Using the Great American Trucking Show as its stage, Michelin North America rolled out its new XDA5 commercial truck drive tire, which was engineered through the company's Durable Technologies program to dramatically increase service life and performance.
Michelin is marking the XDA5's entrance into the marketplace with a guarantee that the tire will outlast the drive tire it replaces by at least 30%. If the tire does not achieve a minimum of 30% increased service life, Michelin will credit double the amount of the price difference between the XDA5 tire and the tire it replaced. Details regarding the guarantee program are available at www.michelintruck.com.
“This guarantee makes a strong statement about our confidence in the tire and Michelin Durable Technologies,” said Marc Laferriere, vice president of marketing, Michelin Americas Truck Tires. “For operators who are seeking a tire with a significantly longer service life without compromising performance, we are certain that the Michelin XDA5 tire will deliver exactly what they are looking for. In fact, this may well be the last drive tire they'll ever need.”
Michelin uses design and manufacturing techniques to mold the tread of the XDA5 tire in three dimensions. As the tire wears, the tread reveals new grooves and tread blocks effectively giving the tire a second self-regenerating tread to improve wet, worn traction. This regenerating tread design keeps the tire in service longer before retreading.
“Incorporating three dimensional features into the tire tread that must interact with each other as the tire rolls down the highway required Michelin to develop additional innovations in our manufacturing processes,” said Jean-Michel Guillon, chief operating officer, Michelin Americas Truck Tires. “The result is a sophisticated tread design that works to preserve itself as it performs. We are very excited to bring this technology to the marketplace as it dramatically raises the bar for high mileage tires.”
Through innovative design and manufacturing, double-wave Matrix sipes give the Michelin XDA5 tire's 30/32 deep tread blocks the ability to lock together in all directions, delivering amazing rigidity, resistance to scrub, and minimizing irregular wear normally associated with deep tread block designs.
At the base of the Matrix siping, a raindrop groove is molded into the tread block that reveals a new groove when the tread has 10/32 remaining, a feature of self-regenerating tread. Due to this self-regenerating mechanism, the XDA5 tire offers renewed grip, enhanced worn traction, as well as more usable tread, which ultimately results in longer life.
In addition to outlasting other tires, the Michelin XDA5 tire also boasts a footprint that is more than 10% wider than its predecessor, delivering a larger contact patch and, in turn, superior stability and handling throughout the life of the tire.
The Michelin XDA5 tire will soon be available in four sizes, 275/80R22.5, 11R22.5, 275/80R24.5, and 11R24.5. By 2008, it will be offered in a 305/75R24.5 LRJ version, created expressly to accommodate Mexico's higher load-carrying demands.
