Tire pressure - does nitrogen help?

[wardjhwtaw]

Does anyone use nitrogen to maintain consistent tire pressure?

 

[36654]

Does anyone use nitrogen to maintain consistent tire pressure?

No, but I only use Fiji water in the radiator of my water cooled R1200...

 

[Omega Man]

Does anyone use nitrogen to maintain consistent tire pressure?

There has been quite a few discussions about the use of nitrogen here on the forum, I can’t remember the exact consensus. For me, I would pass on the attempt. I’m of the opinion that the use of nitrogen does have benefits under optimal circumstances.
I have been excluded from optimal circumstances for some time now
OM

 

[jaachap]

Nitro

Does anyone use nitrogen to maintain consistent tire pressure?

I don’t have access to nitro but if I did I would absolutely use nitro in all tires. Being a lifelong aviator I know all aircraft tires are filled w nitro. Much more stable and not effected too much by heat and expansion

J

 

[lkraus]

There has been a lot of discussion on this topic. Pure nitrogen may have some benefits for racing and other critical applications, but although some tire shops have used it in my car tires, I could not detect a difference. For my purposes, a carefully selected gas mixture containing 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and a few trace gases works well and is readily available at a reasonable price.

 

[akbeemer]

I do not use nitrogen in any of our bikes, but did use it once in a car with good results. We lived in Fairbanks, Alaska and owned a 2006 Toyota 4Runner, We heated our garage with an oil furnance because we had a water holding tank in it; we kept it at 50 degrees. When we pulled out of the garage in the winter the temperature drop was often in the 75 degree range and sometimes over 100 degrees (outside temperature of -25 to -50 degrees). This resulted in the TPMS showing an alert, which in those days required a trip to the dealer to have the alert turned off. After many visits by many unhappy customers the dealer began using nitrogen in the tires of the cars they sold and would add more as needed. Once we had nitrogen added to the 4Runner we never had another alert. (Or perhaps the dealer just began disabling the TPMS)

 

[BC1100S]

For my purposes, a carefully selected gas mixture containing 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and a few trace gases works well and is readily available at a reasonable price.

I use the same mixture, give or take a percentage here and there.

 

[20774]

I'm going to change the context of the thread so it's clear that it's about more than tire pressure.

 

[1074]

Kurt,
The nitrogen thing IS about tire pressure. The post about temperature changes is one extreme example. The mention of aircraft tires is another.
But we're talking about extremes. The reason that nitrogen is used in aircraft tires is because 50 psi at sea level becomes much more at 35,000 feet. The temperature difference does not balance out the pressure. So in this case the stability of pure nitrogen is used.
The last car salesman I spoke to was telling me that the added accessory of nitrogen (at $1200) was an important safety consideration and I was a fool for not getting it if I were used to carrying children in the car! He further explained that the nitrogen molecules were larger in size and would not seep out of the rubber. I hope you all are impressed with this. He didn't mention that I had to go back to the dealer for nitrogen as the 7/11 didn't carry it.
So after careful consideration of this, knowing that I wouldn't be driving to Alaska or up to 30,000 feet and having experience with both car and motorcycle tires since the 60s; I figured that whatever advantage I would gain from pure nitrogen wasn't worth it. Not to mention the fear of contamination if I ever had to top off the air at one of those 7/11 money grabbing tire stations.

 

[greenmachine1100]

So funny!

Was just on a long drive the other night, thinking about my car tires. ( they are down 4-5 psi) and I started thinking, "Whatever happened to those nitwits who sold/bought nitrogen for their tires? Did it just fade like a fad?"
I guess it is still out there!

 

[179212]

Nitrogen

I always run a mix in my tires that’s 78% nitrogen

 

[easy]

Kurt,
The nitrogen thing IS about tire pressure. The post about temperature changes is one extreme example. The mention of aircraft tires is another.
But we're talking about extremes. The reason that nitrogen is used in aircraft tires is because 50 psi at sea level becomes much more at 35,000 feet. The temperature difference does not balance out the pressure. So in this case the stability of pure nitrogen is used.
The last car salesman I spoke to was telling me that the added accessory of nitrogen (at $1200) was an important safety consideration and I was a fool for not getting it if I were used to carrying children in the car! He further explained that the nitrogen molecules were larger in size and would not seep out of the rubber. I hope you all are impressed with this. He didn't mention that I had to go back to the dealer for nitrogen as the 7/11 didn't carry it.
So after careful consideration of this, knowing that I wouldn't be driving to Alaska or up to 30,000 feet and having experience with both car and motorcycle tires since the 60s; I figured that whatever advantage I would gain from pure nitrogen wasn't worth it. Not to mention the fear of contamination if I ever had to top off the air at one of those 7/11 money grabbing tire stations.

Unless you're on a race track it's probably more important to check your tire pressure often, and with a good gauge.

 

[jonnybow]

One of the funniest things about the dealership pushing the Nitrogen thing is that they can't "fill" a tire with Nitrogen unless they purge it first. Since the basic air valve on a tire doesn't have schrader valve capability, they can't.
What you'd get if they used Nitrogen in the tire is a slightly higher concentration of Nitrogen than regular outside air has, which is 78% as some folks above have said.

Yes, aircraft tires need it, folks who see crazy change in temperature might benefit from it but for most of us, it's a fad.

 

[gsaddict]

My mileage improved by 20% when I switched to nitrogen.
or was that nitro?