Nitrogen Tires

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sandro
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Sandro

hi, i heard that its possible to put nitrogen in the tires and its actually
better than having air. is this true and would u recommend it?

thnx
 
You can, and it's not better than plain air unless you're drag racing.


Regular old air is 78% nitrogen - 21% oxygen - 1% other stuff.
 
Except helium atoms are much smaller - the tires will tend to go flat faster
from helium leaching through the porous rubber. Ever seen a helium balloon
after a week?
 
Yeah. If you keep your tires inflated at recommended pressure, the car
will actually float above ground!
 
That's a new one on me. Nitrogen preserves stuff, but tires are pretty rugged and the outsides get all the grief. Nitrogen tanks are pressurized to thousands of pound (psi)so you need to find the proper regulator to step it down - filling will be REAL fast, and the popping even faster. I'd use Helium! With fat tires you could literally float above the ground but then I suppose traction could be problem. No, No, nitrous oxide is the thing - see FAST & Furious. Have Fun!
 
I got a chuckle out of the first helium post but the fact remains that
helium is used for leak detection in critical industrial/aerospace
systems for the exact reason that you brought up...

JT




Scott said:
Except helium atoms are much smaller - the tires will tend to go flat faster
from helium leaching through the porous rubber. Ever seen a helium balloon
after a week?
Click to expand...

--
 
Good point. Hadn't thought about that. I was going to
use the helium after the hydrogen fills resulted in the loss
of my first car........

Carl
 
I believe NASCAR uses nitrogen to inflate race tires. Might have something
to do with heat conduction and the N2 is dry,contains no water vapor.
 
hi, i heard that its possible to put nitrogen in the tires and its actually
better than having air. is this true and would u recommend it?

thnx
Click to expand...

Unless you plan to race your vehicle--don't do it. I don't think that most
race car drivers would use nitrogen in their tires.
 
Yeah, those hydrogen filled tires and aftermarket bumper-mounted rocket
boosters really don't go together very well.
 
Some race teams use nitrogen because it expands less when heated. However
more importantly it typically comes from a tank which is very dry, so there
is very little moisture to condense or turn to steam inside the tire, or
corrode the rim. Air tanks filled with compressed air from a nearby
compressor have the moisture from the surrounding air within them.

 
Hi there,

I'm currently using Nitrogen air on my Prelude tyres. It's owkay to top-up
the usual gas station's compressed air when low but ensure you do not fill
in more than 10% of the total air (tyre). True it doesn't expand as much
and would obviously seem more useful to a racing driver; however using
Nitrogen also helps prevent steering vibrations at higher speeds. At the
very least you wouldn't need to top-up air as regularly as the usual
compressed air. All the above is subjected to normal and occasionally
high-speed driving and not to be used under racing conditions.

Hope this helps,

Suman
 
Scott MacLean said:
Some race teams use nitrogen because it expands less when heated.
Click to expand...

Is this really true? The amount that a gas expands is independent of
its composition. When heated to the same temperature, equal amounts
of air and nitrogen will expand to the same pressure. (PV=NRT for
ideal gases)

-John
 
wow...I use exclusively methane in mine.....it's just a tad hard to pump
them up :-P
 
I should clarify: Some race teams use nitrogen because they THINK it expands
less when heated. :)
 
I should clarify: Some race teams use nitrogen because they THINK it
expands less when heated. :)
Click to expand...

Race teams use nitrogen because:

1.it comes in a nice pressurized tank,easy to move to the pit area,needs no
external power source like a compressor.
2.It's dry,contains no water.
3.Possible thermal considerations.(Heat -conduction-,not expansion)
4.cost is less than other gases??
 
Race teams use nitrogen because:
1.it comes in a nice pressurized tank,easy to move to the pit area,needs no
external power source like a compressor.
2.It's dry,contains no water.
3.Possible thermal considerations.(Heat -conduction-,not expansion)
4.cost is less than other gases??
Click to expand...

The race team I crew on, we use a pressurized tank that is filled from the
same compressor in the trailer that runs the air tools - for your reason #1,
you can take it to the pits. Regular old air. Costs less than nitrogen,
that's for sure. :) In fact, I don't see anyone using nitrogen, except for
the Ferrari team.
 
maybe thats why they r the best, u should put nitrogen then u will be the
best
;)

Sandro
 
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