Nitrogen filled tires

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RiverWalker

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Jun 11, 2006
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I am planning on taking a few thousand miles trip from Vancouver B.C. to Northern Saskatchewan. I will be towing my trailer. Most of the trip will be on paved roads. We willl be off road once we get to Saskatchewan and then again on the way home. I am wondering if it would be benificial to put nitrogen into my tires. I am going to do it to my MINI Cooper and thought that since the nitrogen won't expand with heat it would stop excess tire wear.
Any thoughts or ideas? Has anyone done this and if so what happened?
Thanks for your help:cheers:
River Walker
 
Snake oil.


Mark...
 
Nitrogen expands with heat just like all gases.

Over here they tell you that the nitrogen will not leak out of the valve stem like regular air due to larger molecule size. When you point out that air is 70% nitrogen and hence your tires will expel everything else over time and you will end up with pure nitrogen for free you get a blank look from the tire guy.
 
Yeah, what they said...It is just air.

Now what if you put helium in a 4x4, could you climb some sick cliffs?
 
You'd need really big tires to get enough helium to do that. Once the helium is compressed into a tire, it's not very light weight any more either.

O, yeah, what they said about nitrogen. Paying extra for a 100% concentration verses a 70% concentration for free isn't going to make a huge difference; except maybe on your pocket book. Even if it resists heating up, after driving a few hundered miles it'll probably be just as hot as your tires anyway. If that's the case, it'll also resist cooling down.
 
:idea: Just exchange the N2 bottles for a couple bottles of H2O and put that in your tyres. In the event you run into some heavy wind. It will help lower the center of gravity.
 
Actually, the atmosphere is already mostly nitrogen. When you take a breath, more than half is nitrogen.
Just tell people you have your tires filled with a 50/50 mix of nitrogen and other inert gasses.
 
Did some research on the net about this a few weeks ago. As mark stated "Snake Oil". Unless you are running a race car.

I found a MR. Science type web site a while back and a bunch of chemist and physicist had a huge debate about it and the bottom line was Snake Oil. They broke down the properties of the Nitrogen and the properties of Compressed air etc.

A tire shop had put Nitrogen into my tires, not at my request, I let the air out and refilled them. One of their big claims is that the tires will not loose air pressure. Well if you check your tire pressure on a regular basis then it should not be an issue.
 
The only advantage that I see as possible (i stress possible) would be that pure N2 is pretty "dry". Compressed air has a pretty high concentration of water vapor. Mostly because most tire shops don't spend the time or money for adequate dryers. Water vapor is pretty thermally dynamic (meaning that it changes volume pretty drastically with temperature change). This could possibly mean that as the tire changes temperature, it also ends up over or under inflated. Probably not an issue for standard street-driven vehicles, but I could see a possible problem for race cars or ultra high performance vehicles.
 
DEWFPO said:
Just out of curiosity, what was your motivation to do this?

DEWFPO
Click to expand...

Needed to add air to my tires as the pressure was not correct (Checked when cold). Drove to the tire store to have the tire pressure checked and filled with Nitrogen and they said they where fine. Of course the tires where now warm.

Bottom line- Pain in the butt to get 2 psi added to tires when I have a compressor in the garage.

I did check to see if I could just add air to the Nitrogen and I could of, but according to the tire store, I would have to have the tires flushed with Nitrogen soon after. Hog Wash.
 
LukeZero said:
The only advantage that I see as possible (i stress possible) would be that pure N2 is pretty "dry". Compressed air has a pretty high concentration of water vapor. Mostly because most tire shops don't spend the time or money for adequate dryers. Water vapor is pretty thermally dynamic (meaning that it changes volume pretty drastically with temperature change). This could possibly mean that as the tire changes temperature, it also ends up over or under inflated. Probably not an issue for standard street-driven vehicles, but I could see a possible problem for race cars or ultra high performance vehicles.
Click to expand...

The small amount of water would, in my opionion, not make much difference in a street car.
 
LukeZero said:
The only advantage that I see as possible (i stress possible) would be that pure N2 is pretty "dry". Compressed air has a pretty high concentration of water vapor. Mostly because most tire shops don't spend the time or money for adequate dryers. Water vapor is pretty thermally dynamic (meaning that it changes volume pretty drastically with temperature change). This could possibly mean that as the tire changes temperature, it also ends up over or under inflated. Probably not an issue for standard street-driven vehicles, but I could see a possible problem for race cars or ultra high performance vehicles.
Click to expand...


You are correct. The issue is the water vapor in compressed air. If the tire is cold, that water can be liquid droplets. Heat the tire sufficiently, the liquid boils, expands greatly and changes tire pressure. Race car handling can be tuned by altering tire pressure, and racing cornering loads generate lots of heat. Having tire pressures changing while on course changes handling tuning, a big no no.
Not an issue for street cars.
 
Hydrogen could be fun...
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME
 
Hey River Walker,

I'm in the industrial gas business for over 35 yrs now and we have used n2 in our trucks (18 wheelers, etc.) and car tires for as long as I can remember. The pressure will actually increase a bit as they heat up but not as much as air because there is no H20 or oils in the nitrogen to speak of. Also, since there is no O2 the likelyhood of oxidation is gone. It's a great idea.

We have seen much greater tire life.

Dick
 
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