Nitro fill tires

[Cowboy 54]

Can anybody tell me how you like them and do you have to put more nitro in them we bought a new cedar creek last September haven't check them yet !

[Brother Les]

Originally Posted by Cowboy 54

Can anybody tell me how you like them and do you have to put more nitro in them we bought a new cedar creek last September haven't check them yet !

imo more smoke and mirrors than substance. I have 'nitro' filled tires and I will not 're'fill them with it if my psi is low.... to me, 'air' is fine.
Should You Fill Your Car's Tires With Nitrogen?

[Road-King]

Air has 78% Nitrogen anyway's. Seems like a gimmick to me too. I didn't even think about it when I replaced my tires.

[Weezer]

We were told we could *not* put plain air in our 2011 F150 EcoBeast...for two years we believed that.

When we picked up our TT the tech noticed our rear tires were a little low. DH asked where the nearest nitro source was and he said....I'll just put some air in 'em. Say WHUT? Yep, sure 'nuf....we were lied to. He topped 'em off with air and that's the way they still were 'til we traded it in on our 2013 F250 Super Duty a few weeks ago.

I think it's dang inconvenient to not be able to locate anything open late at night but a Circle K for a low tire. Ain't likely to find Nitro there.

BTW, no green stem caps on the 250.

[Weezer]

(chuckle) Ex used to put Freon in a tire with a slow leak. It does very well expanding as the tire heats up....keeps the tire up until you get to a place to either change the tire or get it fixed.

Freon...another one of those heavily regulated things these days.

[Sirsea]

X2, more like snake oil. Save your money or spend it on another camping gadget where you will get some value. This is what Edmunds.com has to say on Nitrogen filled tires ==> Should You Fill Your Car's Tires With Nitrogen?

[Lynkage]

Yep!
Save the money!
Use the money you will save and buy an onboard compressor for the truck and never need to look for a circle k for air ever again!

[emtdave]

Assume you are talking about using compressed nitrogen to fill your tires rather than air, is that correct ?

My only experience with compressed nitrogen was using it to fill our race car tires and to pressurize our shock absorbers on the race car. Nitrogen has better heat transfer properties than compressed air, no water vapor and on a molecular level the molecules are slightly larger and therefore less prone to leakage thru a tire membrane. Since our racing was in the off road series filling the tires with nigrogen was not that much of an issue due to the short duration of our races, however the lack of water vapor was improtant with the shocks. We filled our tires and shocks from a cylinder obtained from our Air/Gas supplier, used an adjustable regulator to drop the cylinder pressure from 2000 psi to 400 psi to precharge shocks.

Seems to be common now days to use nitrogen to fill car and trailer tires, for an additional cost. Have heard of a number of tire dealers offer nitrogen fills as an option. Of couse once you have filled your tires with nitrogen you need to keep using nitrogen to prevent contamination. As with compressed air you do have to check pressures and add as needed. Also availability on the road would be an issue, easy to find an air compressor but not so for compressed nitrogen.

Bottom line, tires should run cooler with nitrogen, how much cooler might be hard to quantify. Then there is the question of the availability of compressed nitrogen. Don't think I could justify the additional cost.

Have a good day.

Dave

[Duckogram]

When you put the tire on the rim it is filled with air. Unless someone is mounting tires in a nitrogen filled room or using a vacuum to vacate the air (not feasible) there is a percentage of plain old air in the tire to begin with. Nitrogen did nothing for this leaker...

[Brother Les]

When the 'tire tech' puts the tire on the rim...... does he suck out every bit of 'air' from the tire (collapsing it) in order to 'refill' it with 'nitro'? No he does not, so the dang thing is mostly 'air' to begin with. Just another way to suck greenbacks out of your pocket.

Pass on the gimmick

[awellis3]

Originally Posted by emtdave

Nitrogen has better heat transfer properties than compressed air, no water vapor and on a molecular level the molecules are slightly larger and therefore less prone to leakage thru a tire membrane.

That's true. My 2604WS came with N-filled tires and have held their correct pressure.
I'll offer this as anecdotal evidence: My friend has a GMC van he uses as a TV. It has a set of high-load-range tires that require 80psi. He was constantly annoyed by having to find an air pump at a gas station that would go that high. He doesn't always travel interstates so truck stops weren't an option. He switched to N and hasn't topped up the tires in two years.

Jus' sayin,'
Teach

[BarryD0706]

Originally Posted by awellis3

That's true. My 2604WS came with N-filled tires and have held their correct pressure.
I'll offer this as anecdotal evidence: My friend has a GMC van he uses as a TV. It has a set of high-load-range tires that require 80psi. He was constantly annoyed by having to find an air pump at a gas station that would go that high. He doesn't always travel interstates so truck stops weren't an option. He switched to N and hasn't topped up the tires in two years.

