I’ve just put a pair of “Michelin Remix XDN2 Grip” on the drive axle of my unit. It’s the first time I’ve ever bought retreaded tyres but people seem to say nothing but good things about them, for example this link.
Paid 285+VAT each for them which when compared to a new Bridgestone at 360+VAT is a worthwhile saving as long as they don’t wear out too quickly.
Anyone else any experience of this tyre?
Paul
Bloody good tyres, the guy that has a bulker in our yard swears by them & gets great mileage out of them.
I have’nt used remoulds or the like for years but had some Michelin drives Bandaged last year to give them a try, blumming great they was, a far better tyre than the Continentals I removed & put on the rear lift due to ■■■■ poor traction & shedding mud.
They are ok paul, i normally run 1st life michelins on ours and then michelin remixs they seem to last nearly as long as the 1st life michelins, just watch the pressures u put into them run em around 90psi and they seem to wear nice and even, also you can recut the remixes aswell 
Keep us informed on how they are, i have bridgestones fitted all round on the xf . Although they have 10mm on the drives they spin alot in the wet even loaded, and the ASR isnt worth a bean,
Are these michelins only for winter use ?
pjldaf:
Are these michelins only for winter use ?
I don’t think so, they claim to be especially good in poor weather conditions but nothing I have read says they are intended for winter use only and I certainly don’t plan on taking them off for the summer, they’ll stay on until they are used up.
I’ll keep everyone posted on how I get on with them. The Bridgestone M729s I had on before lasted me about 14-15 months and 130k km before they were ready for cutting by which time the two inner tyres were both damaged so the outers have been paired up on one side of the unit (and will be cut in due course) and I have put these new Remixes on the other side.
Paul
Watch that you dont damage your diff, not sure if its true but my father in law warned me about running new tyres on one side and old tyres on the other, ie the diff is always working even in a straight line.
robbo863:
Watch that you dont damage your diff, not sure if its true but my father in law warned me about running new tyres on one side and old tyres on the other, ie the diff is always working even in a straight line.
That would be my warning too, fitting just a pair on the drive is false economy imo.
robbo863:
Watch that you dont damage your diff
That thought had crossed my mind but neither my fitter nor the tyre fitters mentioned it and I’ve driven for plenty of people over the years who have run mismatched tyres between the two sides without a problem. It won’t be for long anyway, the other two will need changing in the next couple of months.
Paul
You’re all still pouring money out of your exhaust by concentrating on the life and cost of tyres, it’s all about the rolling resistance 
It doesn’t matter if the tyre costs twice as much to buy and wears twice as fast, if they save you half an mpg they’re cheaper over their lifetime, it’s not a theory or scientific nonsense it’s physics and physics is FACT 
But, the Michelin remix is a fantastic tyre, I used to run first life Michelins then cut them, then have my casings remixed and cut again, you just need to use the right Michelin, the XDN2 and the XDA energy are about 40 points apart on rolling resistance, the XDA will give you that magic fuel saving and wears only a little faster than the XDN2, the XDN2 has an open shoulder so will be slightly better than the XDA in deep snow or mud, I know Repton does some mud bogging, but not enough to worry about the slight difference between the two tyres
Have you heard about the new XZA3+ yet 
It’s an all position (steer) tyre and Michelin are guaranteeing 30% longer tyre life…and it has good rolling resistance too 
Would’nt you have to run the tyres on all the axles to benefit from that theory?
newmercman:
You’re all still pouring money out of your exhaust by concentrating on the life and cost of tyres, it’s all about the rolling resistanceIt doesn’t matter if the tyre costs twice as much to buy and wears twice as fast, if they save you half an mpg they’re cheaper over their lifetime, it’s not a theory or scientific nonsense it’s physics and physics is FACT
But, the Michelin remix is a fantastic tyre, I used to run first life Michelins then cut them, then have my casings remixed and cut again, you just need to use the right Michelin, the XDN2 and the XDA energy are about 40 points apart on rolling resistance, the XDA will give you that magic fuel saving and wears only a little faster than the XDN2, the XDN2 has an open shoulder so will be slightly better than the XDA in deep snow or mud, I know Repton does some mud bogging, but not enough to worry about the slight difference between the two tyres
Have you heard about the new XZA3+ yet
I had some cheap off ATS ( ) about 12 months ago. Excellent tyres, don’t seem to cut up in the quarries too badly, wear nice and even. I also tried some Hankook’s at around the same time. Good tyres but the Michelins are better if you can get them at the right price.
newmercman:
the XDN2 and the XDA energy are about 40 points apart on rolling resistance, the XDA will give you that magic fuel saving and wears only a little faster than the XDN2
Is there a webpage somewhere with comparisons of the rolling resistance of all the various tyres? And if so does it include other makes too? Was just wondering how the various Michelins compare with the Bridgestones I have run for the last 18 months…
Paul
Had some remix XDN’s on the back of daf ftp. They wore well but wouldn’t grip off road or in the wet for anything, after getting pulled into several places where it wouldn’t get even with the midlift up ( this is set to lift with full weight on), took them off and put them on a unit i was selling. The ftg’s we run would get in these places with their midlifts down, and after paying for a wrecker to pull the thing out decided it,s cheaper to pay for slghtly less mileage with the bridgestone but no recovery costs 
.
