taikowaza

after reading a lot on here, and 4crawler's excellent writeup, I decided that living in the pacific NW with all the rain and often being on vancouver island in the snow and camping etc...that siping would be a great choice with my BFG A/Ts. I decided on center siping only to avoid chunking. I told the tech at Les Schwab to do center lugs only and he agreed wholeheartedly, he showed me some huge mudders that had been fully siped (all the way across) and there had been issues. He said that BFG A/ts with center siping are excellent. I was pleased with the whole experience, they did a clean job, used the machine and the end result is almost invisible until you get right up to the tread, then you can see the thin slices all down the centers. they use a machine which cuts in a circular pattern.
while I was there I read this info:

Here is a video of siping

The total cost was $14/tire. Out the door was $60. Granted I could have purchased the special knife and done it myself, however the machine that they used cut at a very even depth, in a circular manner that supposedly keeps all structural strength intact. Knowing myself I might have even pushed the knife too far and punctured the tire. so I feel that it was a good investment.

I like the image of the outer edges fully intact for rocks and the inner lugs split for gripping, braking, and even (if you can believe it) a smoother ride as it digs between irregularities on the road. While I can imagine this is probably imperceptible, it seems logical enough to me. time will tell and if I notice anything I'll post it.