Nitrogen in Tires? - Page 3

gospeed.racer · 09-24-2005, 02:03 PM

Taken from Ingersoll Rand

"A dry, inert gas used by racing professionals and the military to inflate race-car tires and military vehicles, nitrogen leaks through a tire’s rubber walls three times more slowly than oxygen. As a result, tires filled with high-quality nitrogen, delivered by IR’s Tire Filling System, stay inflated longer, and therefore grip the road better and provide greater control, in all weather conditions.

“It’s an obvious safety issue. Simply put, tires filled with nitrogen provide more stable pressure,” said Ray Evernham, a three-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Crew Chief and team owner of Evernham Motorsports. “That’s why IR’s Nitrogen Tire Filling System represents the best solution for drivers and tire repair centers.” "

Again, as I said in my first post. Great for race cars. We use it every week. But dont bother for street use.

turbocad6 · 09-24-2005, 02:19 PM

one thing I can say is the majority of tires that you pull off a rim are clean & dry inside, but then there are some that youd be surprised whats in the tire..... oil & moisture.... not very common though..... a compressed air system needs to be controlled.... I have a dryer, an oil trap and a moisture trap in line..... if you just have a compressor & outlets you will have oily moist air...... I need clean dry uncontaminated air to paint in a booth, & until I got my air system right, you'd be surprised the crap that can come out of a normal air line...

for this I would say compressed clean air source is benificial..... I guess using a compressed nitrogen tank provides this, but it can also be had with a regular compressor if the air is treated after with filters & traps...... to me it would make more sense for a tire facility to generate clean dry compressed air..... but then the costs are all on them & they couldn't charge you an extra $20 for each 4 tire job.....

a good high volume air system can cost up to $10,000 if you go with good stuff & could be more than that if you go all out..... there are kaiser screw compressor systems with active dryers that are well over 15K.... guess it's cheaper to just mount nitrogen tanks & have the customer foot the bill....

is nitrogen less suceptable to moisture build up after the fact.... I never saw this as an issue before this... most properly inflated tires live out there life & get replaced either when worn or physically damaged or possibaly dry rotted on an old tire..... could the nitrogen have an effect on the likelyhood of a tire dry rotting?... this is mostly only an issue on a car that just mostly sits for years.... & I have never seen one dry rot from the inside out..... it's the outside surface that dry rots......

DeltaFX · 09-29-2005, 06:32 PM

All this 'Inflate your tires with voodoo-blessed dry nitrogen' is Bul.S. for us.

The only reason why a pure N² atmosphere could be interesting is that without oxygen, the rubber won't oxidate from inside, your tires will age slowly.. And that argument is only valid for tires with high cyclic physical & thermal constraints, like airplane ( Tground is 25°C, T@30000 feet is -40°C, then tires have to start spinning quite instantly when landing, they warm up pretty fast )

Check tires' pressure and integrity once in a month, you'll be safe, even with standard atmospheric air.