Tire Siping

Xds2 are kings up here on rough stuff But holy moly $$$ with any Michelin right now. I'm hearing 1100$ a tire, if they can be had. I prefer with my units to run xdn2, just for the fact I can rotate them yearly to keep them dead even.
I have a new unit that came with Hankooks I'm not caring for.
For the 1st time I'm having to look at cheaper rubber. Sailun makes a nice tread pattern for winter, with real soft rubber. I'd expect not to get 2 years or 80k km out of em.
Westlake makes a similar pattern. $300 canadian pesos.
Tough call. I have a set of xdn2s, 6 years and 250km+ on em, still 13mm or better. (>60%).
They will weather crack before they wear out.

 

Siping is easier to quantify under braking. Siping has been around for a very long time, before anti-lock brakes and high hp.
Modern radial tire engineering, right down to the chemistry at batch make up, has mostly surpassed the need for siping, but OTR needs are so variable and the tendency to run what's on sale over what's best for the application, keep siping alive. IMO of course.
I'm certainly no expert, and just working in a schwab truck tire shop for a short while 35 years ago, means absolutely nothing. However, I did get to run a siping machine and even back then, the people that were "experts" would mention the tread and chemical make up of the tires would dictate whether to sipe or not.
It'll be great to hear more replies on the topic. Could be siping can make a import tire perform like a domestic. Never know.

 

If you run up North on frozen highways a lot it will help,if your tires are made with a hard compound.Siping will let the tire be a little more flexible.If your tires are softer or winter compound,or winter rated,it might not help as much.

 

My boss bought a connex full of Roadlux tires from China,they worked great in winter,they were soft compound and wore out in in a year.We didn't have to sipe those tires.

 

Works on dirt track cars!