Nitrogen Fill
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why do you want nitrogen in your tires? perhaps you think that nitrogen filled tires to the same psi would be lighter? if so, you really need to lookup your old high school physics book.
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The only thing nitrogen has is no moisture in it..that's what the issue is at temp. Now at the races Firestone/Bridgestone use an air drier to get moisture out of the compressed air before they fill tires for teams. Team's have the option to let the air out and fill w/nitrogen....its easier for teams to carry nitrogen on the road than a compressor w/a drier attached.
Nitrogen is no different than compressed "dry" air.
Nitrogen is no different than compressed "dry" air.
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The thought never even crossed my mind ...
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sorry, i just read a recent post on the same topic, figuring that nitrogen is lighter than oxygen.
so to answer the quetion in good faith:
approx 80% of the air we breathe is nitrogen. approx 20% is oxygen. The real benefit is filtering out water from the air you use and that is pretty easy to do with a filter. So i don't see the added benefit of nitrogen.
On a race car, you can adjust handling but keeping tire pressures close, but slightly different. Nitrogen, being more stable allows you to keep more linear handlig adjustments made.
I believe airplanes inflate their tires with nitrogen (not sure exactly why)
in any case, i don't see it as worth the expense for a DE/street car. My 2 cents...
so to answer the quetion in good faith:
approx 80% of the air we breathe is nitrogen. approx 20% is oxygen. The real benefit is filtering out water from the air you use and that is pretty easy to do with a filter. So i don't see the added benefit of nitrogen.
On a race car, you can adjust handling but keeping tire pressures close, but slightly different. Nitrogen, being more stable allows you to keep more linear handlig adjustments made.
I believe airplanes inflate their tires with nitrogen (not sure exactly why)
in any case, i don't see it as worth the expense for a DE/street car. My 2 cents...
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Nitrogen while somewhat costly, is a wise investment for ANY car and that includes street only driven cars. Even more so for a car that is being tracked, whether DE, AutoX, or wheel to wheel. Nitrogen fills give you more consistant tire pressures as there is less heat expansion and leaking. For a street driven car, that is nice, but not very noticeable. The real benefit for a street driven car and this is often lost to those who aren't as informed, Nitrogen doesn't oxidize like regular "air". Oxidation can cause premature failure of a tire that looks to be in good order. This oxidation happens from the inside of the tire where it cannot be detected. MANY tire blowouts are caused by this. The saftey reason in itself is reason enough to go with a Nitrogen fill and will benefit people who don't wear their tires out very fast, ie. low mileage or rarely driven cars. If you put a lot of miles or drive hard, then you probably are going through tires faster than the oxidation can take place. Also, the properties in the "air" tend to harden the compound of tires after time, making them grip less and less which equates to poor handling characteristics compared to new. One last point that I'd like to bring up and it relates back to the thermal expansion scenario, with each thermal expansion process, it slightly weakens the structural integrity of the tire. Albeit, slight, however it does happen and over time can lead to failure. In my opinion, it's worth the peace of mind and the added consistancy throughout the life of your tires.
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Nitrogen while somewhat costly, is a wise investment for ANY car and that includes street only driven cars. Even more so for a car that is being tracked, whether DE, AutoX, or wheel to wheel. Nitrogen fills give you more consistant tire pressures as there is less heat expansion and leaking. For a street driven car, that is nice, but not very noticeable. The real benefit for a street driven car and this is often lost to those who aren't as informed, Nitrogen doesn't oxidize like regular "air". Oxidation can cause premature failure of a tire that looks to be in good order. This oxidation happens from the inside of the tire where it cannot be detected. MANY tire blowouts are caused by this. The saftey reason in itself is reason enough to go with a Nitrogen fill and will benefit people who don't wear their tires out very fast, ie. low mileage or rarely driven cars. If you put a lot of miles or drive hard, then you probably are going through tires faster than the oxidation can take place. Also, the properties in the "air" tend to harden the compound of tires after time, making them grip less and less which equates to poor handling characteristics compared to new. One last point that I'd like to bring up and it relates back to the thermal expansion scenario, with each thermal expansion process, it slightly weakens the structural integrity of the tire. Albeit, slight, however it does happen and over time can lead to failure. In my opinion, it's worth the peace of mind and the added consistancy throughout the life of your tires.
Good analysis, but i'm not convinced on a couple points.
1. Tires leak air (either thru faulty valve stems or through bad install seals). So why do you state that there is less leaking? I do buy the thermal properties, but don't understand the less leaking statement?
2. Internal oxidation of tires takes a long long time, IMHO far longer than it takes for the external part of the tire to wear out.
3. Properties in air make tires harden? Never heard that one before. What properties? To be clear, i just don't know. I always believed that it is the heating of the rubber and cooling cycles that hardens a tire.
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nitrogen being more stable as temp changes as stated and also the molecules are larger than o2 , so tire stays pumped up longer between fills,has a harder time going thru micro holes. . Germany uses it , as cars travel much faster, and generate lots of heat (when the weather is good) also they change tires ,mandatory, for winter so tires go into storage. nice post on the oxidation very few people point this out. Hence, nitrogen in aviation.
