Nitrogen filled tires

[Frank Marano]

What are your thoughts on nitrogen filled tires. My father went to get a nail out of his tire on his Ram and the place tried to get him to switch to Nitrogen. I just read an article online about it but it didnt provide any info except that people believe it can get you 1 to 2 mpg more. They also claim it keeps the tires inflated longer and more consistant.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

They are the best things since sliced bread. Our so many on here say.



The question I have...if nitrogen is SO good, SO beneficial, and just SO DARNED AWESOME, why isn't it offered everywhere?



TJR

 

[Jim Luttrell]

Nitrogen will help your tire pressure stay consistant with tempature changes. Is it worth the headache of finding someplace to refill them when you do need it again? I doubt it. Air's cheap & it's not that big a deal to me as I haven't needed to add much air anyway. It's really just a preference I think. Hope this helps, & I'm sure others will have more info than me to help. This site is great!

 

[Aaron Yarbough]

The atmospheric pressure of Nitrogen does not vary with temperature, so in the winter months you don't have to worry about your tires being underinflated due to the significant temp differences between summer and winter.

 

[TomT]

I have my own air compressor so I will stick with regular air. Isn't it like 80% nitrogen anyway?

 

[Travis Munday]

I'm in a similar boat as TJR, if nitrogen is indeed so much better inside tires then regular air, why do you not hear it being used to the car racing world? Of course, they may be and I'm just not aware. But they already use nitrogen power "air" guns, so they have bottled nitrogen at thier dispolsal already.



Air is easier and faster for home use, and since that's where I fill my tires, I'll continue to use air.



EDIT-

Just looked, it seems that in NASCAR at least, nitrogen is used inside the tires. Then what about all this talk still about air pressures? Rubber can only get so hot before it breaks down...eh, oh well.

 

[Jeff C]

Tiger, I believe a lot of the racing world does use nitrogen. Tires get hot at high speeds, hot enough I bet that air would produce a noticable change. On a standard car, I wouldn't spend the extra money for nitrogen. When my mom got new tires, they gave her nitrogen for free, so I guess that's okay, but whenever she's low, she'll have to find somewhere to get nitrogen again. I tried to convince her to get air put back in, but since she NEVER checks her tire pressure, I guess nitrogen's okay.

 

[Aaron Yarbough]

Tiger, a quick response/explanation to your last edit. The use of Nitrogen does not have anythng to do with the temperature at which the rubber breaks down. It's solely about the pressure of the tires. In racing applications it's extremely important to maintain consistant tire pressure. Varying tires pressure alters how the car handles and responds to the track. Pit crews spend many hours adjusting the cars suspension to handle appropriately to each track. To do this, it's critical to maintian consistant tire pressures or the car would handle differently with different track temperatures.

 

[Michael McGrady]

Air is 78% nitrogen.

 

[Dre L]

I run helium in my tires so that I can get better MPG.

 

[Brian Curry]

It is like putting a rear spoiler on a street car. OOOHHHH they use that thang fur racin' .......coool

I used nitrogen for racing, one less variable when checking tires(no water vapor).

 

[Todd Cloutier]

It's basic chemistry. Nitrogen, like air, Oxygen, Helium, etc. obeys the ideal gas law at the temperatures and pressures experienced by your tires. The equation of state for an ideal gas is



P v = n R T



P == pressure

v == volume

n == number of molecules of gas

R == universal gas constant

T == temperature



which shows that the pressure of the gas in your tires is proportional to the temperatures. The pressure of your tires will change with temperature regardless of the gas the tires are filled with.



Bottled Nitrogen has the advantage of being free of moisture, and that is likely why it is preferred by racing teams. It's also cheap, considering the atmosphere is about 78% Nitrogen.

 

[Eldon Webb]

The place where I work services fire extinguishers which use nitrogen for pressure. I used some to fill the new tires I recently installed on my Trac. I can't tell any difference from just plain air but, it was free so why not use it?

 

[Gavin Allan]

How do you purge all of the other gasses out of your tires so you have pure nitrogen?

 

[Matt Day]

 

[B M]

Nitrogen has been used in large aircraft tires for years. with extreme pressure and temp differences it will keep constant pressure longer and will not expand and contract tires with temp changes. These are extreme conditions. nothing the Trac will go through, unless you dump it out the ass end of a jet, but that will be the least of your worries. Someone stated it is good for the non-tire checkers, excellent observation. Works well lasts a long time ! !

Sorry to the punctuation police....I'm tired.

 

[Richard L]

Nitrogen in the tires has nothing to do with the expansion rate of nitrogen. I though it was more stable under temperature fluctuations, but that is not the case.



Nitrogen has larger molecules and so it does not permeate through the pores of the rubber and leak out. A typical air filled tire will loose an average of about 3 psi per month, but nitrogen filled tires will retain their pressure much, much longer.



There are also claims that the nitrogen reduces the oxidation of the rubber inside the tire since the oxygen in the tire is dramatically reduced.



Keeping your tires properly inflated improves gas mileage, reduces tire wear and improves the overall safety of the vehicle.



...Rich

 

[Tom Schindler]

All my vehicle tires are filled with Nitrogen. I have my own tank. Costs me about 9 bucks to fill that tank and I can fill about 4 sets of passenger tires with on tank fill. On the motorhome, I can get two tires filled, but they are large tires with about 85 PSI in them.



I do notice the tires run cooler and they stay right where I set them. Nitrogen is clean. No moisture in those tires. Moisture causes the tires to expand at different rates depending how wet the air was when you filled them.



As for purging the tires, here is what I do. I empty the air out of the tire. I think shoot nitrogen into the tire. Wait a minute or two, then I let the air back up before I fill it with Nitrogen. It is impossible to get all the "air" out of the tire, but I am getting most of it out.



My prediction... Within 5 years, Nitrogen will be mandatory on all new cars. Many items we see on our cars today are directly from racing aplications. Nitrogen is no different. It is one of the many reasons auto makers are into racing. It sells cars and it is great R&D.





Tom

 

[user 62394]

If you actually go through the trouble of periodically checking your tire pressure, the nitrogen is a waste of money (if you are paying anything for it at least). It is all about consistency of pressure. That is what provides the MPG advantage. Tires at the same pressure of nitrogen will get the same mileage as those tires inflated to the same pressure with air.



And as for the oxidation rate of rubber being slower, that is ture, but when was the last time that you had a tire rot before it wore out?



Rocks

 

[Tom Schindler]

but when was the last time that you had a tire rot before it wore out?

Twice so far, a total of 12 tires. They were on both of our Motorhomes.





Tom