Nitrogen in tires

[KiteSquid]

Because nitrogen was some what explosive we switch to super dry air.

 

I don't understand.... PLEASE correct me if I am wrong, but IIRC Nitrogen is an inert gas.

[oldyellow]

I've been running nitrogen in my wifes jeep which has p285 mud terrain tires for 2 1/2 years and have not had to add any air to them yet.I don't know if they help with the miles or not but she has 48,000 on those tires with some life still left in them,I would'nt never thought we would have gotten that kind of miles out of mud terrain tires!

[MikeWa]

Nitrogen does not burn until temperatures reach somewhere around 2500 degrees f. That happens in the combustion chamber of your engine and the result is NOx. So far that has not been an issue with my tires.

Mike

[Mike G in SC]

When I got my last set of Avons on my RSTD, I later went by one of those car tire stores that advertises nitrogen. They did mine for free, first time a bike came in and asked for it. So, cost me same as air.

 

Just an observation, that was 10k miles back, I think about October (6-7 months).

I have not had to add air since. Pressure is holding in front & back. Can't say I had that experience in the previous 56k miles. Also, wear is not noticable @ 10K. i normally get about 15k on the rear.

 

I was thinking of helium,,, but I think that might produce a whine, or float off somewhere.

[Karl C.]

what youll find out, or should find out, is that nitrogen is more consistent but you wont really notice the difference until you get into much wider tires. I had 20 inch rims with wide twenties on 07 silverado and the ride was the same whether it was hot or cold out.. on a regular tire I did not notice the difference in ride but did notice that I did not have to add or take out due to temp change.... I have been told that nitro in tires runs cooler but I do not know that for a fact.

[Guest PlaneCrazy]

Interesting thread... and a good necro

 

Just wanted to add my opinions, based on 16 years as an aircraft maintenance engineer.

 

Nitrogen is an inert gas. It is not explosive or corrosive and it is very stable. The main reason they use it in commercial aircraft tires was mentioned above... excessive changes in temperature cause minimal changes in pressure. For motorcycles, this difference is almost unmeasurable... but an average large sized aircraft tire runs at 175-200 lbs of pressure and when it's been cold soaked at 40,000 feet at minus 55 degrees Celsius for 3 hours and then has to go and do a landing at 200 mph and reach temperatures of 200 degree Celsius+ in a few seconds... well, you can see the reason why they use Nitrogen instead of air.

 

The secondary reason that aircraft use Nitrogen is because it's inert and it doesn't degrade the rubber compounds of tires. Regular air has oxygen in it, which is highly corrosive and it will break down tires over time. Most aircraft allow the use of regular air in the tire in an emergency, such as being stuck at a foreign airport where there's no Nitrogen available, but you have to remove the tire and send it out for overhaul as soon as the aircraft comes back to a maintenance base.

 

Would i use Nitrogen on my bike? I have and do on occassion... just because it's readily available where I work i wouldn't recommend it for anyone else though as the benefits doesn't justify the cost to the average rider, IMO.

[RedRaptor22]

Pure snake oil for street applications, absolutely no real benefits if you actually ride your bike and drive your car.

 

Pressure should be checked regularly reguardless if you have No2 or regular air because screws,nails, wood staples and sharp rocks could'nt give any less of a crap what you put in your tires.

 

I'm guessing not many people actually keep tires long enough to see any benefits of the reduced oxidation either, the most I've ever gotten out of my bike tires was 12k on a front and 8k on a rear and those were dual compound touring tires.

 

The truck usually gets a new set every two years, not nearly long enough for tires to rott from the inside out.

 

 

On the bike I NEED my tires to heat up quickly and stay there for traction purposes, with cold tires painted lines and tar snakes may as well be pea gravel.

[Bummer]

I prefer to run a more exotic blend. It's mostly nitrogen, at about 78%, but it also has a little argon, neon, krypton, xenon, and co2. Plus a bit of helium, and even a tiny bit of hydrogen. Oh, and about 20% oxygen in case of emergencies. I've been using it for over forty years. So far, so good.

[slick97spirit]

If they don't vacuum the air out. Some simple math with tell you that it's more then a small amount of air. Atmospheric pressure is 14 PSI which is already in the tire when it is mounted. A tire inflated to 28 PSI (air guage only reads pressure above atmospheric) would have twice the amount of nitrogen as the air already in the tire. So that would work to be 30% air. So your point is valid. There is a significant amount of air still in the tire.

 

 

Every time I've put it in my truck tires, they've pulled a vaccum. They actually pull it twice to make sure they have all of the air out.

[Guest seuadr]

Every time I've put it in my truck tires, they've pulled a vaccum. They actually pull it twice to make sure they have all of the air out.

i've collapsed metal containers with a 5CFM single stage vacuum pump.. i would think that very much of a vacuum would run the risk of unseating your tires.

 

infact.. next time i'm gonna change my tires i think i'm gonna try that!

[KiteSquid]

I prefer to run a more exotic blend. It's mostly nitrogen, at about 78%, but it also has a little argon, neon, krypton, xenon, and co2. Plus a bit of helium, and even a tiny bit of hydrogen. Oh, and about 20% oxygen in case of emergencies. I've been using it for over forty years. So far, so good.

 

I run a very simmular mix. this is from a previous post of mine:

I think it actually helps in racing applications.

 

 

I use a very expenive, and hard to obtain, high tech gas mix in all my tires.

 

Nitrogen 780,840 ppmv

Oxygen 209,460 ppmv

Argon 9,340 ppmv

Water vapor ~4,000 ppmv

Carbon dioxide 383 ppmv

Neon 18.18 ppmv

Helium 5.24 ppmv

Methane 1.745 ppmv

Krypton 1.14 ppmv

Hydrogen 0.55 ppmv

nitrous oxide 0.3 ppmv

xenon 0.09 ppmv

ozone 0.0 to 0.07 ppmv

nitrogen dioxide 0.02 ppmv

iodine 0.01 ppmv

Oh, and trace amounts of carbon monoxide and ammonia