Nitrogen in Tires

[dennis45]

Originally Posted by Fattman-Litlboy

Ok, just my scientific view on this. I'm degreed in chemistry, biology, and physics, and worked as a nuclear weapons engineer for 40 yrs. Stay with normal air (78% Nitrogen), and never use CO2 because it reacts with moisture to form Carbonic Acid H2CO3. Using N2 is just BS, and a waste of your good money, but if you want to waste it, go right ahead. My 2 cents.

I particularly find the use of CO2 by the off road crowd very interesting.

[Victory Blue]

Originally Posted by Fattman-Litlboy

Ok, just my scientific view on this. I'm degreed in chemistry, biology, and physics, and worked as a nuclear weapons engineer for 40 yrs. Stay with normal air (78% Nitrogen), and never use CO2 because it reacts with moisture to form Carbonic Acid H2CO3. Using N2 is just BS, and a waste of your good money, but if you want to waste it, go right ahead. My 2 cents.

Tubeless tire inner liners are often Butyl rubber which has good resistance to acids, especially weak acids like carbonic acid, formed when CO2 is dissolved in water.

CO2 has been used in tires for years and is generally considered safe. It is very dry so there won't be moisture added to the tire, certainly much less moisture than is added using ambient air.

I use a Powertank (purchased after lots of research), with a constant tank pressure of about 800 psi, even when almost empty. I set the output pressure to 200 psi. I can air up all my tires in less time than it takes just to hookup a compressor. Yes, a Powertank is expensive, but it will outlast multiple compressors and will still have significant value in the used market when I no longer need it.

[Surmotor]

Originally Posted by Victory Blue

Tubeless tire inner liners are often Butyl rubber which has good resistance to acids, especially weak acids like carbonic acid, formed when CO2 is dissolved in water.



CO2 has been used in tires for years and is generally considered safe. It is very dry so there won't be moisture added to the tire, certainly much less moisture than is added using ambient air.



I use a Powertank (purchased after lots of research), with a constant tank pressure of about 800 psi, even when almost empty. I set the output pressure to 200 psi. I can air up all my tires in less time than it takes just to hookup a compressor. Yes, a Powertank is expensive, but it will outlast multiple compressors and will still have significant value in the used market when I no longer need it.

X2 on the powertank

[09 harley]

Worthless. Air is already 78% nitrogen. The extra percentage is not worth the cost. There are many other more important topics to explore.

[09 harley]

Originally Posted by brobox

I've always wondered if you let all the air out of a tire to replace the air with nitrogen, why is only 1/3 of the tire flat, the top 2/3's still holds air.

I wonder if you were at the South Pole and there was no air in the tires would the top of the tire be flat because the top is closer to the center of the earth? Inquiring minds want to know.

[09 harley]

Originally Posted by Ourrvtrip

From personal experience: I had a 2011 Cadillac Escalade with low profile 20" tires. Dealership replaced air in tires with Nitrogen prior to my purchasing. Then I had a flat and repair shop did not have nitrogen so they filled with regular air. My dash had individual tire pressure monitoring and I witnessed the tire with air would fluctuate greater with temperature changes more than the nitrogen filled tires. So the volume in an RV tire should see like results as nitrogen appeared to be less affected by temperature changes. Additionally, I had to top off the tire with air 3 times as much as the nitrogen filled tires. I would guess that Nitrogen molecules are larger than oxygen and wouldn't escape through the rubber near as much?? Tommy

I had a 2001 Ford E250 van and I rarely had to add air. I didn't use nitrogen. I now have a 2017 F250 CCLB and since I picked it up mid January I have not had to add air once. 6 months.
Dump the nitrogen in the other tires and you will be ok. You will probably suffer nitrogen withdrawal syndrome but you can overcome that.

[Surmotor]

Originally Posted by 09 harley

Worthless. Air is already 78% nitrogen. The extra percentage is not worth the cost. There are many other more important topics to explore.

