Anyone ever put nitrogen in their tires?

Discussion in 'General VFR Discussions' started by Bubba Utah, Jun 2, 2018.

  1. Bubba Utah

    Bubba Utah Member

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    I find this intriguing to do but I know it costs money. Are the benefits greater than the cost? If anyone has or does let me know. Thanks
     
  2. hondaman219

    hondaman219 New Member

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    well as a 25+ year auto technician I have heard lots of stories about nitrogen. It is used in racing because is more stable to heat build up and helps control stagger. (the difference in tire size right to left) But you only have one tire right? The nitrogen is also suppose to be less reactive to to rubber inside the tire due to lack of oxygen. What about the outside of the tire? Nitrogen molecules are also larger than oxygen and therefore leak less. Check your tires regularly. That being said. Air is 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen 1%other. Unless you race your bike for a living you will see no benefits from using 100% nitrogen. Also if you need to top off your tire and put air in it then there goes the benefits as you just contaminated the nitrogen. As a gm technician no auto makers use nitrogen in there tires. Why No real world benefits. I have never used it and never will.
     
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  3. FJ12rydertoo

    FJ12rydertoo Member

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    ^^^^^^^^^^Yup, what he said.
     
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  4. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    That is one of those things ya do and keep it to yourself, hahahahahahahahaha
     
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  5. 34468 Randy

    34468 Randy Secret Insider

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    I like the little green stem caps. I have never used it. Air is free most places. The wife got it in her car when she bought it new a few years ago with the understanding it was free top ups when the tire was low. Last time she went in, the service rep told her to just put air in it. to top up. She insisted on the nit seeing as she paid for it in the beginning. Her winters get plain old cow-shit stinky air from Chilliwack through my compressor. She hasn't had a problem with those.
     
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  6. Vfrwja

    Vfrwja New Member

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    How do you evacuate the tire prior to inflating with nitrogen?
     
  7. Bubba Utah

    Bubba Utah Member

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    I would assume it would be done on a tire mounting. First gas in I guess
     
  8. hondaman219

    hondaman219 New Member

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    Well on a new tire seat the bead first with air.Then let all the air out. If your cheap on nitrogen just fill to proper psi. Volume to psi there is not much air in a flat tire. If you have nitrogen to burn then fill & purge. Just leave enough pressure in the tire to prevent air from entering. Repeat as necessary . Fill to correct psi. On the bike try to take weight off tire then deflate and refill or purge with nitrogen. Enjoy
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2018
  9. VFR4Lee

    VFR4Lee Member

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    Putting nitrogen in your tires is like masturbating? :Laugh:
     
  10. Audible

    Audible New Member

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    I work for a BOC gas agent here in Australia, have done since 2004. Basically, I know a lot about gases.

    The practice of putting Nitrogen into tyres originated from Racing. A lot of the race teams use air powered tyre rattle guns to remove/refit tyres. The car pulls up in pit lane, they lift the car up, they undo the single wheel nut, tyre gets changed, you know how it works.
    The race teams usually use a gas cylinder to power the rattle gun as the gas cylinder is a lot more reliable, higher pressure and easy when on a race track. The rattle guns usually need a higher pressure to work than the average air compressor can put out, they are not your normal domestic rattle gun.
    Some race cars also have chassis mounted air jacks to lift the car up. They connect the air line to a connector at the back of the car and it lifts itself up.

    Nitrogen is the cheapest/easiest gas to produce for the gas cylinder suppliers. The way they extract the gases and "clean" and it's cheaper than filling a gas cylinder with air to the purity levels usually required.

    So, the race teams also use the Nitrogen cylinders to fill the tyres as well as power the rattle guns. The reason they prefer to use the Nitrogen from the cylinder is because they are already using the cylinders and no point setting up/running air compressors just to fill tyres.

