has anyone filled their tires with nitrogen? i know it doesn't react as much to temps and it leaks slower than regular air, but i was wondering if its actually worth it. does anyone run this in their track tires? if you did a helium/nitrogen mix would it make your tires lighter? reduce unsprung weight? i was thinking about adding it to my car with the inter-bong-cooler.

 

What if someone holds a lighter against your tire?

 

Hindenburg?

 

Nitrogen isn't flamable silly.

the atmosphere is 78% nitrogen.

filling tires with something close to 90% leads to prolonged fills. It can handle heat cycles better than "air", so the pressures don't fluxuate as much when it heats up. And doesn't deflat after sitting for a while.

is it worth it? maybe, but not for any $$ tag.

 

A another huge reason for filling your tires with Nitrogen is it is dryer. There is a lot of humidity in compressed air because it is pulled from the atmosphere. A cheaper approach to Nitrogen is a dryer for your compressor.

I believe aircraft use nitrogen because of the altitude involved. Aircraft tires would have frozen water in them on landing because the ice would not have time to thaw.

**EDIT: I think I should say though that a dryer is not going to make a compressor's air as dry as nitrogen. It will be cheaper than nitrogen and you will get some similar gains.

 

He said nitrogen/helium mix

 

oh :gay:

 

We have nitrogen filling at my shop. It does help to keep a steady air pressure. I haven't filled my tires in close to 4 months. The best thing about it is how dry it is. I see Chryslers with peeling chrome wheels (on the lip where the tire sits) ALL the time. Same thing with old steel wheels. The nitrogen will stop that from happening, and it will keep the inside of your tires nice and not rotted.

I'm not sure it's worth the extra money unless you have rim leak problems. You will never notice it on the road, and it does not make your tires any lighter (at least anything you will ever notice). I get it for free, so I rock it.

 

So what do you do if you need to adjust your pressure up? Pretty much useless for AutoX unless you carry around a tank of nitrogen.

Marketing gimic as far as I'm concerned.

 

you can add compressed air.

 

But this would compromise the "advantage" of using nitrogen right? My longer tire life and improved gas milage might not be all it could be!

Snake oil as far as I'm concerned. Especially in how it is marketed.

 

It all depends, remember they are not marketing it to autocrossers or race car drivers. They are marketing for the average soccer mom who doesn't have time to go out to the garage and fire up the air compressor (with air dryer) and fill up her tires.

For the average person not having to checking your air pressure for 4 or 5 months is a dream come true. Keep in mind not everyone knows how to check their own pressure or for that matter even wants to know. It's just a convenience for the average person. Marketing gimick, yes, but at least it has a little benefit.

 

It sounds pretty damn legitimate, and adding compressed air is your choice, which is besides the fact that any compressed air you add will still be 78% Nitrogen, so add 22% extra to a 100% nitrogen system isn't that big of a compromise.

 

The marketing of using nitrogen in tires is exploiting the lazyness in people, that's it. You can get all the benifits by doing the proper maintance on you car.

They say you get longer tire life from using nitrogen. NO you get longer tire life by having a properly inflated tire. They say you get better milage with nitrogen. NO you get better milage with properly inflated tires.

So now a soccer mom who has nitrogen in her tires doesn't worry about checking the pressure in her tires, since she has the magic gas in them. Damn if she had she might have seen the drywall screw sticking out of the sidewall, and avoided the rupture that caused her to flip her minivan killing her and the kids on the way to soccer practice. Extreme and stupid example, but so is putting nitrogen in your tires.

I've taken many a tire off the rim that used just lo-tech air and never saw a tire rotting from the inside out.

While nitrogen may do all that people are saying, it is filling a need where none exists.

 

Are you serious Jay?

99% of the products marketed today "exploit" the lazyness of people, but that doesn't make the product itself any less legitimate.

If it is higher quality and saves time, that makes something worthwhile. If it's all that and affordable, that makes something superior and usually makes the seller rich.

 

Serious as cancer.

My point is that it's one of those convience things that is actually counter productive. It doesn't actually save a significant amount of time, and the time it does save you is stopping you from visually inspecting your tires.

You guys go out and get nitrogen in your tires if it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside. I'll continue to use plan old low tech air.

 

And so will I.

But, calling nitrogen a marketing gimmick and snake oil implies that it doesn't do what it claims to do and is a scam. What you're actually saying is that it does do what it claims to do, but that is bad because it will keep me from being a responsible adult if I use it.

 

Ironically these the people that it SHOULD be marketed too.

A debate about this topic elsewhere with a bunch of geeky types.

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.c...=120996&page=1

 

SNAKE OIL and a marketing gimic absolutely. Most of the advantages that tire shops are claiming aren't about nitrogen itself, but about a properly maintained tire. You can get the same benifit with out having to employ nitrogen. People claim that it is less harmful to rubber and will age the tire less. That's fine for the inside of the tire, but what about the outside?

Something like the turbonator probably has some science behind it too, but that doesn't make it any less of a marketing gimic or scam.

 

Doesn't NASCAR use Nitrogen in their tires? I thought I read that somewhere.

As far as "what do you do at an autocross?", couldn't you fill your air tank with Nitrogen? I would think setting the air pressure once and not worrying much about temperature would be a plus. Then again, if you can't read increases in tire pressure you lose a valuable way to tell which tires are slipping/misaligned. So maybe I'll just stick with air.

FYI - Kosei must place some value in Nitrogen, since they offer some wheels with two valve stems for Nitrogen filling.