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I'm thinking of converting all my cars' tires to nitrogen filled. The advantage is of course a more stable tire pressure between hot and cold and the advantage of using nitrogen can't be denied for those who track their cars. Seems to me a tankful of nitrogen (over 2000 psi) can last forever for home garage use.
We can also get these accessories for the system : https://www.prestacycle.com/product/...tem-more-info/
Perhaps the initial swap to nitrogen requires a visit to tire shops that can purge the regular air, replacing it with over 97% nitrogen and then afterwards just maintain it with your garage nitrogen tank which should last forever if there is no leakage.
Wondering if any folks here use nitrogen-filled tires.
Why not !
It's the latest gimmick from tire shops who charge you more and put a green cap on your wheels ...
Nitrogen gas does not retain moisture , that's why most high performance shocks are gas filled , the MCS shocks on my race car are gas filled , usually around 175 psi, i rebuild the FOX shocks on both my snowmobiles and fill them with nitrogen.I have my own tank and regulator with fill nozzles for the shocks but i'm not sure i would do it for street tires, or my race tires ... too much bleeding and refilling involved and too much of a pain to carry the tank in my race trailer.
If it's easy for you , it would definitely be an advantage.
There is no down side to Nitrogen, except cost, just very little upside except for some very specific uses.
Nitrogen is a larger molecule so it does leak out slower. If you check your pressures regularly then this is of little benefit. At the pressures that auto tires run it is less of an issue than say heavy trucks or buses, where nitrogen could well be a benefit
There is less moisture with nitrogen so you will have more consistent pressure rise with temperature when on the track, that is a benefit in a race car, but in a road going car not so much. If you track your car, maybe but for the most part not really.
It’s not that N2 doesn’t hold moisture any better or worse than O2, it’s that N2 bottles don’t contain any moisture to begin with, versus regular compressed air, which will always have some humidity in it.
Composition of air
Last edited by Mike Murphy; 07-25-2021 at 05:04 PM.
It’s not that N2 doesn’t hold moisture any better or worse than O2, it’s that N2 bottles don’t contain any moisture to begin with, versus regular compressed air, which will always have some humidity in it. Composition of air
Yes. And if you want "dry air" in bottles, it will cost more than N2. Seems funny, but I found that out first hand. I had been using N2 bottles at one place, and then at the next place I was working at, they used dry air for the same application. The N2 has the minor downside that if you're in an enclosed environment (a really small, well sealed room would be required) there is a slight risk of the N2 displacing the O2, leading to suffocation. So if you wanted to be ultra safe in that application, you'd use the more expensive dry air.
But how can the N2 be cheaper than dry air? Well most gases are created by separating them from the air. Turns out that most people want everything in the air but N2, so dry N2 is basically an unwanted byproduct of everything else. It's literally free at the air separation plant, so it's cheaper to produce than dry air.
One other reason N2 is used in aerospace and race applications is the concern for fire. The space shuttle tires were inflated around 300 psi, and the concern was that if there was a failure that caused a fire and tire burst, the inflation gas would suddenly be present. So having O2 in that mix was something to avoid. NASA has been hyper concerned with O2 ever since Apollo 1.
The expansion of pressure in a tire is due to water content. I got involved back in the 90's when bleeders were being used. Pressure would build up, the bleeders would bleed out pressure.
Now when there is a yellow, the tire cools, and the tires are under inflated and stager is lost. It will take many laps until the tires will heat and pressure will build.
If you purchase a tank of Nitrogen from a gas supplier, the gas inside may have the same amount, or more, of water vapor than the outside air.
I have done countless hours of testing with Sprint Cars and Midgets where tire pressures are critical to maintaining stager. I am the person that developed The Tire Tornado.
If you buy Nitrogen, be sure to buy DRY NITROGEN and get a certification with it. When you empty a bottle, don't leave it open and have the same bottle refilled.
Dry nitrogen does not cost more than off the shelf Nitrogen. Here in California PG&E uses it to dry out their transformers.
Below is a copy of DRY NITROGEN Certification. Note Water Vapor and Dew Point.
Last edited by Heater Guy; 08-02-2021 at 08:17 PM.
Reason: add photo
07-07-2021, 01:09 PM
Nitrogen filled tires
