I was just talking to Gwetoe and he informed me that he fills his tires with nitrogen. There are supposed to be alot of benefits. Here is the midwest the last couple days the temps have been really low. My tires pressure light has come on alot until the tires heat up. With nitrogen that is supposed to be eliminated along with other benefits. Does anyone here fill there tires with nitrogen? How has it been? Thanks for the info Gwetoe!

http://getnitrogen.org/

 

Nitrogen is affected less by temp. It wont contract or expand as much as air.
The nascar and drag race guys use it to have more consistent pressure.
It is not needed in a street car but it cant hurt.

 

I have loved every single minute of the nitrogen filled tires. It does handle a lot better and what the heck, it sounds cool to say...yeah...I have NITROGEN in my tires.

 

The COLD weather here in Ohio does cause problems with AIR filled tires with Tire Pressure Monitors. The warning light will be on until the tires warm up and that won't happen on short trips. Nitrogen resolves this problem as well as excess moisture in the tires.

 

where do you get the nitrogen?

 

I have noticed that CostCo advertises using nitrogen now so I am assuming they will rotate the air in you tires for a fee. That somehow sounds like a dumb blond joke.

 

What about the most obvious benefit!!!

LESS WEIGHT!!!

 

I don't think so there Sport:

Air is a mixture of gases, 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen with traces of water vapor, carbon dioxide, argon, and various other components. We usually model air as a uniform (no variation or fluctuation) gas with properties that are averaged from all the individual component:

source: The Engineering Tool Box

 

I find this hard to believe. The following post is stolen from here (I didn't check any of this guy's numbers or calcs, but since he agrees with my internal BS-meter I'm not going to bother):

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

The question about nitrogen in tires has come up in other lists on the web as well. Let me clarify a few points.

1. Air is 78% nitrogen, N2, and 21% oxygen, O2. So even if you put air in the tire, it's already 78% nitrogen. Many of the so called nitrogen generators don't produce much more than 90% nitrogen.

2. At relatively low pressures (ie tire pressures) N2, O2 and water vapor will all behave as ideal gases, and follow PV=nRT. Pressure will increase or decrease to the same extent as the temperature increases or decreases regardless of which gas is in the tire. (Even at 300 psi, which is about 20 atm, there is little deviation from ideality.) Therefore the comments about N2 not changing in pressure as the temperature changes are without merit.

3. The rate of effusion (or diffusion) of a gas through a porous membrane depends on the molar mass and to some degree on the molecular diameter. N2 and O2 are almost the same size and N2 is lighter than O2 (28 g/mol vs 32 g/mol) so if either gas were to effuse out of the tire, nitrogen would do it more quickly. Luckily, tires are designed not to be porous membranes.

4. N2 and O2 both have essentially the same specific heat capacity, about 1.0 J/gK, and thermal conductivity, about 0.00026 W/cmK. Water vapor has a specific heat capacity of about 2 J/gK. But remember, water vapor will constitute less than 1% of the air in the tire. So the idea that N2 has different heat handling properties is also without merit.

5. The ozone, O3, in the atmosphere, which is a ground level pollutant, will do a great deal more damage to your tires than the O2 inside the tire. For instance, don't leave a condom out in the air in Los Angeles for a few days. It will develop lots of tiny holes and weaken.

spdracer22 says that dry air is preferably to air with a lot of water vapor. As a tire heats up, the very small amount of H2O present will be in the vapor state which may contribute to the overall pressure very slightly.

Several have suggested that N2 in a high pressure tank is more portable and requires no electricity. That would make sense, particularly for aircraft tires.

I find no reason to believe that N2 is going to produce a "better ride" or "better handling".

The bottom line is that for general passenger car tires or truck tires there is nothing to be gained (other than portability) by using nitrogen rather than air. The biggest gain will be $$$ by the companies that sell nitrogen handling equipment and the tire merchants that appeal to ignorant customers. And who is the biggest loser? Yep, the consumer.

 

Hey Idaho...
Ever heard of SARCASM?

 

I have nitrogen in my tires for a couple reasons. No corrosion around the lip of the rim
eliminating air leaks.
Better handling.
I went as far to get my own tank and regulator, I think it's worth it considering the cost of the tires.

 

If those things were all true, I also think it would be worth it. I'm just not convinced of the science behind all these advantages. I think the wheel is exposed to air on it's outside all day every day, and I haven't noticed any corrosion. And if the holes in your tire are bigger than O2 molecules but smaller than N2 molecules, I'm betting your air leaks aren't too bad to begin with. Finally, I don't know why N2 tires would handle any better than compressed air tires, at the same pressure. I am, however, skeptical by nature. I still don't own a ginsu knife, chia pet, or "magic bullet" food processor.

 

Yea I have you ought to try it sometime.