tire goover..cheap?

pennsylvaniaboy

pennsylvaniaboy

make fullsizes great again
Joined
Jun 27, 2020
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Not sure if this should be posted here or shop/tools- Mytruggy tires are in need of refreshing....so looking for a tire goover. I have used the old school grooving iron...not too bad. I have also seen guys use the van alstine groovers and they seem to be the cats meow.

anyone use like the cheap amazon or all star brand.? maybe just get the simple iron...?

Amazon.com
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Amazon.com

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Amazon.com

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pennsylvaniaboy said:
Not sure if this should be posted here or shop/tools- Mytruggy tires are in need of refreshing....so looking for a tire goover. I have used the old school grooving iron...not too bad. I have also seen guys use the van alstine groovers and they seem to be the cats meow.

anyone use like the cheap amazon or all star brand.? maybe just get the simple iron...?

Amazon.com
1725026210138.png
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I have this one. It works alright for the price I suppose, but it is a bit frustratingly slow to use. My tips are to leave the tires out in the sun on a hot day for a while before you start cutting and don't try to make a cut deeper than 3/8", ~1/4" works pretty well. If you try to cut too deep, it is really slow going and you're likely to snap blades with how hard you have to push.

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The top ones suck unless you are doing sipes. Even then, not great. You need a different head for each blade size also.

Once you use the van alstine, you'll be spoiled. Even the 1" wide grooves are like nothing :laughing:

Haven't seen the knock off one, for $94, I might give it a shot.

Edit: looking on Amazon, there is a handful of different knock offs.

This is the only one I found with real reviews


Typical cheap stuff, either works fine or doesn't work at all. But I guess Amazon has a good exchange policy?
 
I use a version of the top one on my race car tires and don't have any issue getting it to do what I want. I'm also grooving tires that are a much softer compound than normal street tires so that may also be why it's fine in my application.

I will say this though... No matter what groover you get if you hold the blade at the wrong angle to the tire they won't cut for ****. You can push all day and barely cut a lug but then angle the head slightly different on the tire and it cuts like butter.
 
ive used the **** out of the top style for a long long time. They are ok on stickies and race car stuff, not fun on DOT's. . Like stated, different brass heads are required for different blade widths. it helps to let it heat up for like 30+min prior to use.

The Van Alstine is freaking sweet. If you groove often its well worth the money. I havent tried the knock offs.
 
YJ4Rox said:
ive used the **** out of the top style for a long long time. They are ok on stickies and race car stuff, not fun on DOT's. . Like stated, different brass heads are required for different blade widths. it helps to let it heat up for like 30+min prior to use.

The Van Alstine is freaking sweet. If you groove often its well worth the money. I havent tried the knock offs.
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I don groove often, i also have heard of ppl spraying tires with armorall and it acts like lube for the rubber:grinpimp:
 
Used the last one every saturday for years. Dunno about DoT rubber or off-road tires but they'll cut up a set of Hoosier dirt tires no problem.
 
Used the top one to groove in 1/4 wide on a set of 10yr old LTBs 6yrs ago or so with not much trouble just slow going.

Buddy used a chainsaw wheel to groove a set of old ass ground hawgs years ago, it works real well just messy, same as using a cutoff wheel.
 
I wouldn’t get too excited about a knockoff tool on Amazon, everything I’ve bought cheap like on Amazon turned out to be garbage.
 
Van Alstine makes grooving tires fun. I did my 47’s in under 2hrs, and my groove was quite extensive. When it’s dialed to the right setting it will groove as fast as you can push it, with no rubber smell whatsoever.

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pennsylvaniaboy said:
tried it......:homer: liek 10 yrs ago when i was younger and dumber....it doesnt work too well.
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You should've bought the 4" biscuit joiner blade. It works great but takes both balls and attention to detail to use. The idiots who just kinda one hand a grinder all willy nilly and blow up cutting wheels left and right are gonna get exactly what they deserve using it. :laughing:

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Controlling depth of cut with it is a bitch. I didn't care because I was just adding cross hatch to some solid man-lift tires that had been run bald. If I ever had to use it again I would by depth guide that fits on a grinder but I'm likely never gonna use it because a circular saw will probably do the same job better.
 
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