Is Nitrogen worth it?
 

I use CO2 to fill my Jeep tires on the trail and came across this interesting article on various gasses used for filling tires:

http://www.powertank.com/truth.or.hype/

Dave S.

Makes sense for track cars; otherwise, it's good bench racing talk for the rest of the folks.

NO! As in Negative... not Nitrous Oxide ;)

If it were readily available (which it's not), and if it were free (which it's not), one could argue that it is better.

:cheers:

The advantage is that it is naturally dry. If you have a good dry air supply there is no difference, the hard part is getting compressed air completely dry.

It is an exellent fire suppression agent. So if you foresee your tires catching on fire, I would recommend filling them with Nitrogen. That's why airlines, NASCAR and NASA use Nitrogen in their tires.... otherwise, I wouldn't pay for it. A couple of tire shops use it as part of their service, but it mainly for marketing purposes.

The tire place used it (for free) when they mounted my tires last summer... since then, my car has gotten 35% better mileage, accelerates faster, the tires have shown zero wear, and twins in bikinis pop out of the front trunk whenever I drop the top.

Oh wait... there is no difference, except for the tacky "nitrogen" metal valve stem caps they used. Still need to replace those with the black plastic.

+1 on jmatta's comment.

Where did you go? I need tires like those!
Wow!! Nitrogen valve caps! Cool!

I forgot to clarify: midget twins in bikinis. It's kind of a small trunk, you know...

:)

In March of 2006 I paid $20 to have my tires flushed and filled with Nitrogen at Cassidy Tire. Never paid another dime since, except for a tip here & there because the guys in the shop always stop what they are doing and attend to me when I stop in for a top-up or overfill for winter hibernation.

Every Fall (mid October), for the last few drives of the year prior to winter hibernation, I usually need 1 or 2 pounds of extra pressure. Other than that, the tires never require air and are very stable over a large temperature gradient.

Just before winter hibernation, I get the tires overfilled to about 60 PSI. In the Spring, that tires are still at +55 PSI and no flatspotting. This is after +5 months of storage.

When I had new tires put on last Spring at the Porsche dealership, they used nitrogen too.

I also got 20,000 miles on my first set of Pilot Sports.

Works for me.

and here is an article from a bunch of guys who probably know more about the subject than we all together :rolleyes: The Racer's Group (TRG):

http://theracersgroup.com/news/show.php?id=373

I just read that article... wow my fours years of engineering college were a waste of time. Why did I attend those thermodynamics and fluid classes, when an article wrote by a journalist major explains it all in 5 paragraphs.

Air, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Hellium are all gases under pressure: PV=nRT. I will agree that compressed air will have a water content compared to a ideal gas, but we ain't talking about no rocket science when it come to filling up a tire. And a good compressed air system will dry the air removing most of the water vapor. They talk about how the Oxygen permeates the rubber... but race tires spend most of the life sitting on a shelf in normal air.... without being mounted onto a rim.

NASCAR uses Nitrogen because is doesn't "feed" a tire fire .... safety.

Received a postcard from my local dealer this week...

"Nitrogen Tire Fill Special", only $39.95...

Gee, I guess I'll rush right over! Can you throw in some snake oil while 'yer at it?
I hear that works extra well with Mobil 1 0W40... :D