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home tire cutting

8K views 17 replies 5 participants last post by  kjett 
#1 · (Edited)
Figure'd I'd post this up for you guys that have thought about doing this. Let me start out by saying that I bought a set of home cut 39.5x18 boggers that just had the small lugs ground off a few years back and have been slowly touching them up ever since. Here is what they looked like when I bought them:



My buddy and co-builder took some time with a 90* small air grinder and sanding disks to clean them up, smooth and back cut the lugs and used a grinder wheel to start the scooping process of the lugs. Pic in progress:





I ran them like that for the last 2 years and I finally decided they were not light enough so I bought a tire groover from Speedway motors. It's the cheap 250 watt unit that comes with a #4 head and blades. I bought the #8 head and flat bottom blades as well and have been slowly playing. So far I cut the sidewalls and working on the main tire carcass and have cut around 7/32 out of the center but around a 1/4" from the outter edge/corner radius of the tires! This process has been time consuming and I only get time to do a little at a shot, but I can already feel the weight different of before and after. I am down to the thin rubber membrane just above the cords and will leave it there. After I get the other tire cut down to the same, I will open the depth of the cutter and scoop the lugs more. Here's another pic of the start to where I'm cut to on the side for reference:





I'll keep updating with pics when I scoop out and back cut the lugs for finals. I'm just posting this for those that have a set of older tires and can't afford new cuts so you can do it yourself and get a little better traction in the process.:D
 
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#3 ·
Yeah it does! It's easy as can be cutting just under an 1/8" at a slice, just takes a while with all that rubber. I already have a huge pile I'm keeping together to weigh for after they are all done. Curious how much I'm actually "shaving" off of that rotational weight.
 
#6 ·
your doing a great job karl, I bought the same knife and cut mine 2 years ago and I din't get any where near as much done as you have, I gave up, and I have my tires for sale with the knife, and I'll just save a little more and buy them cut before I do that again, Scott at racinginthedirt.com is very reasonable priced and does an real nice job

Steve
 
#7 ·
Thanks Steve. Just came in from doing more. I don't have the blade set really deep and after several passes between each lug, I'm down to where the thin rubber membrane over the cords. I'm putting all the shavings in a pile and will get a pic when it's all done to show how much I cut out.
 
#16 ·
I got some time to upload some pics from my phone. Close up side by side of previous cut to new final jsut above the cords cut (no real scooping yet):





And how much rubber I cut off 1 tire:



Weight of 1st tire on rim was 180ish lbs. Weight of full on cut on rim is 110lbs. How's that for weight reduction!
 
#18 ·
I'm not done yet! After I finish the second tire (what a loooonnnnggg process this is!), I will set the depth of the 1/2" blade a little deeper and cut into the lugs more making the real scoops. Right now they are a rounded 1/2" into the 1.5" wide lug and I want to sort of square that up some. More like the Racing in the Dirt tires.
 
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