We like to take early morning rides with our recumbent trikes and starting the coach or an air compressor to fill the trikes tires would not make my neighbors happy. I also find many others uses for the power tank.

[09 harley]

Originally Posted by Surmotor

We like to take early morning rides with our recumbent trikes and starting the coach or an air compressor to fill the trikes tires would not make my neighbors happy. I also find many others uses for the power tank.

I guess I'm old school. I use a floor standing pump. Never lets me down.

[Ted Lambert]

Originally Posted by Jose67

Kutter and Group,

We experienced great tire pressure and temperature variations and TPMS high pressure and temperature alarms on our steer axle. The pressure would go from 125 to 155 PSI and from environmental temperature to over 150 degrees Fahrenheit frequently. It was nerve wrecking and annoying. So, we vacuumed the tire to -5" H2O and refilled with welding quality Nitrogen.

Result: No more alarms.

BTW: the steer axle weight is 7,100 for the driver and 7,450 for the passenger side. The tires are Goodyear' 295/80/22.50 rated at 7,830 pounds single. The axle is rated at 16,000 pound.

We are satisfied with the result. We rarely adjust the tire pressure on the steer axle and feel safer.

Thank you all.

Now if you would have shut off the TPMS you would not know the difference would you?
Too much knowledge is not always good as you have proven to yourself.

Did you drive before TPMS was available?

[Ted Lambert]

Originally Posted by Surmotor

We like to take early morning rides with our recumbent trikes and starting the coach or an air compressor to fill the trikes tires would not make my neighbors happy. I also find many others uses for the power tank.

Now the truth comes out it's not about nitrogen being better is it! It is about the convenience of the supply in a tank.

Makes sense to me as long as nobody trys to tell me about the benefits of nitrogen vs air.

[Tony Lee]

Some interesting experiences being described. My rigs sit for up to 2 years and if I think of it, I air them up to rated sidewall pressure as recommended by tyre companies. When I return and fire the rig up, I drive to the campground and check the pressures. Making allowance for ambient temperatures, it is very hard to detect any reduction of air pressure.
Then I lower the pressures to recommended values from the load/pressure tables and drive around for 3 to 6 months and never have to add any air.

All as expected from my science and engineering background - which also tells me that air and any other gas INCLUDING water vapour inside the tyres are all subject to the ideal gas law PV=nRT as close as you like at the ranges we are talking about so stories of less pressure increase with temperature if you use nitrogen are just that - stories.

That site is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuGXybgAbqk

if you want a laugh

[Dtwallace]

Originally Posted by Ourrvtrip

From personal experience: I had a 2011 Cadillac Escalade with low profile 20" tires. Dealership replaced air in tires with Nitrogen prior to my purchasing. Then I had a flat and repair shop did not have nitrogen so they filled with regular air. My dash had individual tire pressure monitoring and I witnessed the tire with air would fluctuate greater with temperature changes more than the nitrogen filled tires. So the volume in an RV tire should see like results as nitrogen appeared to be less affected by temperature changes. Additionally, I had to top off the tire with air 3 times as much as the nitrogen filled tires. I would guess that Nitrogen molecules are larger than oxygen and wouldn't escape through the rubber near as much?? Tommy

That's exactly right, however, to my knowledge there are no manufacturers building tires that are for nitrogen use only.

Tires are designed to use regular air that expands and contracts at it given rate.

Therefore tires that are a little flat of a profile on the bottom when cold, will round out once up to normal operating temperature, and wear as designed.

If you use nitrogen in that same tire, you can expect the wear pattern to be something other than design, because the tire will not expand as much.

DTW

[Cruzer]

Originally Posted by brobox

I've always wondered if you let all the air out of a tire to replace the air with nitrogen, why is only 1/3 of the tire flat, the top 2/3's still holds air.

That's because Nitrogen is lighter than air and the 78% that's in the air floats to the top of the tire.

[Rollin101]

Don't know about everyone else, but I had nitrogen in the tires on one bus and couldn't tell any difference as for as pressures. The nitrogen tire pressures increased just as much as plain old air while on the road.