tire grooving

[mudhog]

can you groove bald tires to get a little more life out of them? or is it a lost cause?
here is one of the tires in question

 

[chevyfumes]

Try it and you should find out pretty quick if you go past the bottom of the tread and hit wire, the tire will be done and corvair safe.

 

[munepit]

What's the plan for the tires? I had one 42" bias TSL that was real bad. I grooved it to make some tread. Is it a radial? If so, you can't go much. With my bias I went almost a 1/4".


Be real careful. Try it, worst is you will go through the steel braids.

 

[63chevyll]

You won't go through the steel belts easily.

Give it a try. What do you have to loose. I'm hoping to do so on some old tires

 

[Blue85]

Yes, it can be done, but the question is how much rubber is still there. Some bias ply tires have multiple levels of tread and you can cut the higher stuff down to the level of the lower stuff and make more tread. On that tire, you'll just have to try and see. A real groover should let you set a standard depth. Bear in mind that even if it "has tread" after this, it will still be a smaller diameter than new tires. The mismatch can be weird if you use 4WD on roads.

 

[mudhog]

they are bias ply tires. the plan is to be able to run them till i can get 2 new rear tires as the front are new

 

[chevyfumes]

You won't go through the steel belts easily.

Give it a try. What do you have to loose. I'm hoping to do so on some old tires

All he has to do is expose one and with any real road travel it'll start to come apart I bet.
Of course as thin as they are he runs that risk anyway. six of one....

 

[NorCal_Chris]

When I grooved my bias tsls I went basically to the cords. Just right above em. No leaks or issues.

 

[mudhog]

When I grooved my bias tsls I went basically to the cords. Just right above em. No leaks or issues.

how deep is that? how much extra tread did it give you? do you have any pics of them?

 

[mudhog]

also if i was to buy a tire grooving hot knife what size blades would i want for the widest groove? and do the sizes go by width or depth or both?

 

[63chevyll]

All he has to do is expose one and with any real road travel it'll start to come apart I bet.
Of course as thin as they are he runs that risk anyway. six of one....

True. I wasn't thinking bout how they would work off road on rocks. I want to use for some dirt racing.
We have grooved old asphalt bias slicks down to the nylon and ran them on dirt

 

[Blue85]

I didn't really want to admit to this, but this is a good example of what you're looking for. I'm just carrying it as a spare until I come across something better.

This is really butch. Between the blocks was done with a router and the straight lines across with a cut-off wheel. The tread pattern you have is more difficult. You may find it easier to modify the pattern as you groove, but you'll want to use a real tire groover, I think.

 

[mudhog]

now i just need to get a hotknife i do have 2 old bald 38s i can practice on so i guess thats what i will do

 

[blazinzuk]

I have brought back several sets of bias plys, and a couple off brand radials.

You can get more out of the bias but I have grooved a decent amount of tread into a radial too. Not down to the cords at all.

 

[paratrooper307]

Wouldn't recommend it, but as long as you aren't planning on highway speeds or putting a lot of miles on them there probably isn't a huge safety risk.

 

[imiceman44]

can you groove bald tires to get a little more life out of them? or is it a lost cause?
here is one of the tires in question
View attachment 151050

The way the tier shops do it they stab the tire.
They see how deep the wire is then grove just a bit above.
If you get to the steel the rubber will come off and I know from experience.
Bought a tire when I needed a cheap one on my way back home. I got 2 weeks before I lost the tread. They had groved all the way down to the steel.