Nitrogen in tires

[edcarter101]

Does anyone use nitrogen in your tires? If so, how do you like it? It seems that so few dealers carry it that it may be a problem.

[fonzie]

So many threads on subject, I just use air......

https://www.google.ca/search?q=nitro...FYeMyASdyYK4DA

[Oaklevel]

Many threads on this but for us have had it in a car and in the camper saw no difference in tire wear or fuel mileage it just lightens your wallet for typical use.

[ericlakin]

So basically you are already using 78% nitrogen. That's good enough for me.

Originally Posted by fonzie

So many threads on subject, I just use air......

https://www.google.ca/search?q=nitro...FYeMyASdyYK4DA

[F and E Damp]

Based on my research at Boeing, unless your rig can accelerate to 150 mph in 2 miles with a dragging brake, then you put the wheels in a closed box, you don't need to waste money on nitrogen.

I reviewed an in-flight tire burst that nearly caused a fatal crash of a 727 where the above scenario occurred. Based on that review, Boeing and the FAA mandated nitrogen for transport category airplanes.

[NCBBA11043]

So, if one of the benefits of using nitrogen is that less "air" will escape due to the nitrogen molecule being larger AND if air consists primarily of nitrogen . . .
After a while, wouldn't the tire be filled with almost all nitrogen? If "air" escapes through the tire, it should NOT be nitrogen. You add more air, more air escapes, nitrogen stays behind, repeat
Am I missing something?

[Roving Ron]

My Rockwood 2703WS came with nitrogen filled tires. We travel rather extensively and due to changes in air temperature and altitude I found myself with the dilemma of accepting cold tire pressures that were above or below the recommended 50 lbs or use air to adjust them. Since 100% Nitrogen is not readily available I opted for using a small air compressor to maintain the tire pressure at 50lbs.


Grey Nomads, Ron and Sue

[BamaBob]

Originally Posted by Roving Ron

My Rockwood 2703WS came with nitrogen filled tires. We travel rather extensively and due to changes in air temperature and altitude I found myself with the dilemma of accepting cold tire pressures that were above or below the recommended 50 lbs or use air to adjust them. Since 100% Nitrogen is not readily available I opted for using a small air compressor to maintain the tire pressure at 50lbs.


Grey Nomads, Ron and Sue

Same here. When I upgraded the China Bombs to Goodyear Marathons LR-Ds I saw no sense in paying the shop $30 more for Nitrogen. Besides, I have a portable compressor to top my tires off

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by NCBBA11043

So, if one of the benefits of using nitrogen is that less "air" will escape due to the nitrogen molecule being larger AND if air consists primarily of nitrogen . . .
After a while, wouldn't the tire be filled with almost all nitrogen? If "air" escapes through the tire, it should NOT be nitrogen. You add more air, more air escapes, nitrogen stays behind, repeat
Am I missing something?

That's the best reasoning I've heard. Sure blows the 100% N2 believers out of the water!

Y'all dun good!

[Sandiegodoug]

My jeep came with nitrofill. Didn't realize till took it home. Only advantage I saw was haven't had to add any air to those big tires yet. (2 years)



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[jadatis]

Oxigen will go from outside the tire to inside if the partial pressure of it is lower in the tire then the outside air, against the higher total pressure inside tire.
this is why the % oxigen will work its way to a % belonging to the pressure inside the tire, wich is measured overpressure + outside pressure .
some examples 44psi 5% oxigen, 60 psi 4%, 14.5 psi 10%.

Further I made a document about that filling with normal air with the water in it is even better then filling with Nitrogen.

Will copy it here.

Filling car tires with normal air is better then with Nitrogen.
A. Oxygen, which makes 21% of normal outside air, in volume absorbs more energy to rise a degree in temperature then Nitrogen.
Difference is only 1% , but in selling argument is sometimes mentioned in energy/ mass so Joule/kg.degr. Kelvin and there Nitrogen wins by 13 % . Tires though are filled with a certain volume so that counts .
This selling argument can be de-myth simply by the fact that its untrue.

