Robin 993DX

I am pretty sure you guys know the advantages of filling your tires with Nitrogen. Less pressure change due to temperature, maintain pressure better, no moisture, etc.....

Since I have several compressed tanks hanging around, I traded one of my smaller tanks from argon to nitrogen. The exchange was only $20.

Bought a regulator so that I can regulate the PSI output from ebay ($70), the adaptor to connect to a quick connect coupling for compressed air line.

So free nitrogen filling when you are in Chino hills!!!!!

Texas993

Will you please move that big green thing out of the way? I want to see more of that red beast in the background.

I listened to a talk about tires at a PCA event. The tire guy pointed out that Nitrogen is superior, but if you ever add regular compressed air, all of the benefits of nitrogen are eliminated. So in your case, that is no biggie. But it is a hassle for the rest of us. It requires fewer air top-offs, but when you do need to add nitrogen to the tires, it is a pain.

NP993

Nitrogen is only useful (and by "useful" I mean almost indiscenible) on the track, FWIW.

Don Plumley

I've been dreaming about this also as a way to bring air tools to the track. My question is how do you evacuate enough of the "air" out of the tires so the n2 fill is the majority of the gas?

Garth S

Free N2 fills .... a very kind offer!

For all out of driving reach of free N2, IMHO, bone dry compressed air at 20% O2/80% N2 is subject to the same Ideal Gas Laws that govern dry N2. ---- ie nada difference. The trick is to get dry air! - for it is the contained water vapour that jacks tire pressure changes as operating heat drives liquid to expand to gas.
For your home compressor, the closest one can get is to install a dryer along with an oil trap: the attraction of bottled N2 is that it is distilled absolutely dry.

A freshly mounted tire has 1 bar of atmospheric air contained, so at a typical 30 psi operating, 2 bar additional are added: if that addition is dry air, the contained ambient moisture is obviously still there - diluted to 1/3. Same applies to dry N2.
To chase the initial moisture out, ~ 5 dilutions would be required: remove the valve stem and bring up to a safe pressure - and release, repeating 4x: a most labourious process which racers may employ, but few tire shops.
This is even more academic if ones favourite tire shop swabs the beads and rim with a water based lube to facilitate mounting .... and then charges a few extra bucks to fill with dry nitrogen . If it's dripping on the outside, guess what it's like on the inside.

96C4S

Wow great info Garth.

MASS24K

Nice set up. How much is it costing to have the tank filled and approx how many tire fills do you expect per tank?

Robin 993DX

$20 per exchange from my welding supplier, and the tank is filled at around 2000 PSI, I believe the small tank is a 50 cu ft tank. So someone smart here can do the math and figure out how many tires that will fill.

tj90

Nooooooooo!!!!

Amfab

Robin please secure the tank. 2000 psi could launch that thing though your garage wall if it fell over and knocked the valve off.
A couple people I know have had this happen.
One was driving back through the desert towing a race car in an enclosed trailer. The had an Oxy acetyl set up in the trailer They got lazy and didn't take off the regulator and replace it with the metal cap that screws on to the bottle's body. The trailer had a blow out, fish-tailed and rolled, the oxy tank, not totally full at the time launched and ripped a long tear down the side of the trailer and ended up over 100 feet away.
The other, a student of mine came to school all expenses paid due to a workmens comp claim. He was driving a medical supply truck with gas bottles and someone hit him and the van rolled. three or four bottles went off, one side swiped him in the face shattering his jaw and other bones and one got up a bit of speed and took his foot clean off at the ankle.
Please be careful with your tanks.
And when you see idiot supermarket, party and toy store managers with unsecured helium tanks for balloons please let them know of the danger, they all seem totally unaware. A local Trader Joes had their helium tank tied up with a 3/16th inch piece of the little ribbon they tie on the balloons.

Adrienne

I dunno, I kinda like the idea of nitrous-filled tires. That way when you bleed the tires down at the track, you can get a good laugh out of it, too.

matt777

Seems like the best bet. A cheap desiccant dryer will give you dry 78% nitrogen. The cheapo dryers are just steel tubes with connections on either end. The operating cost is a desiccant change once in a while plus electricity to run the compressor. The only problem is portability. This is where the nitrogen bottles are more convenient and yes, don't have one fall over and knock the valve off! This could be catastrophic.

ps if you try and breathe nitrogen the only ones who will be laughing is your friends when you pass out and fall over. It replaces oxygen. You might be thinking of nitrous oxide (laughing gas)

Adrienne

(Uh...uhhh...that's why I wrote nitrous. Should I have typed slower? )

matt777

Zing...right over my head. It happens a lot.

Stealth 993

Guys, you can never have 100% nitrogen in the car, unless you mount the tire in a nitrogen filled room. It's so little that it doesn't make a difference.

It's even a good idea for a street car, the tire pressure will stay more level & you will get better tire wear, & went you need it the tires will not be overinflated & greasy.

Not sure about most of you guys, but our area Costco's use Nitrogen to fill tires.