I’m sure others would swear by them, but i just swear at them!! Also can never seem to get a first life case accepted for remix, just turns into an expensive mistake.
repton:
newmercman:
the XDN2 and the XDA energy are about 40 points apart on rolling resistance, the XDA will give you that magic fuel saving and wears only a little faster than the XDN2Is there a webpage somewhere with comparisons of the rolling resistance of all the various tyres? And if so does it include other makes too? Was just wondering how the various Michelins compare with the Bridgestones I have run for the last 18 months…
Paul
Paul,
Michelin themself have a website with a rolling resistance calculator, you can enter your current tyres, mileage, mpg figure and cost of fuel and then compare it against other tyres, you’ll be shocked at the difference in fuel costs, especially if your Bridgestones are M726, those things are like driving through treacle, the M720 is much better though, almost as good as the XDA energy in fact, so shop around
Welshman, yes to a point, but anytime you lower rolling resistance you improve economy, ideally on a 6 axle 44tonner you’d have XZA3+ (RR103) on the steer axle, XTA energy (RR76) on the midlift, XDA energy on the drive axle (RR99) & XTA energy super singles (RR in the 70s) on the trailer, compare that to a lorry with tyres in all positions with rolling resistance in the 140s and above and you’ll save a full mpg at least. In fact if you double shift a lorry with a brand new set of ‘bad’ tyres on it, you’d make more money in fuel savings if you threw them in the skip and bought a full set of low rolling resistance tyres
Obviously Michelins ain’t cheap, so you really want to look after them, maintain pressure regularly (once a week at least) and remember that under inflation by only a few lbs can seriously reduce tyre life, yet over inflation has no proven negative effect, unless you blow it clean off the rim Also alignment and wheel bearing adjustment have a major impact on tyre life, a decent alignment specialist can tell what needs to be done by looking at your old tyres, so always have the vehicle aligned before you put new rubber on it
newmercman:
Michelin themself have a website with a rolling resistance calculator, you can enter your current tyres, mileage, mpg figure and cost of fuel and then compare it against other tyres, you’ll be shocked at the difference in fuel costs, especially if your Bridgestones are M726, those things are like driving through treacle, the M720 is much better though, almost as good as the XDA energy in fact, so shop around
I’ve found one on Michelin’s American site which doesn’t cater for UK axle configurations but does at least allow you to compare tyres and it seems my old M729 Bridgestones had a rolling resistance index of 131 compared to 141 for the new Michelins I’ve put on. Bit of a step in the wrong direction that but if it gets me more traction I can live with it. I’ll certainly use that to compare before I get any other new tyres though… Shame my Bridgestone R297 (I think, from memory) steer tyres aren’t listed on there. The M748s I put on my trailer are though.
Paul
I used remix tyres on a tri axle low loader trailer & had a better wear rate than new Contis .also on the double drive axles on the unit an excellent tyre . Never any problems
repton:
pjldaf:
Are these michelins only for winter use ?I don’t think so, they claim to be especially good in poor weather conditions but nothing I have read says they are intended for winter use only and I certainly don’t plan on taking them off for the summer, they’ll stay on until they are used up.
I’ll keep everyone posted on how I get on with them. The Bridgestone M729s I had on before lasted me about 14-15 months and 130k km before they were ready for cutting by which time the two inner tyres were both damaged so the outers have been paired up on one side of the unit (and will be cut in due course) and I have put these new Remixes on the other side.
Paul
The XDN2’s are year round tyres. The XDW is for snow & ice, you would have to swap the XDW out once the snow had gone, not really worth it unless you are minted and just want to cruise past the stuck peons in your R730 with XDW’s.
Paul, 10 points on RR chart won’t hurt you too badly and even if you had gone slightly lower on RR a new tyre uses 7% more fuel than one that’s almost worn out, so new tyres will always put a dent in your wallet in more ways than one, you can reduce that by going as low RR as possible and looking after them to get every possible mile out of them.
It’s a minefield though, there’s hardly any promotion about RR and tyre dealers know very little, I only found out about by chance, when I was at TRUCK I got an invite to a seminar from Michelin, I had no intention of going as it sounded about as much fun as slamming my nuts in a drawer, but one of the lads on CM said Michelin had a very good menu and an extensive wine list, that then tipped the balance for me, I thought I could get juiced up on some vintage plonk and snooze through the conference, as it turns out it was very interesting and I’ve been interested in the subject ever since.
I put it into practice when I had my own lorries and although I never had a dedicated run that I could compare like to like, one of my new motors was delivered with Pirelli tyres and it was always a few 10ths of an mpg down on the others, it had a suspension problem fixed under warranty that had wiped out the rear tyres in under 100,000kms and after threatening to chain myself naked to the manufacturers HQ in Watford they relented and fitted new tyres to the drive axle, poxy Pirelli’s again, soon after I sold up, so I never got the chance to put Michelins on it.
We’ve standardised on remix XDE’s this past 6 years and now toying with using the XDN2’s. Heard nowt but good things about them from other hauliers and our regular tyre fitters.
The only thing that has put me off until now has been availability, especially if away from base, but that seems to be an ongoing problem all round anyway 
GCR2ERF:
We’ve standardised on remix XDE’s this past 6 years and now toying with using the XDN2’s. Heard nowt but good things about them from other hauliers and our regular tyre fitters.
The only thing that has put me off until now has been availability, especially if away from base, but that seems to be an ongoing problem all round anyway
You’ll be amazed at this, as I was, but my truck has turned over a million miles and is not even half way through its third set of XDN2s (new casings) I don’t go around many corners obviously, but even so, the things wear like they’re made of iron, they do bring a fuel penalty though with a rolling resistance in the 140s, when the best drive tyres will be in the 100s, they’re middle of the road in that respect as the worst are in the 180s and above if you’re talking remoulds/recaps/Chinese crap