Michelin EvoBib, Judged After a Year on a Fendt 728

LE Barnes & Sons, an arable contractor in Bedfordshire, southern England, reports road performance without giving up traction in the field

Tyre claims are easy to make and hard to test. LE Barnes & Sons, a contract farming business in Bedfordshire, has now run Michelin EvoBib tyres on a Fendt 728 for more than a year, across roughly 450 hectares of barley, wheat, peas and legume fallow, which makes its verdict worth more than a launch release.

That matters because the EvoBib exists to solve a specific compromise. A contractor’s tractor spends its life alternating between road transport and fieldwork, and a tyre optimised for one is normally worse at the other.

How the tyre works

EvoBib is designed for tractors fitted with a central tyre inflation system, in this case Fendt’s VarioGrip. The tread adapts to pressure: inflated for the road, the tyre runs mainly on its central rib to cut fuel consumption and wear; dropped to field pressure, a larger footprint delivers traction while spreading the load.

“When you pump the tyres up for road work, the performance is very good, which is important for us as our tractors are regularly moving from field to field. When fully inflated they just run on the central rib,” says farm owner Robert Barnes.

The part that matters more is what he did not lose. “As far as traction is concerned in the field, we have seen no detriment whatsoever. They are equally as good as the MICHELIN AxioBib 2s which we run on our other tractors.”

The number worth quoting

Barnes also offers something rare in a tyre story: a side-by-side comparison from his own fleet. The business previously ran two JCB Fastracs on near-identical work, one on Michelin AxioBib 2 tyres and one on another manufacturer’s.

“We ran them for almost identical work, and the Michelin wear rate was considerably lower. When the Michelin tyres were around 50 per cent worn, the others were closer to 70 per cent worn.”

That is a customer’s observation rather than a controlled test, and it concerns a different tyre in the range. It is still the kind of evidence contractors actually act on, because it comes from two machines doing the same job.

The practical lesson

The tractor arrived from the dealer already fitted with EvoBib VF600/70 R30 and VF710/70 R42 tyres, which is worth noting: the specification decision was made at order, not as a later upgrade.

“Fitting the right tyres and making sure they are running on optimal pressures is so important,” says Barnes. For a contractor moving between fields several times a day, that sentence is the whole argument for a central inflation system, and for a tyre designed around one.

Michelin EvoBib, Judged After a Year on a Fendt 728 published on The HeavyQuip Magazine.