Tyre groove cutter

[ajftj]

Hey, interested in opinions and your experiences in cutting tyre grooves by hand.

My BFG muddies are wearing evenly but the inner and outer tread blocks have nearly worn their shallow cross tread grove away now. This was originally about 4mm deep across every other block.

I was thinking about buying a heated tyre groover and recutting, mainly to give the turning edges a way to shed water in the rain on the road.

Anyone done this - maybe I'd be wasting time and money, but they must have been there for a reason.

[Fishframe]

As my BFG muddies got old they ‘Hardened’ substantially and became dangerous in the wet on bitumen. If they’re worn I would only replace with new ones and waste time trying to extend the tread.

[layback40]

I am not sure that tyre grooving is permitted in Australia unless the tyres are specifically designed to have it done. Its likely the balance will be effected & cracks can grow from the sharp corners in the re-grooves.

[Nanook]

Just be careful if you want to go down this path. Not all tyres are able to be regrooved.

It's mainly used on commercial truck tyres as they are made with an extra thickness of rubber for this purpose.

[ajftj]

Yeah thanks, it's possibly something that's not done here, given the lack of feedback. I think it came from Motorcross days.

[oldon]

It won't hurt to recut the grooves in those blocks as long as you stick to the 4mm depth. Don't recut the grooves between the tread blocks any deeper though as you need that rubber to protect the inner construction of the tyre. LB & nanook are right, there's about 6mm of extra rubber under the original tread on a heavy truck tyre that has (regroovable) marked on the sidewall. In the early 80's I spent a bit of time with Bob Hope from Bandag in Brisbane learning a bit about truck tyres & that's a deep rabbit hole.