Nitrogen tire fill

[Wildthings]

Since a lot of people don't use their rigs all that much and then there are those like myself that often air down their tires for off road use, it seems that having a nitrogen tire filling setup might be of worth. Pressurized oxygen inside a tire causes the materials that make up the tire to degrade over time, so lessening the amount of O2 inside the tire should extend tire life. The biggest cost seems to be the cost of buying a nitrogen tank while the regulator and hose aren't necessarily that expensive.

Just looking for others thoughts.

[E1]

Very valid, WT.

Another huge benefit of nitrogen is it does not change tire pressures under different loads, or heat, or cold. Cold pressures are the same when hot, and vice-versa.

That's why race teams often use nitrogen.

Edit: error, meant "pressure changes far less" with nitrogen compared to compressed air.
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‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[Merian]

fine if it is free and easy to come by

otherwise, no

the tire will degrade on the outside AND internally in a completely anoxic atmosphere (due to cross-linking of the sulphide bridges)
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[E1]

Those might be valid points if others knew what they meant.

The link below is in English. To your point, I think, it's pretty clear that degradation is a long, slow process that may not make nitrogen worthwhile for our throw-away-car society -- but worth a consideration with vans that may run a decade or more on a set of tires.

This article also well addresses using proper tire pressures, a point I try to make time and again to the "run 36F, 48R" crowd for their not understanding tire safety and function.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2007/10/the-truth-about-filling-your-tires-with-nitrogen/
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[fxr]

[E1]

You're welcome, Jim.
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[Merian]

which points did you not know what they meant

tires should NEVER be used after they are 6 to 7 years old - air is fine; breathe it
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[jberger]

Many tire installers on the West Coast use Nitrogen.. Green valve stem caps. It always pains me to top them off when needed. I have several welding gas setups in the garage but no Nitrogen The benefit that appeals to me is that the inert gas will not change the pressure characteristics due to temperature. But what does that mean in the real world? Probably not much. It's kind of like running high end bias ply tires on your moto vs newer tech radials... If it allows you to sleep better at night, then go for it!

J

[fxr]

I use 80% Nitrogen myself. As the oxygen escapes, I occasionally top up with more 80% Nitrogen. Gradually the percentage of Nitrogen in the tyre tends towards 100%...
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Jim Crowther
1984 1.9l EJ22 Westy Wolfsburg Edition
Vespa GTS 300

[dhaavers]

^^^ x2



- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[Wildthings]

If you are running 45 psi in your tires then you have four times the partial pressure of oxygen inside the tires as outside, while at 60 psi the partial pressure would be about the same as pure oxygen at one atmosphere. It is my understanding that the inside of the tire also gets significantly hotter than the outside in high speed use, though I have never attempted to check this myself. Heat and a lot of oxygen just can not be good. As far as tire aging, one of the ways to tell if a tire is getting too old to use is that it will begin to loose air more quickly. Since the membrane that holds the air is on the inside of the tire casing, it seems to me that it would be particularly subject to oxidation. Oxygen escaping through the walls of the tire would also expose the materials of the tire to additional oxygen.

Also since running a tire under inflated is a good way to age it prematurely then running a pure nitrogen would tend to prevent aging for this reason as well.

[Sodo]

Same here, I'm on the 80% plan too, and since I rarely air down to zero, I just deplete the O2 in a similarly passive incremental manner. Some folks take this a little too far but maybe it's just because they can't find 80% nitrogen often enough. Their haphazard N2 purification process may have a tiny benefit but the under-inflation negates any overall benefit.

I'm curious of two things:

1) how long do I have to wait to see evidence of problems from having oxygen in my tires? I've had a lot of tires in my life and haven't seen any problem yet and not getting any younger.

2) If it's a genuine problem, why doesn't somebody TEST this and show us the problem? Just get a hundred tires and put some oxygen in them, how hard can it be? Do you have to age them for many more years than their tread life offers? If yes that might be difficult to find volunteer testers.
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'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[Wildthings]

[Aryana]

[Tom Powell]

I flew B737's for Aloha Airlines. The tires were filled with nitrogen. Possibly the reason for this was to reduce expansion and tire pressure from hot brakes after landing and heavy braking. Tires could blow if the parking brake brake was not released after chocks were in place.

I also had a '67 Mercedes 300SE coupe with OG air suspension. If the suspension was down before startup, I filled the pressure reservoir with nitrogen. This was more of a convenience than a choice of gases. It was easier to lug a bottle of nitrogen down the driveway than to uncoil, stretch out, fill the reservoir, and recoil the air hose.

Aloha
tp

[E1]

[Wildthings]

[djkeev]

[E1]

[Aryana]

Everyone has nitrogen in their tires. There's some swampland in FL I have for sale if anyone is interested.