Allan,

I have not run any of the Fabco Xtreme but have run some of the Triple 7 wire by Hobart. To me it was very similar to the Hobart XLR8(self shielded). XLR8 has a heavy slag, fast freeze, DCEN and can be finicky when filling. The XLR8 is not as high on the tensile as the Xtreme but within' 10,000ksi I believe but still only an E71 class of wire. I know on the XLR8 you don't want to weave, stringer pass only(from Hobart and Esab which has a similar wire).

I will be running some Fabshield X80 here in a few days which is also called out as an all position wire but it is listed as a "downhill" pipe wire which can be used for uphill structural since there are not a lot of products available for high strength steels in a self shielded wire, we can't use dual shield. Talking with them he stated "running uphill takes more welder skill" so I don't think it would be a wire you just want to roll out on a job and start welding with. 

I don't know the Xtreme but the characteristics of the XLR8 were that of a 6010 and a 7024 combination to me. The weld metal would freeze quickly but the puddle was not watery. The flux was heavy like the 7024, it literally would peel back and a good gust of wind would blow it off the weld as it cooled. On uphill travel the flux would almost push you up, more or less setting your speed. It was not hard to under fill if you moved to quick. After testing and practicing with it then welding some 800-900 welds with it I became quite good with it and enjoyed the simplicity of the clean up, scratch with wire sticking out of the gun and slag falls off.

I say all of that because the Hobart Triple 7 dual shield was very similar in how it ran but it is a DCEP wire though. I played around with it and ran a weave and it just didn't flow out, looked like two separate stringers in a way. The flux was very heavy like the XLR8. The appearance of the weld was just like the XLR8 as well, smooth as glass. Flux came off easily. The only difference was the voltage and wfs versus the XLR8 self shielded. Not a big difference but some in the as welded settings I was working with. The dual shield was also so much cleaner burning, less flying off burning me. But then again, I did liken the XLR8 to 6010!

I don't know if this helped any but have been plowing thru 33 pound spools like an animal in the last 4-5 weeks, probably run 250lbs of the stuff, all DCEN self shielded.

Shawn