with all the stink about high diesel prices & gas mileage does anyone here use nitrogen to air up their tires. I was told by an 'old timer' tire guy that using nitrogen would greatly extend tire life. Nitrogen is an inert gas and does not fluctuate pressure wise like air. I am in the HVAC business & we use nitrogen to pressurize systems for leak tests. I Will change to it this weekend & see if it helps. Am getting 15mpg with all stop & go city driving now. I am also going to change to synthetic oil but only have 2K miles right now. Will try one thing at a time.

 

I hope you not looking for any improvements in milage from useing nitrogen in your tires. Nitrogen is more stabile in pressure due to the lack of moisture.(the main reason you use it for leak testing) You are probably going to need one(maybe two depending on tire size) of the full sized tanks, not the smaller portable tank you keep on your service truck

 

I noticed recently signs all over Costco bragging about their new use of Nitrogen in tires. Bragging about increased safety, mileage and tire-life. I was wondering what all the hoopla was about. I had assumed nitrogen was more stable and yep now that's been confirmed.

I suppose if nitrogen is more stable pressure wise, the claim of increased mileage might be as valid as driving your truck with low tire pressure. Not a lot but some.

 

As air heats up it changes everything, Nitrogen is great for solving this, keeps things cooler and doesnt "fade" like air. Just look at all the Nitrogen shocks on the market and in racing.

 

Nitrogen isn't an inert (noble) gas.

"The six noble gases are found in group 18 of the periodic table. These elements were considered to be inert gases until the 1960's, because their oxidation number of 0 prevents the noble gases from forming compounds readily. All noble gases have the maximum number of electrons possible in their outer shell (2 for Helium, 8 for all others), making them stable.

Helium
Neon
Argon
Krypton
Xenon
Radon"

But that said, the atomic number of nitrogen is 7 versus 8 for oxygen. The tires should leak out a bit faster with only nitrogen in them than with regular air, but the pressure should be more stable over all as the others have mentioned because of the lack of water vapor. Tire rot from the inside should be less of a problem too.

I think that the shock manufactuers use nitrogen because it's relatively stable and inexpensive. They could use argon just as well, but it would cost more.

Helium should be avoided, even though it would make the truck a bit lighter , because it leaks out much faster.

 

We use nitrogen in our blackhawk helicopter tires. pressure doesnt fluctuate up and down with temperature change as much s air does.

 

We have used nitrogen in every race tire I have ever driven on..

 

To take things one step further, I've pasted some text from a NASA site below.

Again, as others have noted in the earlier posts it is the water vapor content in air that is most responsible for the pressure fluctuation due to temperature when compared to a tire (or any other pressure vessel) loaded with only nitrogen.

If you were able to get good clean dry air with no water vapor in it, the dry air would be just as good for tire inflation purposes as the nitrogen only case.

The problem is getting good dry air, so its easier to use nitrogen.

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-367/chapt2.htm

<CENTER>The Atmosphere</CENTER>



Nature of the atmosphere.- The aerodynamicist is concerned about one fluid, namely air. Air makes up the Earth's atmosphere-the gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth-and represents a mixture of several gases. Up to altitudes of approximately 90 km, fluctuating winds and general atmospheric turbulence in all directions keep the air mixed in nearly the same proportions. The normal composition of clean, dry atmospheric air near sea level is given in table I. Not included in the table are water vapor, dust particles, bacteria, etc. Water vapor, although highly variable, is estimated at 0.41-percent total volume. Interestingly, nitrogen and oxygen taken together represent 99 percent of the total volume of all the gases. That the local composition can be made to vary has been brought dramatically to light in recent times by the air pollution problem where in industrialized areas the percentages of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and numerous other harmful pollutants are markedly higher than in nonindustrialized areas.





<CENTER><TABLE cellSpacing=0 border=1><TBODY><TR><TD width=631 colSpan=2>

<CENTER>TABLE I.- NORMAL COMPOSITION OF CLEAN, DRY ATMOSPHERIC AIR NEAR SEA LEVEL </CENTER></TD></TR><TR><TD width=631 colSpan=2>

<CENTER>[U.S. Standard atmosphere, 1962]</CENTER></TD></TR><TR><TD width=631 colSpan=2>

</TD></TR><TR><TH width=346>

<CENTER>Constituent gas and formula</CENTER></TH><TH width=285>

<CENTER>Content, percent by volume</CENTER></TH></TR><TR><TD width=631 colSpan=2>

</TD></TR><TR><TD width=346>Nitrogen (N<SUB>2</SUB>)

</TD><TD width=285>

<CENTER>78.084</CENTER></TD></TR><TR><TD width=346>Oxygen (O<SUB>2</SUB>)

</TD><TD width=285>

<CENTER>20.948</CENTER></TD></TR><TR><TD width=346>Argon (Ar)

</TD><TD width=285>

<CENTER>0.934</CENTER></TD></TR><TR><TD width=346>Carbon Dioxide (CO<SUB>2</SUB>)

</TD><TD width=285>

<CENTER>0.031</CENTER></TD></TR><TR><TD width=346>Neon (Ne), helium (He), krypton (Kr), hydrogen (H<SUB>2</SUB>), xenon (Xe), methane (CH<SUB>4</SUB>), nitrogen oxide (N<SUB>2</SUB>O), ozone (O<SUB>3</SUB>), sulfur dioxide (NO<SUB>2</SUB>), ammonia (NH<SUB>3</SUB>), carbon monoxide (CO), and iodine (I<SUB>2</SUB>)

</TD><TD width=285>

<CENTER>Traces of each gas for a total of 0.003</CENTER></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER>

 

I just had a thought, what about compressed air for diving? I do believe that the air is ran through a desiccant to sometime during the compression process. It leaves the compressed air void of moisture and may be cheaper than nitrogen.

 

Thank you gentlemen for the education on gases Now I can tell the other half I am NOT playing on the 'net I am doing "online education" I am begining to get addicted to this site, what a wealth of info that I am sure the dealers hate that we know or are finding out.