B. Water in a tire transports the heat more then dry air or Nitrogen-filling ( which is by its production process free of water).
Not for no reason water is used in central heating and cooling system of cars as main substance.
The tire inside will have lower temperature which is better for cooling down the important spots of the tire wich have to keep a low enough temperature to prevent hardening and damage in next bending of those parts.
When incidentally the tire inside gets hotter ( sunshine on tire or severe braking, or high ambient temperature) more water goes over to gas wich highens the pressure inside the tire more then dry gas. Also then more water as gas in tire so even better cooling.
So advantage of water is 2 ways when needed, better cooling and lesser heat production.
Disadvantages of water as oxidation only happen at outside . Tire specialists will confirm that when they remove a tire of the rim , the rim inside the tire is not corroded.

C. When a Truck, transporting flammable substance, is on fire, the little oxygen in a tire will , when exploding ,probably even kill the fire .
In tunnels experiments where done to kill the fire with air current , and it worked, despite the oxygen in it.

D. A normal car tire up to truck tire is not a race-car tire, for which a constant as high as possible contact area, so best grip , is needed to give half a second better round time.
For that reason they are filled with as dry as possible air or Nitrogen.
That this gives low lifetime is not important, and for a normal car tire it is.
Often blowing tires at racing, is seen there as collateral damage, but we don’t want that for normal car tires.

E. A car tire is also not a airplane- tire in which the water can freeze and when landing this can give misbalance , which can lead to tire-failure or accident, when suddenly going from zero to about 200m/h.
The water in a car tire does not freeze that often, and when it does and the car begins do drive , it begins slow and the misbalance is not a big problem . then pretty soon, certainly when on speed the ice is melted to water and problem will be gone.

F. When filled with normal air the user is aware of checking the tires regularly, which takes better care of a saver tire, because regularly filled up to the right pressure and optical checking of the tire .
The illusion that Nitrogen filling makes the tire to loose almost no pressure, which is often exaggerated to 5 times , while in real a poor 2 times and then only in the very beginning, makes the user less caring .
The tire also looses air when hitting pavement so temporary leak between edge of tire and rim, Filling with whatever gas-combination won’t prevent that.
This idea is even stronger when TMPS is used which is often inaccurate , so the user thinks to maintain the right pressure, while really riding with to low pressure for longer time, which can lead to tire damage. Aftermarket sensors for TMPS when screwed on the valve can give leakage trough hole where valve is placed , because of the bending of the valve by centrifugal forces at speed.

G. Filling with normal air is always possible, even with a bicycle- pump, is only to fill up so won’t take that long. When you keep driving with to low pressure , in order to find a place to fill with Nitrogen, you damage your tires. So just fill up with normal outside air, even when the tire is filled with Nitrogen. Then also you don’t need to have the tire refilled with pure Nitrogen by your tire specialist when at home again, not worth the trouble, and normal air is even better then nitrogen because of the water in it.

[Windjammin]

I use nitrogen in all my tires, but only at the 78% level. The rest is 21% oxygen and 1% other gasses. Most people call this combination air.

[bob caldwell]

Nitrogen was , and might still be, used in Drag slicks, the bigger 17" ones due to when your sitting in the staging lanes and someone oils down the course, the tires can change in size which changes how the car reacts upon launch and then 100 other things get in on the program, which really screws up the tune-up.

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by jadatis

Oxigen will go from outside the tire to inside if the partial pressure of it is lower in the tire then the outside air, against the higher total pressure inside tire.
this is why the % oxigen will work its way to a % belonging to the pressure inside the tire, wich is measured overpressure + outside pressure .
some examples 44psi 5% oxigen, 60 psi 4%, 14.5 psi 10%.

Further I made a document about that filling with normal air with the water in it is even better then filling with Nitrogen.

Will copy it here.

Filling car tires with normal air is better then with Nitrogen.
A. Oxygen, which makes 21% of normal outside air, in volume absorbs more energy to rise a degree in temperature then Nitrogen.
Difference is only 1% , but in selling argument is sometimes mentioned in energy/ mass so Joule/kg.degr. Kelvin and there Nitrogen wins by 13 % . Tires though are filled with a certain volume so that counts .
This selling argument can be de-myth simply by the fact that its untrue.