    Along the way, they discovered other benefits of using nitrogen in the tyres and started using it to their benefit which is what led to research into the practice by the manufacturers and the racing authorities. (more on this later)

    Gas from a cylinder is a very high purity in both the gas and lack of impurities and devoid of water.
    Basically the way gases are seperated/produced to put into a gas cylinder is by massive compression. They use a huge air compressor and compress atmosphere to thousands of PSI. Each elemental gas present in our atmosphere will liquify at different pressures/temps. So basically they compress the air to a certain pressure so that only one type of gas will liquify. They let this liquid collect at the bottom of the compressor tank, drain it out and use that to fill the gas cylinders.
    It's 100% pure in liquid form and the only impurities are from contamination in the cylinder being filled, depending on the gas companies method of purging the cylinder of impurities prior to final fill.
    This means of making the gases is the basis of the name of Airliquide, another major gas company. It basically came from liquifying air as the basis of their product.

    So from the practice of race cars using nitrogen to fill their tyres, came the practice of filling the consumer tyres.
    It does have benefit, mainly as mentioned before, the main one for a consumers car or bike tyre is the lack of water going into the tyre from air compressors.
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2018
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  11. Audible

    Audible New Member

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    So with the racers filling their tyres up with nitrogen, eventually questions where asked regarding whether it was "cheating" given a number of racing events have stringent controls and rules, such as controlled tyre sizes and compositions.
    A major tyre manufacturer did some testing on race, aircraft and domestic tyres filled with Nitrogen compared to atmosphere for all sorts of parameters, freezing cold, wear, resistance to loosing pressure over time etc.
    The results varied from no detriment, to having benefit, mainly resisting loosing pressure over time and reliability of valves as well as lack of corrosion on rims and valves from the lack of water internally in relation to domestic vehicle tyres. There where other benefits confirmed by this research relating to other uses of tyres.

    Hence where the recommendation to fill tyres with nitrogen came from. The manufacturers did find a benefit for filling tyres with nitrogen over a period of time which suits the domestic tyre and the tyre resellers/fitters took up the practice as an extra way to make money, backed by the manufacturers positive findings.

    The stories as to why it was a benefit to fill tyres got a bit lost along the way. The distributors told the resellers to push the concept given it was recommended by manufacturers and then the tyre dealers came up with a few different stories as to why it was a benefit to spin to customers.
    To the best of my knowledge, the main benefit is the lack of moisture inside for the life of the tyre as far as a domestic vehicle tyre is concerned.
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2018
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  12. 34468 Randy

    34468 Randy Secret Insider

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    That was an interesting read Audible.
     
  13. GatorGreg

    GatorGreg Honda Fanboy/LitiGator

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    Yep, I feel like a nitrogen expert now :D
     
  14. VFR4Lee

    VFR4Lee Member

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    What about smell? Old tire air is always nasty. :D

    I have never seen a wheel rust or corrode from moisture inside the tire.
    But I don't deal with tires or pass gas for a living. I do it as it is a necessity. ;)
     
  15. headshrink

    headshrink New Member

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    An air-compressor is a must-have for every garage. It doesn't need to be a big one, but I have found it almost a "NECESSARY convenience." This would essentially make nitrogen-filled tires moot, as you can easily make adjustments whenever you want or need without going somewhere with N or specialized equipment.
     
  16. Gator

    Gator Insider

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    I have run into a few guys at the track trying out nitrogen. They said that there was less fluctuation between hot and cold temp pressures. Not having any water in the tire seems like a plus. I had a lot of trouble finding someone who had high pressure nitrogen that could fill my rear shock on my DR. All the nitrogen tire services run off a machine that you input the vehicle info into and could not give me a 150 psi delivery.
     
  17. OZ VFR

    OZ VFR Member

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    I use nitrogen in my work all the time, and always have a bottle and the gear at home but don't bother using it on my tyres.
    Nitrogen molecules are bigger than oxygen, nitrogen comes dry and it is also more size stable with temp fluctuations.
    But as was stated, air is mostly nitrogen.
    It's free at my place and I don't bother using it, so I definetly would not pay for it.
    People who get a benefit from using nitrogen would probably also get a benefit from using an energy polarising crystal.
     
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