Nitrogen for Tires

[motoman139]

some discount/america's tires have nitrogen set up. I have it at my store. I havent switched mine to nitro yet but will pretty soon.

[Elbo]

Originally Posted by motoman139

some discount/america's tires have nitrogen set up. I have it at my store. I havent switched mine to nitro yet but will pretty soon.

Being lazy and not looking it up, what is entailed in switching to Nitrogen? New Valve Stems? And how much?

[helomech]

You shouldn't have to do anything to switch to nitrogen, the cart we have at work will hook right up to the valve stem on your tires.

[motoman139]

all you got to do is let the air out and refill. no new valves or anything. super simple and easy.

[Ridley]

As long as the air compressor you use has a decent dryer on it, there is really no difference in using Nitrogen. Oxygen diffuses through the tire SLOWER than nitrogen since it's a bigger molecule, so all thats left is about 1% trace gases, and even if ALL the trace gases diffused through the tire, you are looking at a .5psi pressure change at 50psi. Temperature, has NO VARYING effect on gases, hence the UNIVERSAL gas laws(remember physics class?). The only advantage is the nitrogen is completely "dry" while air from a cheapo compressor MAY have some moisture, any decent compressor has a dryer, so this is really a mute point, and a scam to pick a few more bucks from the uneducated consumer.

[SOCALTITANKC4X4LE]

If you see a tire with Green valve stem Caps, then it has Nitrogen. They put Green Caps on so that regular air is not mistakenly used to bring the tire pressure back up to specs when tire pressure needs to be adjusted.

[mtwap]

Yea I did that one winter put nitrogen from work in some snow tires on a FORD Pinto (2.3L engine). For the life of me couldn't figure out why it rode so ruff and how I was able to do a 25ft burnout until I checked the pressure and found 65psi. You have to be careful when you’re using a 2500 psi nitrogen cart.

[chunko]

Ok...no joke...

Treehugger.com supports the use of nitrogen in tires...is there any better reason not to use it?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005...te_your_ti.php

[Ridley]

Update: Some good points were made by an anonymous reader in the comments below. As usual, it is sometimes hard to know what is fact and what is not, especially when supposedly professional journalists write about it (see the links where we originally got the story). In any case, the biggest benefits will come from keeping your tires well inflated (as we said here), whatever you inflate them with. In light of what has been written below, it does appear that nitrogen does not have the benefits that are claimed by our original sources

Exactly like I said, and exactly like the article on treehuggers says at the end: Nitrogen in tires is a scam.

[helomech]

Nitrogen has its benefits, and it won't hurt anything either. I haven't used it and it is free for me, I am just to lazy to bother.

[Elbo]

Originally Posted by helomech

Nitrogen has its benefits, and it won't hurt anything either. I haven't used it and it is free for me, I am just to lazy to bother.

It probably is a scam, but then why to most airplane wheels use Nitrogen?

Is it the heat thing? And wouldn't that be good for car tires too?

[Ridley]

Ok, since no one will do an actual search on this(or post their findings), I did it. Here's the real answer(s), and neither reason applies to automobile tires. I have never seens signs of oxidation inside ANY tire in my entire life, and have never had ice balls rolling around in my tires. (nor have I ventured out in -30 weather). If you have experienced either, I highly suggest you go waste your money, err i mean fill your tires with nitrogen immediately!!!!

Question

The tires of airplanes (at least the big ones) are inflated by nitrogen (instead of air). Why is this done?

Asked by: Fernand Zwickl

Answer

Air has a certain moisture content and it is generally very hard to remove this moisture. If an airplane tires were filled with air, at the flight altitude ice would form inside the tires since the temp up there is about -30 degrees F. Landing with a chunk of ice in the tire would make it out of balance and change the tire pressure. Tires would probably burst.

On the other hand, nitrogen doesn't form a liquid till -173C and pure nitrogen has almost no moisture.

In addition, consider if the brakes overheat and cause a fire. The nitrogen will not burn, but air has oxygen which will feed the fire. Jet airline tires are fused. When the fuse is heated it deflates the tire so they don't explode.

Answered by: Scott Grasmick, B.A., Health Physicist, Bremerton, WA


The huge tires on aircraft are expensive, and difficult to mount and dismount. They are also subjected to tremendous forces on landing when they must accelerate very quickly. The friction on touch-down creates great heat within the tires and produces very high stresses in the walls of the carcass.

Therefore, every effort is made to reduce or eliminate the deterioration caused over time by oxidation.

Since normal atmospheric air is approximately 20% oxygen, the tires are inflated with 100% nitrogen - a relatively inert gas.

[Elbo]

Thanks Ridley, I am really worried about those Iceballs, now that summer is pretty much here in Texas.

[helomech]

Originally Posted by Ridley

Ok, since no one will do an actual search on this(or post their findings), I did it. Here's the real answer(s), and neither reason applies to automobile tires. I have never seens signs of oxidation inside ANY tire in my entire life, and have never had ice balls rolling around in my tires. (nor have I ventured out in -30 weather). If you have experienced either, I highly suggest you go waste your money, err i mean fill your tires with nitrogen immediately!!!!

All aircraft tires use nitrogen, or are supposed to. Even our helicopters use it and we aren't allowed to operate in known icing conditions, and we don't do run on landings unless there is an emergency. You can't get 100% nitrogen in your tires in the real world. I never said it was worth using nitrogen, I can get it for free and I still have never done it. I just said there are benifits. You will have less pressure fluctuation with temp and altitude.

[mjw357]

Originally Posted by helomech

All aircraft tires use nitrogen, or are supposed to.

Must be a Part 121/135 thing, never even heard mention of it in GA.