Nitrogen in tires

[MAC&ANNE]

For what it's worth & we don't own a nitrogen factory!
In july 2007 I was at my tire shop for one of our cars & noticed a coach having nitrogen put in tires. I asked about it & got the full pitch i.e. tires lose very little pressure, run cooler, last longer, better mileage, airplanes do it,Feds do it, Costco does it etc.
I did it. During the last 13 months & 12000 miles, none of the 6 tires has varied even 1 lb of pressure!

[MAC&ANNE]

For what it's worth & we don't own a nitrogen factory!
In july 2007 I was at my tire shop for one of our cars & noticed a coach having nitrogen put in tires. I asked about it & got the full pitch i.e. tires lose very little pressure, run cooler, last longer, better mileage, airplanes do it,Feds do it, Costco does it etc.
I did it. During the last 13 months & 12000 miles, none of the 6 tires has varied even 1 lb of pressure!

[RedGuy]

Airplanes do it becasue the extreamly low temps at altittude. What can happen is the moisture will condense and the tire will loose pressure possibly to the point where the tire could come off the bead. They can also use dry air. But for what it's worth when Costco put my tires on my Jeep they filled them with nitrogen and they also haven't lost any pressure. Though I wonder how well that will stay since the last time I went up north I pumped up the back tires from 35 to 41PSI with regular air.

[moldmkr]

Did you notice an increase in MPG? If so, how much. I have been looking into doing the same thing, to get more MPG, but have not heard from anyone if they got better MPG.

Thanks

[diceman1530]

what was the extra cost?

[Gary RVRoamer]

I maintain my tires with a 78% nitrogen mixture and haven't lost even 1 psi in the last two years. Our previous rig also ran the 78% nitrogen mixture with similar results.

Did I mention that normal air is 78% nitrogen?

Good valves and true rims have a lot to do with zero air loss.

[Texas Bubba]

Gary, you hit the nail on the head! I've got nitrogen in the tires on several vehicles (it was free) and no significant difference from any of the others. No cooler, faster, better fuel milage or any other change. My tire dealer sells it as a service and in talking to him, they have no way of purging the air from the tire before filling it with nitrogen so it begins "contaminated" with regular air to begin with. He says they make a "ton" of money selling it though at $6-8 per tire and getting the customer to come in every month to have them "checked". Snake oil!

[Ray,IN]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Texas Bubba:
Gary, you hit the nail on the head! I've got nitrogen in the tires on several vehicles (it was free) and no significant difference from any of the others. No cooler, faster, better fuel milage or any other change. My tire dealer sells it as a service and in talking to him, they have no way of purging the air from the tire before filling it with nitrogen so it begins "contaminated" with regular air to begin with. He says they make a "ton" of money selling it though at $6-8 per tire and getting the customer to come in every month to have them "checked". Snake oil! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
That's the same thing I was told by a local tire shop. He also said P.T. Barnam must be right, "There's a sucker born every minute".

[LindaH]

Perhaps there is good reason for airplanes to put nitrogen in their tires (if it's true), and I've also heard that race cars use nitrogen (don't know if this it true, either) but I see no reason to put them in automobile or RV tires. After all, you're not driving at 30,000+ feet in elevation or going around a track at 200 mph!

Besides, when the time comes that you need to add more nitrogen, where are you going to get it if you're in some little podunk town, U.S.A.? I've yet to see a gas station anywhere that had a nitrogen hose (not that I've looked, but I've seen plenty of stations that have air hoses).

[Olive]

Race cars do use nitrogen. They do that because of the moisture that can be in the 79% stuff (air). It's not that the nitrogen makes a difference but that the water vapor in each tire with air can not be controlled and is different in each tire. Those following racing like NASCAR know how much just a 1/4lb change in "air" pressure in a tire can change the handling of a car.

[diandtom]

On My Truck I run 50 psi when not towing and 80 psi towing. I would loose the nitrogen on the rear in a few cycles of letting the air pressure up and down and I rotate my tires. On the fiver maybe it would help, but I never wear the tires out anyway. I think I can add air to the fiver every now and then.

[EngineerMike]

Nitrogen won't "hold" any better or worse than ordinary compressed air. Nitrogen & oxygen molecules are effectively the same size versus potential leaks and act identically when compressed within limits we use in our tires.
The advantage of liquid nitrogen for filling tires is exclusively in eliminating the water vapor that usually accompanies undried compressed air. For airplane tires which operate at occasionally high temps (they get pretty good smoke when landing), big increases in pressure could occur if condensed vapor in the tires flashed off as steam suddenly. There is also the (mostly theoretical IMO but what do I know) issue of compressed air in the tire in case of a fire vs. non-combustible nitrogen. The race car guys do anything that looks cool in addition whatever actually is cool, and I suspect their tires run pretty hot at times so maybe this is actually useful for them in the water vapor department.
Since the first atmosphere of plain air in the tire remains there for all of the above (there is air in the tire at ordinary atmospheric pressure when the tire is on the shelf and that continues when it is mounted and before additional pressure is applied), nitrogen filling is not a matter of total purity (you'd have to evacuate the original air then add nitro to get purity, and nobody does that except maybe geeks @ NASA who have more money than brains to expend).
I wouldn't go out of my way to worry about nitrogen.

[K & G]

Facts and our experience with using Nitrogen and why we do.

First, I paid $5 per tire originally. I only go back for an annual check. After two years, I needed 1 PSI in one tire and that was addded by them. Annual check up cost and nitrogen top up. Zero cost.

Elimination of all Oxygen? Optimal amount is 93 to 98% for maximum benefits. For the MH they started with deflated tires, pressurized them to 50 or so with Nitrogen, deflated the tire again and once again filled with Nitrogen.

For a car tire, elimination of oxygen to reduce internal rotting doesn't seem to matter because you don't keep the tires that long. Most RV owners however don't need new tires that frequently and knowing that internal rot has not taken place 10 years down the road is good to know.

Oxygen molecules are smaller than nitrogen and leak out through the pores in the rubber. With a car, not important. My MH tires though have 3 times the pressure trying to push the oxygen molecules out.

Yes, air is only 28% oxygen, but that provides the potential for my 95 PSI MH tires to drop to less than 70 PSI if I fail to check them and air pressurized tires can lose 1.5 lbs per month

The biggest problem though is water vapour in the tire. The tire heats up on the hot highway. Water vapour readily expands with temperature increasing your tire pressure. When you are already running at high pressures, you run a very real risk of blow outs from excessive pressure.

One more problem with pressurized air is the air compressors. They add a film of rubber rotting oil which accumulates on the inside of your tires. Not a problem if you get new tires every 2 or 3 years but most RVers do not.

My life is worth more than the $5 per tire for blow out insurance. My tires cost $350 each. $5 insurance isn't that much for extending the life of them. I'm lazy and forget to worry about tire pressures (well now I don't have to but) $5 isn't much for the lazy bit, we all spend more than that for stuff to save us a little effort.

No, I have not used Nitrogen in my car tires as the benefits did not appear to be there in that case however research as background to writing this indicates I would save $240 per year if I did.

A consumer report study states: The positive benefits of nitrogen in high(er) service pressure applications, such as used in large truck tires, has been documented in the industry.

The last time I checked, I do not have car tires on the motorhome.

To learn more for yourself, go to http://www.getnitrogen.org/why/index.php

[Ray,IN]

K&G Your explanation may suit you, but, it does not negate the fact Goodyear limits the MH tire warranty to 4 years, some designs-3years. You are free to do as you choose, as am I. I see no actual benefit, none has been proven for on-highway use.