Tire grooving question

[popcancherokee]

I have 35x14.50 15 tsl ssr's radials with about 35-40% tread left and I was wondering if it is good or bad to groove them.And if i did can they still be balanced.It is on my jeep that I like to drive around town and drive it to the woods and home.

 

[TrikeKid]

I've grooved tires that were more bald than that, and daily driven plenty sets of un-balanced, hot knifed tires. Good tires, on wheels that are in decent shape, you can get away with not balancing at all most of the time. I mount my own tires at home with a couple tire irons, and I've yet to have a set that bothered me that wasn't actually a damaged tire (broken belts) or a bent wheel. I have bias ply TSL's on my daily driver (hour to and an hour home from work), no wheel weights to be seen and they're just fine. Had one off to fix a leaky bead this weekend and didn't bother marking anything, just plopped the tire back on the rim and aired it up, truck drives exactly the same.

 

[Fordzuki]

Grooving is a good way to get some life back to bald(ish) tires, but they won't have the same grip as new tires with the same depth of tread. By the time tires need grooving, the rubber has hardened up enough that no amount of grooving is going to make them "grab" like a newer tire will.

And one thing to keep in mind, it is illegal to run grooved tires on the street.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.37.424