B. Water in a tire transports the heat more then dry air or Nitrogen-filling ( which is by its production process free of water).
Not for no reason water is used in central heating and cooling system of cars as main substance.
The tire inside will have lower temperature which is better for cooling down the important spots of the tire wich have to keep a low enough temperature to prevent hardening and damage in next bending of those parts.
When incidentally the tire inside gets hotter ( sunshine on tire or severe braking, or high ambient temperature) more water goes over to gas wich highens the pressure inside the tire more then dry gas. Also then more water as gas in tire so even better cooling.
So advantage of water is 2 ways when needed, better cooling and lesser heat production.
Disadvantages of water as oxidation only happen at outside . Tire specialists will confirm that when they remove a tire of the rim , the rim inside the tire is not corroded.

C. When a Truck, transporting flammable substance, is on fire, the little oxygen in a tire will , when exploding ,probably even kill the fire .
In tunnels experiments where done to kill the fire with air current , and it worked, despite the oxygen in it.

D. A normal car tire up to truck tire is not a race-car tire, for which a constant as high as possible contact area, so best grip , is needed to give half a second better round time.
For that reason they are filled with as dry as possible air or Nitrogen.
That this gives low lifetime is not important, and for a normal car tire it is.
Often blowing tires at racing, is seen there as collateral damage, but we don’t want that for normal car tires.

E. A car tire is also not a airplane- tire in which the water can freeze and when landing this can give misbalance , which can lead to tire-failure or accident, when suddenly going from zero to about 200m/h.
The water in a car tire does not freeze that often, and when it does and the car begins do drive , it begins slow and the misbalance is not a big problem . then pretty soon, certainly when on speed the ice is melted to water and problem will be gone.

F. When filled with normal air the user is aware of checking the tires regularly, which takes better care of a saver tire, because regularly filled up to the right pressure and optical checking of the tire .
The illusion that Nitrogen filling makes the tire to loose almost no pressure, which is often exaggerated to 5 times , while in real a poor 2 times and then only in the very beginning, makes the user less caring .
The tire also looses air when hitting pavement so temporary leak between edge of tire and rim, Filling with whatever gas-combination won’t prevent that.
This idea is even stronger when TMPS is used which is often inaccurate , so the user thinks to maintain the right pressure, while really riding with to low pressure for longer time, which can lead to tire damage. Aftermarket sensors for TMPS when screwed on the valve can give leakage trough hole where valve is placed , because of the bending of the valve by centrifugal forces at speed.

G. Filling with normal air is always possible, even with a bicycle- pump, is only to fill up so won’t take that long. When you keep driving with to low pressure , in order to find a place to fill with Nitrogen, you damage your tires. So just fill up with normal outside air, even when the tire is filled with Nitrogen. Then also you don’t need to have the tire refilled with pure Nitrogen by your tire specialist when at home again, not worth the trouble, and normal air is even better then nitrogen because of the water in it.

I'm sorry, but there are several things here, where water in a tire is concerned that I have a different opinion on, and experience thereof....and you did mention tire specialists in your post.

Water inside a tire will cause high speed imbalance, as will fix-a-flat. I run across this almost everyday in my business. I have dismounted many, many a tire to remove the water and/or fix-a-flat that is causing imbalances.

Here is my thinking too. Although water is used as a coolant in automobile systems, I think the functions of a radiator and heater core as the heat exchangers in an automobile have been neglected to be taken into account for. A tire will not have a heat exchanger, thus an outlet for the water to disperse heat once it has reached the temperature of the tire internally.

[bob caldwell]

OK!

[gashog]

My china bombs that came on my Windjammer are nitro filled, but I wonder since trailer tires never actually wear out, but have to be replaced every few years what's the point?

[Mikegjax]

Nitrogen Hype: This will explain more than you ever wanted to know about nitrogen in street tires. Don't waste your money!

https://powertank.com/truth.or.hype/

[bob caldwell]

Big banner in local Costco today.....Nitrogen ....get your today

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by wmtire

I'm sorry, but there are several things here, where water in a tire is concerned that I have a different opinion on, and experience thereof....and you did mention tire specialists in your post...

I guess I must have been lucky, of all the tires I've had changed starting from around 1955 when tubeless tires came out, I've never found water inside one when dismounted.

[bob caldwell]

Used to fill heavy equipm tires back ib the day, wjth Calsium (?) and water. Little pump, took forever!