Have any of you ever shaved down tire tread to reduce weight, or make it smooth for experimental use or non-aircraft off road use? Any of you ski operators use these?

What method did you use? Did you spin it up to a certain rpm on something homemade and use an angle grinder? Send it off to a tire company? Or maybe use your wife's "good set" of kitchen knives while she is out getting her hair done.

I know this is popular with the ATV/Sandrail crowd, but I want to check here and ask for your comments on this. Saying "I prefer tread on my tires" or " you'll shoot your eye out" wont really help, but I'd like to hear about what you know.

I don't have a particular tire size in mind, but I do have a old "red tag" set of 10" rim X 8.5" wide X 26 " tall, 12 ply GoodYears that I am willing to be the test set. They have 95% tread left. If I mess them up,...Oh well.

Willing to learn here.
Thanks fellow BCP'ers

Airframes Alaska sells shaved 29x10 tires.
Who shaves them for AA?

I've opened up the groves on tires with a sharp chisel...worked fine. Didn't spin the tire, just cut along the grove then rolled it a bit to get to the next section. Takes a while and looks pretty ugly, but they do pick up fewer rocks that way.

When I weighed a new goodyear 26 against one worn to the cords the weight difference was four pounds. Hardly worth shaving a tire for that little bit of gain.

AA says their "buffed" 29x10 Airhawks are 7 pounds apiece lighter than non-shaved.
And only $10 more in price.
That's 14 pounds less for a double-sawbuck.
I've seen guys spend lots more than that for less weight loss.

I dunno how long the buffed 29's last, but I'm guessing the non-buffed would probably outlive most of us pilots.

We had 29 x 11 x 10 tires shaved by Denali Bandag, in Anchorage. Charge was minimal, and the weight loss was substantial.....7 pounds sounds about right.

But the other reason we had them shaved was to get rid of the tread, which significantly reduces rocks being thrown by the tires.

Bandag was a national outfit, but I don't know if they're still in business, but I would bet that any tire recap outfit could do the deed.....that's one of the steps in recapping.

MTV

i bought my 29 11 10's from alaska bush wheel when they were still ABW ... they shaved them and it supposedly took 8 lbs off each or so they said... that was many years ago... still got the same tires on and still got lots of groove left...

There are racing shops that shave tires all day long. You probably have some in your area.

They make specialized machines for this although they can be expensive, and take quite a bit of training and skill to operate. It is also a pretty time consuming process, and I've seen people get in a hurry and end up leaving flat spots on a tire by trying to shave it too fast. But most machines can shave two or three tires at a time, and it is kind of fun to do yourself. There are different sizes and configurations, and they even make a few battery powered versions. They are also portable, so you can take them with you and work anywhere you can find enough room, but be aware that their are restrictions on their use in some areas.

If you are just doing one set of tires you can rent the machine, although most rental outfits will want you to go through a checkout process for insurance and safety reasons. A lot of people also build their own to save some money and you can find some good information about this online. You could also join a tire shaving club. This can be a good way to go, and some clubs have a variety of different shavers to use.

Tire shaving is not for everyone, and your life will be changed forever as soon as you start shaving your first set. If you are not up for this, then I would recommend finding a race shop like lesuther suggested.