Jus' sayin,'
Teach

Let's assume for a minute that it's true that nitrogen molecules leak out more slowly. So you put air (78% N) into your tires. After a while, the 22% molecules have leaked out so your tire is 22% low on pressure, but it's pure N. You top it off with air and now that small percentage of non-N leaks out again. As you can see, after a few loops they this process, your tire is nearly pure-N and the pressure stays constant.

[B47]

A couple comments about this subject:

1. Do a search here regarding nitro filled tires, there's plenty of discussion and pros and cons ( mostly cons), I started the thread last year after we brought our FW and I had a flat on a nitro filled tire and the subsequent difficulty finding a place that had nitro.

2. I personally put the recommendation of keeping your RV tires serviced with nitro in the same category of those TV info commercials telling you how to get rich in the real estate market - just pure bunk.

3. After a series of fires occurring from overheated brakes in large aircraft that were partly fed by oxygen in the tire and magnesium in the wheels, the FAA made it mandatory that the tires on these aircraft be serviced with nitro to prevent any fire from spreading if the brake (s) overheated. This rule has been in effect for several years now.

To me, that is the only benefit I see from using nitro to service tires.

[BandJCarm]

My tire guy, a good friend, put 'em in my truck, and they came in the trailer....nitro that is.

He said the advantage is that they don't have flat spots when cold like air does. Other than that, nothing.

[Duckogram]

Originally Posted by BandJCarm

My tire guy, a good friend, put 'em in my truck, and they came in the trailer....nitro that is.

He said the advantage is that they don't have flat spots when cold like air does. Other than that, nothing.

Oh My!!! That's a "whopper" of a claim.

[Joe_GA]

Originally Posted by Lynkage

Yep!
Save the money!
Use the money you will save and buy an onboard compressor for the truck and never need to look for a circle k for air ever again!

That's what I did and I put the filtered air input tube inside the cab of the truck so, if I am running the AC, the moisture content of the air will be lower and cooler than the outside ambient air. I love having the on board compressor. Especially since my camper tires need 110 PSI. My home 120 PSI compressor didn't have the guts to air up my camper tires or the air bag on my hitch.

[KyDan]

Consumer Reports mag says it doesn't matter.
Like others here have said- atmosphere is 78% nitrogen anyway.

Be sure and winterize the air in them every fall.....

[Herk7769]

Gimmick to increase tire dealership profit.

One born every minute:

Do Nitrogen-Filled Tires Enhance Fuel-Efficiency?: Scientific American

[F and E Damp]

B47:

I was in the landing gear and brakes group at Boeing for several years. I did a lot of research into tire bursts.

The accident with the magnesium wheels was a Swissair Caravelle. There were 69 fatalities. Magnesium alloy wheels were banned on passenger airplanes after that, as was the Mil-H-5606 hydraulic fluid.

Boeing had an in-flight tire burst on a 727 that punched a 15" or so hole in the wheel-well aft bulkhead. The tire bead had failed in tension, which we calculated would have taken an instantaneous pressure in the tire of about 12,000 psi. We figured that a dragging brake during taxi and take-off had caused gases in the tire material to mix with the inflation air and a spontaneous explosion caused the burst after the gear was retracted. There have been several others, including a USAF Galaxy, but none since nitrogen was made a requirement.

Conclusion - if your RV can accelerate to 150 mph in two miles with a dragging brake, and then you put the wheels in a closed box, inflate your tires with nitrogen. If not, save your money!

[B47]

Originally Posted by F and E Damp

B47:

I was in the landing gear and brakes group at Boeing for several years. I did a lot of research into tire bursts.

The accident with the magnesium wheels was a Swissair Caravelle. There were 69 fatalities. Magnesium alloy wheels were banned on passenger airplanes after that, as was the Mil-H-5606 hydraulic fluid.

Boeing had an in-flight tire burst on a 727 that punched a 15" or so hole in the wheel-well aft bulkhead. The tire bead had failed in tension, which we calculated would have taken an instantaneous pressure in the tire of about 12,000 psi. We figured that a dragging brake during taxi and take-off had caused gases in the tire material to mix with the inflation air and a spontaneous explosion caused the burst after the gear was retracted. There have been several others, including a USAF Galaxy, but none since nitrogen was made a requirement.

Conclusion - if your RV can accelerate to 150 mph in two miles with a dragging brake, and then you put the wheels in a closed box, inflate your tires with nitrogen. If not, save your money!

Yep - the Airworthiness Directive (AD) number is 87-08-09 and was effective 06-01-87.