Whats the biggest advantage to Nitrogen Filled vs Oxygen Filled Tires ?

 

Nitrogen is relatively inert. It won't expand at high temperatures as much as air. So, the next time you are racing your truck around the NASCAR circuit, be sure to use nitrogen to fill your tires.
For normal, everyday driving - there is absolutely no advantage. It's a money making scam, nothing more.

 

The theory is that nitrogen permeability is slightly lower than oxygen permeability and therefore the nitrogen filled tires hold pressure longer. Now in my experience, this is a bunch of crap I don't lose pressure due to permeation through the rubber, I lose it due to weather changes or occasionally through a nail hole. Nitrogen is also dry, while air might be wet. That moisture content is more sensitive to temperature changes than dry nitrogen (or air). I think it's all BS.

 

I agree. The biggest advantage is for the dealer who is charging you extra for it. Sometimes I think they swap the valve stem caps to green and just leave the air in there.

If you like to change your air pressure when you’re hauling/towing, the nitrogen won’t be in there very long anyway!

 

I keep my tires inflated with 78% nitrogen. It really enhances performance!

 

Yes, nitrogen filled tires are for high speed pavement racing. Since it doesn't expand as much with the temperature change as air, the pressure will stay more stable. I don't see a need for it in a street truck, or even for taking that truck off road.

 

For daily driving absolutely little to no advantage... Just a scam by the dealer to Belk an unsuspecting buyer out of several hundred dollars. .. Or just call it (Creative Marketing)

https://www.edmunds.com/car-care/sho...-nitrogen.html

 

Pure oxygen is explosive and at least somewhat corrosive. Definitely wouldn't use that. Like everyone above, I keep my tires inflated with about 80% nitrogen. Have no reason to use anything else.

 

The air coming from a compressor is 78% nitrogen 21% o2. Unless you are racing or servicing aircraft or servicing shocks, normal air is just fine. Nitrogen is used due to having a known expansion rate and keeping moisture out of what you are putting the nitrogen in plus it is inert as a gas. Plus you remove the oxygen from inside a compressed space which reduces flammability. For example in an aircraft strut you have fluid and a gas. If you used normal air you can get moisture inside which causes corrosion and freezing water when it separates causing havoc. Also the small amount of oxygen being compressed with a hydraulic oil can ignite. So we use nitrogen which is inert and can come from a dry source. I see no purpose to use it for daily road use.

 

Its not so much the nitrogen content as it is the removal of moisture. Nitrogen is dry, oxygen contains moisture.
My tires right now start at 55-60F 65-70R (depending on ambient temp) and end up at 70F 80R, they gain 10-15 PSI while driving normal highway driving without any air temp rise.
Each 10 degrees ambient temp = 1 PSI, That adds to the increasing pressure you see above from normal driving as the tires heat up from flexing as they roll.

Nitrogen reduces some of these fluctuations. Keeps the tires from gaining so much pressure regardless of temperature. They will still gain PSI, but no where near as much as a 78/21/1 air fill.

Consistent tire pressure will lead to more evenly wearing tires. Tires wear more when over inflated and under inflated, the heat cycles take it from the low to the high, this causes more wear.

I already nave an No2 bottle, cheap to fill at weld supply shop. Easy nuff and significantly less pressure flux. I can see about an 60 deg swing on some days in the desert so I prefer to keep the pressures somewhat consistent.
YMWV

 

Yes, atmospheric air is already 78% nitrogen. There is little to no benefit to the average consumer by using the nitrogen fill. The "Average Joe" will never notice any difference, except, of course, their wallet being thinner.

 

I guess schools no longer teach gas laws. Oh well.

Just a couple points...NASCAR uses nitrogen in the tires because that's also the gas that drives the air guns, which can fail from water contamination. They want to deal with only one air supply in the pits and nitrogen is very available and cheap. The moisture in atmospheric air is an issue since the liquid turning into a gas occupies a space around 600 times that of the liquid so there is merit to using a dry gas. Yes, nitrogen is dry but so is any distilled gas, like argon or CO2. You can even get regular old air to a dry state with adequate condensing. Use of nitrogen in aviation was covered above. As others have mentioned, you would be hard pressed to make the case for nitrogen in your car or truck tires, but hey, if it makes you feel good, go for it.

Just to satisfy your curiosity, call up a welding supply company and ask them how much a 120cf bottle of nitrogen costs. The 120cf bottles are the big ones...nearly six feet tall. Yeah you'll need a regulator to go with that but if you are hooked on nitrogen, you'll be struttin' like a boss for very little money. Plus, with that amount of nitrogen, you can hook up a lot of your neighbors with free nitrogen.

Someone wrote that oxygen is explosive and a bit corrosive. Oxygen is, well...an oxidizer. It's very corrosive, but it doesn't explode. It will make combustibles explode, though. This is why you see "use no oil" on oxygen regulators. It causes the oil to spontaneously combust.

 

Not to mention if you ever actually offroad, that means you have to carry a nitrogen tank with you to air your tires back up. No thanks. Compressor is a lot easier and more utilitarian.

 

From a marketing perspective it makes good sense. "Upsell". Stick green valve stem caps on there. Tell the stupid *******s the tires are filled with free-range organic gluten-free safe spaced Nitrogen sourced from Conflict Free Trustafarian countries with no extradition treaty with the US. Should easily pay for a big yacht.

 

Engaging Geek mode:

NASCAR, and most other racing series, including IMSA and Pirelli World Challenge, the teams all use nitrogen in their tires to try and help mitigate pressure rise from temperature as the tire heats up. Racing tires are very delicate and temperamental devices. Assume a target pressure for a racing tire with an operating temperature of 210 degrees is 32psi. Assuming an ambient temperature of 75 degrees you might expect a pressure increase of close to 10 psi. So you would have to fill the cold tire to 22 psi. Well the tire doesn't work very well at 22 psi and it could easily be damaged on the out lap waiting for the tire to warm up. Or what if the weather changes and the ambient temperature drops to 50 degrees (as you might find overnight at the Rolex 24 at Daytona). You still need that 32 psi target pressure but you will have to lower the cold pressure because there is now a larger temperature increase to the 210 degree operating temperature. Also, as the ambient temperature drops the humidity goes up so there is more moisture in the air and therefore the psi increase will be greater for a given change in temperature. Forget the air guns, the crews need Nitrogen to try and mitigate the effects of temperature change.

But as long as you bring up the air guns.... the air guns used for tire changes run at nearly the full 1500 psi that the nitrogen cylinders provide. This is due to the need for the guns to spin at maximum rpm. If you save a half second per lug because the gun spins faster you saved 2.5 seconds per tire or 5 seconds per pit stop for the typical NASCAR tire change. Each team has multiple cylinders in the pit and each gun is on its own cylinder. Any malfunction of one gun, cylinder or regulator will thus not affect any other. And the spares are completely independent setups. And the guns too are fully blueprinted units built for speed. So yes, you would want a non-oxidizing feed to minimize potential damage to the guns.