nitrogen

[Anakonda69]

anyone running nitrogen in their tires? see any big benefits? friend of mine is thinking of putting nitrogen in his trailer tires. curious about some real life experiences.

[WickedSix]

we used nitrogen at the roundy round track brandon....the thermal expansion of pure nitrogen is SUBSTANTIALLY less than air....meaning nitrogen will hold a given pressure over a wide range of temperature whereas air will fluctuate greatly...... on the track it meant the tires spring rate didnt chnge over the course of a race...in a trailer i suppose the only benefit will be little or no expansion during extended highway driving

[shoooo32]

Nitrogen in street cars is kind of a waste as its ability to keep constant pressure at different temperatures will diminish after a few months. Good sh*t for racecars though. :thumbsup

[HP ADDICT]

My bmw came filled with nitrogen. Held air pressure better when it got cold.

[animal]

Hype. It's still a gas, and it's still subject to the same physics that normal air is subjected to. Keep in mind, IF there's any measurable difference for you, then the measurable difference will only be 1/5 better than it would be otherwise. The pain-in-the-ass level of filling with n2 versus just filling up the tires with regular air isn't worth any of the actual benefits imo. It's still a gas, and it's still subject to the same physics that normal air is subjected to.

I suppose in a racing application when you've done everything else...

[wrath]

It's pretty easy to fill with nitrogen if you already have the gas for welding (I used to). It was pretty easy to fill with nitrogen. It's nice because instead of losing about a pound every 3-4 weeks on a crappy car tire it's more like every two months. It wasn't as noticeable on a truck tire because the tire was thicker than a sheet of wax paper.

On my mud truck, I often ran 1-2psi in the tires. Sometimes I'd drive ~45 miles to the destination at highway speeds. So the tires would grow to 8-9psi, at which the performance of the tire is completely different until the tires cooled down. With nitrogen it wasn't as much of a problem.

[GTO RLY?]

Regular air will work just as well as nitrogen if you use a moisture filter on your air compressor. Nitrogen is a waste of money, IMHO.

[Anakonda69]

this would be for a tandem axle enclosed car trailer. 24' to be exact. i have never thought about doing it so just figured i'd see what people thought.

[animal]

It's nice because instead of losing about a pound every 3-4 weeks on a crappy car tire it's more like every two months.

Seems more likely to have been a variable leak anecdote than an actual indication of the "miracle" of using 100% nitrogen versus 75% nitrogen.

I mean if it's free I guess run it if it makes you feel good. But i really hope no one pays for tires filled of nitrogen. :eek:

[Holeshot]

Nitrogen Molecules do not pull moisture like Oxygen molecules do.
Also here is a good read on the differences between the two in respect to tires.

http://www.narleychoppers.com/Nitrogen.pdf

[wrath]

Seems more likely to have been a variable leak anecdote than an actual indication of the "miracle" of using 100% nitrogen versus 75% nitrogen.

I mean if it's free I guess run it if it makes you feel good. But i really hope no one pays for tires filled of nitrogen. :eek:

Nah, crappy car tires have thin walls. It's less than 1/8" on most car tires. Not like the 1/4" on most load range E light truck tires and definitely not the 1/2" like on my bias ply 44" TSLs.

It's going to leak slower because N2 is a smidgen smaller than O2. So, something with pressure is going to be forced through any holes found in rubber faster with O2 than N2. It's more noticeable at higher pressures.

And if we want to get in a price war about it... say a shop charges $2/tire more for nitrogen... the average luser is going to get it back due to less tire wear because they don't check their tires every month like they should. And in reality, it's a far better investment than going to Starbucks.