Tire Cutting/grooving?

I have a set of Gumbo mudders that I am thinking about using for snow wheelin only to keep the Krawlers for the dry hard stuff. The Gumbos are running low on tread and are getting really rounded on the lugs. If I cut them could I take a little out rubber out of the valleys between the lugs to make the lugs deeper and sharper and make the tire lighter and more flexable? If so how much do you think would be safe? I am thinking about investing in groover like this.

Cut em. Just don't go too deep. Just about everyone carves up there tires. I've carved up TSL's and Irok's. Makes a big difference.

thats the same groover i have.. works good.

take a few to get good and hot though,
so plug it in.. go get a cup of coffe, have a smoke.. then go to town.

I go half way to the wear bars when new, and then to the carcass, when they are worn to the wear bars.
(off road only)

same type of groover that I used to groove my tires.. it gets the job done...

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as far as your question... i have always stayed away from taking out any material from in between the lugs, I personally have felt that removing material from those areas will allow it to be more suseptable to sharp objects.

but that is just my thoughts on it

But if I am using them just for snow I would think taking a little out of the carcass would not hurt them and its not like they are new nice tires anyway.. if they get a hole in them.. I dont really care. I will do a test in one area to see how deep I can go then set it for that.

Same groover I got, works awesome! You can usually use 1 blade for a long ass time. I think I'd comfortably go 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. I mean, if they are only gonna be used for snow wheeling and not used on the highway, you could take em down to right above the cords. Maybe leave 1/8 of cover rubber.

boardbysled said:

Same groover I got, works awesome! You can usually use 1 blade for a long ass time. I think I'd comfortably go 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. I mean, if they are only gonna be used for snow wheeling and not used on the highway, you could take em down to right above the cords. Maybe leave 1/8 of cover rubber.

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This is what I would like to do... my buggy will not see any highway use so I think we are good to go there.

Maybe use like a large needle, heat it up, an try to prod down to the cords to see how deep you can go?

As far as that groover, there is a raceshop in Burlington that sells them and additional blades. I got the widest blades they had, and just used the narrow head. It worked well for my buddy taking some tread off his TSL's to get em a little more life. Cost me about $90 with a pack of 1/8" and a pack of 1/2" blades plus the groover.:awesomework:

Same thing I used, Sean gave me one that needed fixed... Worked really good, but be careful not to twist or push to hard... That's what someone did to the one I have and ****ed up where the iron attaches to the handle...

It works a lot better if the tires are warm, not like heated up, but room temp... Bring them inside overnight so they're not cold... Corey sold me some blades that stomped the **** out of all the others... The nice blades made a 1000x faster and smoother cut...

I did mine in the kitchen...:redneck:

Same groover our club has....it does work! Gonna do my LTB's when I get spare time....:redneck:

Same groover I have. I always cut as deep as I can with the blades. Never tried Gumbo's though.......

Having the tires warm will help that guy work easier. Get em good and warm in the garage or whatever and get a shop light blasting on them.

I have an industrial groover and its very fast. I can groove any tire starting at 10 bucks a tire depending on how much grooving you want done.

Brian H said:

I have an industrial groover and its very fast. I can groove any tire starting at 10 bucks a tire depending on how much grooving you want done.

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Your missing your blue star buddy. :awesomework:

Looks like a nice groover. I just used a sawsall for my sipes, and a disk grinder for my grooves. It worked great, but it was an awfull long smoke show for the neighbors.:redneck:

Handover Fist said:

Your missing your blue star buddy. :awesomework:

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Go sell some greaseless oil freak.

Brian H said:

I have an industrial groover and its very fast. I can groove any tire starting at 10 bucks a tire depending on how much grooving you want done.

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You got a link to the groover you have?

JOOP said:

You got a link to the groover you have?

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Nope.... ill try and find it.

i will rent this from you if you want to offset the cost of buying this to do my tires

Brian H said:

Nope.... ill try and find it.

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Maybe just the make and model#.