. I didnt cut all the way to the outer edge because I didnt want to much chunking.

Here is what the look like when done:

And here is the mess it leaves behind. (3 tires finished)

I've ran them for the past 2 and 1/2 weeks back and forth to work and am very pleased with the outcome. They are a little quieter on the pavement and they handle the snow and ice a heck of a lot better than the last set I put on with out grooving. They do still tend to slide a bit on packed ice/snow but not near as bad as before.

I'll post some more pics as they wear down along with how they do the rest of the winter.

Z

 

[73redblaze]

nice dude. usually i dont like when people groove them but i like those.

 

[twoslo4five0]

why didnt u grove every other outer lug?

 

[cwn anwyn]

I really didnt want to do much to the outer lugs and cause them to chunk off. I might do some outer lugs when I pick up another set of tires.

I searched and searched for different patterns and most threads I found had dead pictures. I did remember someone here had something similar and I liked how it looked.

One thing for certain, its really noticeable in the handling difference between these tires (grooved-new) and brand new untouched tires on wet or snowy paved roads. Now if only some of the local trails were clear, I could go test them out on some rocks. For some reason I just dont feel like having a shovel fest out there right now.

 

[rdn2blazer]

What did you use to groove them?

 

[twoslo4five0]

here is a good vid for anyone looking to do it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55tZFxqwe0Y

 

[rdn2blazer]

here is a good vid for anyone looking to do it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55tZFxqwe0Y

I remember seeing that too, what was he using?? Was not a hot tool it didn't look like with him having to preheat the tire.

 

[twoslo4five0]

pre heat helps with theese hard compund tires...i used to groove tires on a race car so i know a lil about it...speedway motors is the groover we used to use..our tires were so soft it take no time but with theese tires it helps...the only problem with preheat is it changes the way the tire acts going from cold to very hot to cold again makes the tire harder...usually theese things work themselfs out after driving on the street for a lil while but it still changes the tire a lil..id never do it on iroks just tsls or boggers something with a hard compound...

 

[rdn2blazer]

Do you know what they were using though? Is that tool a Hot cutting tool or just a sharp tire grooving blade tool.

 

[blazin' j]

looked hot to me...didnt u notice tha lil puff of smoke @ tha end of every cut???

 

[rdn2blazer]

looked hot to me...didnt u notice tha lil puff of smoke @ tha end of every cut???

Nope, still can't see that, but I guess the cord running from the tool is a tell tell sign it's a hot cutting tool.

 

[Avery4jc]

Looks good, I've been kicking around the idea of grooving my TSL's too but I'm going to see how they do before I put that many hours into it...

 

[sweetk30]

ideal hot grover. plugs in to 110v and has diffrent blades and head sizes. around 65.00-85.00 if you look around.

 

[sandawgk5]

That is KidJethro on here and it was Fall in apple valley while he was doing this. That is why he had to preheat the tire. It was something like 40 outside so the tire was "hard".

Dik

 

[cwn anwyn]

I'm not sure of the brand of groover I used. I'll snap some pics of it after work. It was a hot cutting tool that plugged into the outlet. I picked it up off eghey awhile back. It came with a couple different sized heads and I bought a couple of different sized blades for it. It was relatively cheap for everything when I picked it up. I think around 50 or 60 shipped for it and the blades.

 

[cwn anwyn]

I think I averaged about an hour for each tire. Thats combined time with siping the outer lugs on all four, letting it cool and flipping the blade and grooving the center lugs. I had them all done in one evening. I didnt preheat the tires, I just let the blade do the work. It was in the 60s or so when I did them.

Z

 

[twoslo4five0]

what blades did you use (size) some take longer than others due to the amount of material u loose

 

[AJMBLAZER]

That's a heated knife. I've got the same one, Ideal as someone mentioned above.

Note that I wear gloves when doing it, the knife is HOT and the melted rubber can be as well.

Takes a while and you build your forearm strength...

 

[sweetk30]

i have a 1/8 wide head for up to 38x12.50 tire swampers. then when bigger i have a 1/4 wide head.

i use round blade for newer tires and square blade for older tires with wear bars cut out.

 

[Joe Henderson]

Nice work. I did the exact same thing to my last set of TSLs but I went a little further and did some cutting on every other outside lug. Works good on hard pack dirt to. As far as the question of what to use to do it I have an actual tire grooving tool. Should'nt be to hard to find one I got mine from a guy who races sprint cars on dirt. They use em for cutting there own tread patterns in the Hoosers they are running. Any added lateral tread lines you add to your tire is going to improve traction in many areas and yes it is as time consuming as it looks.