Nitrogen in Tires
Hello all,
I have been doing some research and I wish to share a tip with you that may aid in preserving tire life while minimizing time spent at the air hose.
It has come to our attention that Nitrogen is being used to inflate tires on aircraft, cars, transport trucks, and RV's.
It has also been used in various vehicle tires for years. Companies like Jaguar, Ford, GM, and others have been making this solution available to consumers.
The benefits of its use are many. Nitrogen being devoid of Oxygen contains zero moisture which can preserve tire life as moisture exposure is a contributing factor to tire rot and failure. Obviously, this form of breakdown occurs over years, and not months of exposure.
The next benefit of Nitrogen is that it is resistant to heat, rendering a cooler running tire. Nitrogen does not expand or contract with outside temperatures rendering consistent tire pressure in heat of cold.
I was talking to a professional driver yesterday on the phone, and he informed me that he has to add air to all of the tires in the fall and release air in the spring.
Upon hearing of the benefits of Nitrogen, he stated that it would be well worth sharing and looking into.
Nitrogen is available at most tire shops, car dealerships, or transfer truck dealerships.
It should cost between $10 - $12 per tire.
Nitrogen is added through an exchanger wherein air is released and simultaneously replaced with Nitrogen. They do not need to jack the vehicle or truck up, as the exchange is simultaneous resultant in the tire withstanding its load during the exchange process.
It takes approximately 5 minutes per tire.
Has anyone out there used Nitrogen? Please share with us your experience!
Dan
I have been doing some research and I wish to share a tip with you that may aid in preserving tire life while minimizing time spent at the air hose.
It has come to our attention that Nitrogen is being used to inflate tires on aircraft, cars, transport trucks, and RV's.
It has also been used in various vehicle tires for years. Companies like Jaguar, Ford, GM, and others have been making this solution available to consumers.
The benefits of its use are many. Nitrogen being devoid of Oxygen contains zero moisture which can preserve tire life as moisture exposure is a contributing factor to tire rot and failure. Obviously, this form of breakdown occurs over years, and not months of exposure.
The next benefit of Nitrogen is that it is resistant to heat, rendering a cooler running tire. Nitrogen does not expand or contract with outside temperatures rendering consistent tire pressure in heat of cold.
I was talking to a professional driver yesterday on the phone, and he informed me that he has to add air to all of the tires in the fall and release air in the spring.
Upon hearing of the benefits of Nitrogen, he stated that it would be well worth sharing and looking into.
Nitrogen is available at most tire shops, car dealerships, or transfer truck dealerships.
It should cost between $10 - $12 per tire.
Nitrogen is added through an exchanger wherein air is released and simultaneously replaced with Nitrogen. They do not need to jack the vehicle or truck up, as the exchange is simultaneous resultant in the tire withstanding its load during the exchange process.
It takes approximately 5 minutes per tire.
Has anyone out there used Nitrogen? Please share with us your experience!
Dan
If you hold the volume constant (as in a tire), nitrogen, air (80% nitrogen), pure oxygen and ALL other gases change pressure exactly the same amount with changes in temperature. As a really rough approximation, about 3 psi between 80 and 100 Farenheit.
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I would like to provide a counterpoint to Dan's support of nitrogen. Dan's claims:
1. Nitrogen is being used to inflate tires on aircraft, cars, transport trucks, and RV's.
It is true, recently (for other than aircraft) because retailers found they can peddle it to uninformed consumers at a huge profit. Aircraft have been using nitrogen for years because it is as good as air, and is very portable as supplied in large high pressure tanks. When you run 250psi in your tires, it's tough to pull up to an air line to top off the tires...especially if you are a 747. To service a high pressure tire you must have at least a 300 psi supply of air in a large volume. Seen many 300+ psi air compressor systems for sale lately?
2. It has also been used in various vehicle tires for years. Companies like Jaguar, Ford, GM, and others have been making this solution available to consumers.
Not the manufacturers, unless it is a matter of convenience. I am only aware of the dealerships providing this service. The manufacturers (all of them) recommend air for the tires, not pure nitrogen.
3. The benefits of its (nitrogen) use are many.
Actually there are none, unless you need the portability, or clarity of a pure product. Water and oxygen can deteriorate a tire, but compared to the normal deterioration of UV and off gassing of the rubber volatiles, these benefits cannot even start to be considered. Ask a tire rep about running a brand new tire on your vehicle that has been on the shelf for longer than 5 years. Natural deterioration of the rubber itself makes this inadvisable.
4. Nitrogen does not expand or contract with temperature providing additional pressure stability to your tires.
This is patently false! Nitrogen being a gas, expands and contracts "exactly" like air. Since "air" is 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other gases you are effectively only replacing a portion of the oxygen (it's impossible to evacuate all of the air from your tires before adding pure nitrogen). With a Nitrogen fill in your tires, they will behave exactly like they have air...because they do!
5. Nitrogen is added through an exchanger wherein air is released and simultaneously replaced with Nitrogen. They do not need to jack the vehicle or truck up, as the exchange is simultaneous resultant in the tire withstanding its load during the exchange process.
This is the biggest scam of all. It is impossible to hook your tire to a machine and "exchange the air for nitrogen". It takes more than 5 minutes to deflate and re-inflate a tire. How does a machine do this without deflating completely (unless you jack your vehicle to prevent damage to your tire and wheel) in 5 minutes.
Bottom line, if someone tries to sell you nitrogen for your tires, decline and ask for the free nitrogen...air. $48 worth of nitrogen in 4 tires nets this guy $45 in profit, and you nothing but cold air.
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My experience (2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee) is that nitrogen does tend to reduce heat pressure buildup but not pressure drop during extreme cold. I had winter tires installed with nitrogen set by the tire store to the recommended 33 PSI two weeks later the temperature dropped to -20 C and when I started the vehicle I was greeted by numerous alarms from the TPMS showing the pressure to be as low as 28 psi. Even after 3 hours of driving at highway speeds the pressure didn't increase past 30 psi (but enough to turn off the alarms). I had to return to the tire store to top up the tires with nitrogen.
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I had nitrogen installed with new tires purchased on my Suburban last year (2008). I do not have a TPMS, yet. I had the tires checked in the last few weeks and they are exactly where they were last year. These have been through a winter at -40 and a summer of, oh yeah the summer was not that great. Anyway I was surprised that they have not changed in pressure. I have just bought a MHDP and plan on towing 4 down. I think I'm sold on a TPMS and very interested on hearing more about nitrogen in tires. I have talked to some truckers and they are not using nitrogen.
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Thats really very nice blog, I am impressed.
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