Ask The Editors: The Magic Tire Cutter
Groovy baby. Yeah!
In theory? Absolutely. What a tire cutting tool (grooving iron) does is very simple and effective. It simply heats up a metal blade to a temp high enough to make slicing into a tire’s carcass quick and easy. You can use it to “sharpen” the leading edge side of your tire’s knobs to recover some of that factory-fresh grab that goes away over continued use.
The trouble is these are generally considered motorcycle tools so ATV riders have to be especially careful with them. The reason? Unlike those of our two-wheeled cousins, our tires are typically tubeless so notching a bit low on the carcass while slicing through a given knob can lead to a leak. Tube-equipped tires respond much better to slices of this variety.
However, if you have a very steady hand/ are confident in your ability to delicately remove material from the knobs alone, there’s no doubt that these things work. We have also found an optional brass “sniper” head that attaches to the heating element that seems to work a bit better for ATV and SxS tire applications.
The tool itself goes for around $60 like this one here.
