IIRC, the main advantages of nitrogen are that a) it doesn't expand as
much (or at all? Can't remember) as much as regular air does and b)
doesn't absorb moisture. Really, for 99.9% of drivers out there, just
finding good quality air that doesn't get your face wet when you spray
it on you is really good enough. Moist air + tire rubber = bad. I know
out here on the carrier we fill all our planes' tires with nitrogen, but
that's because the tires get very very very hot very rapidly when they
land on a carrier, and they're already filled up way high (>150psi) to
withstand a carrier landing. Air filled tires would virtually be
guaranteed to explode due to rapid pressure increase from heat.
Mostly, us SHO people don't have to worry about that. Except maybe
George F. I hear he's done some pretty crazy S*** with his... (general
lee?) anyway, um, yeah... I guess really you'd be just as well off using
dry air, and filling it up often!
Jason
-----Original Message-----
From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net
[mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of
av8r567@optonline.net
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 1:24 PM
To: shotimes@autox.team.net
Subject: [Shotimes] Nitrogen-filled tires
I know we talked about this on the list a while back.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060731/ap_on_bi_ge/nitrogen_tires
"Skeptics will question how much can be gained by filling tires with
pure nitrogen when the air we breathe is 78 percent nitrogen."
Being a skeptic (and an engineer) I will and do question this. Correct
me if I'm wrong, but when a tire is mounted on a rim, doesn't "regular
air" get trapped inside???? Even if pure Nitrogen is used to "pop" the
tire bead onto the rim there's still "regular air" inside that will be
mixed with the Nitrogen. Soooo, you don't end up with a tire filled
with 100% Nitrogen. The only way to ensure 100% Nitrogen inside the
tire is if the tire mounting machine were inside a sealed room filled
with Nitrogen and the installer had to wear an Oxygen mask. Is that
what the tire dealer purchases for $3,000 to $12,000 dollars? What am I
missing here?
What if it's Sunday night and my tire(s) are a few psi low? If the
local Gas 'n Sip doesn't have Nitrogen, then what good is having
Nitrogen in my tires?
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