Slippery Tires (?)

[anotherskait]

Not sure if this belongs in modified tech or oem tech, but I've got a set of 31x10.5xr16 goodyear mtr's on my `92 cherokee. I bought them used roughly 3 years ago and have put roughly 5k on them every year since.
Recently, they've gotten *SLIPPERY* in the wet, to the point that I`m not comfortable driving it in the rain anymore.
Looking at the tires - there's still a lot of meat left on them. They're definitely not bald. I checked pressures and they're all around 25 psi. I don't see any cracks or signs of rotting.
So the question is - what makes a meaty tire get so slippery? Does the rubber just go bad after a certain amount of time?

 

[anthrax323]

MTRs are crap in the rain, especially as they begin to wear. The big issue is the lack of siping (small cuts in the tread) - if you see more road use than rocks, take them to a local tire shop that sipes tires.

 

[Alaskan89XJ]

Many tire makers have a different concentration of anti-slip material in the rubber.., and the more you wear down the tire, the more those aspects of the recipe are wasted. This is really noticable with winter tires, i.e., the sticky stuff wears away leaving one with slippery tires. Anthrax323 has got it correct.., do it!eace:

 

[RCP Phx]

Not to mention that tires age and as they do the compound gets harder.

 

[cruiser54]

Not to mention that tires age and as they do the compound gets harder.

Yeah, they "gas out". That happened to me. I bought a sports car that had been garaged and the tires were 90%. Went down the local twisties and scared the crap out of myself when the rear end let go in a turn. Tire shop checked the date code and the tires were 11 years old.