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Less susceptible to pressure changes due to heat I guess. You're really not getting 100% nitrogen since I would imagine the tires would have to be completely evacuated of "air" before filling with the nitrogen.
Okay for race cars I guess, total gimmick for any street use in my opinion. Plus, when you need to air up your trailer tires, are you actually going to look for a place with nitrogen? That's just laughable at best!
lol, yea it is a sales gimmick, makes me chuckle every time I see it. Air is almost 80 % nitrogen anyways so you could not even measure the difference for street cars / trucks except maybe at the cash register.
Just remembers, there will be suckers out there. See yall later, i'm going open a nitrogen tire filling station....I'll See everyone in my new viking in a few years..
Yup you guessed it, a gimmick. I am a technician and did a little experiment for my own knowledge. Filled 2 tires on my trailer with nitrogen and 2 with shop air. Test drove and measured the temp with an infared thermometer, no difference in temp at all. After a month I checked the pressure and found that the nitrogen filled tires lost more pressure than the "shop air" tires, 8 psi to be exact. That was enough for me, no nitrogen for my customers.
The reason I got suspicious was we were having repeated tire pressure light complaints when the ambient temperature dropped. This was supposed to be the solution but, in fact the complaints increased with the use of nitrogen because it was leaking out faster. Why, I don't know. I am now back working for Honda, and Honda's stance after their own research is that it does not have any benefit for the retail market. In commercial and aviation applications, yes it does have benefits. But the stresses and heat those tires have to endure are far greater than the average consumers tire will see in a lifetime.
Why can't I think of a reason that the Nitrogen would be less suseptable to leaking? I heard that in an ad the other day. I understand the temp/pressure claim, but not the claim of leaking less. I can't think of a good reason to use nitrogen for ground operations.
Interesting,
The sales concept started in the late 60's from a tire dealership that offered free nitrogen fill with a purchase of a new set of premium tires. I don't know if the same company is in business though. Anyway, the owner of the tire shop figured that since they were using nitrogen for airplane tires, why not for automotive uses? He felt that with nitrogen molecules being larger there would be less loss of "air" in the tires over time. Of course nitrogen handles pressure changes better than "air" but it may not make too much difference for the average user. It seems that there is a resurgence of interest in nitrogen filled tires. This information was in a magazine that was published for tire dealerships and was sitting on the coffee table while I was waiting for new tires.
Here is a newsletter where the EPA is sort of promoting nitrogen use: http://www.epa.gov/SmartwayLogistics...05e-update.pdf
It MIGHT be possible that if you do not wear your tires out by too much road wear, you MIGHT benefit by using nitrogen as it appears it may not deteriate the inside of the tire so quickly. But the exterior may deteriate due to oxidation / UV damage before you capitalize on the benefits of using nitrogen.
I bought a shop compressor from sears that always pumps out 78% nitrogen. I have had it for 15 years and it always pumps 78% nitrogen. I use it to put air in my tires, paint, even use it with air tools. Might not be 100% but it is good enough for me. I think I will email mythbusters and see if they will do a story on Nitrogen filled tires.
The fact that the gas is nitrogen and nitrogen is 78% of the atmosphere has nothing to do with its use in tires.
The advantage of using compressed nitrogen out of a bottle is that it has NO MOISTURE!
The use of compressed air out of a typical compressor has 100% relative humidity and water droplets are carried along with the air into the tire.
When the tire heats up, the moisture expands faster than dry air so the pressure rises higher than it should for the same rise in tire temperature.
I have tested this in my race car tires and find that it is true.
Nitrogen doesn't leak out any faster than compressed air and nitrogen tanks is usually the cheapest way to get dry air.
The race car teams use the same nitrogen bottles to power their air wrenches during pit stops. Compressed air carries water and that washes out the lubrication from the wrench internals and shortens their life.
The only benefit I can believe is that 100% nitrogen carries less moisture than regular "air". Could possible help with tire balance and prevent rusty steel rims.
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That is crap.
Which idiot told you that CO2 only makes up 0.039% of the atmosphere?
And there you have it. But it only matters if there is no filter on the compressor to remove excess moisture from the air, if air is used. And you need exposed areas of unprotected steel on the inside of the rim. Oxidation advances exponentially under pressure (a tire is about 2 atms, 1 atm being about 14.7 psi), but you need moisture to get oxidation started. Absent any moisture and an unprotected steel rim, there is no significant diff between 'air' and N2 in a tire.
A Few Dollars - 10/9/2007 11:21 AMThe only benefit ... prevent rusty steel rims.
And there you have it. But it only matters if there is no filter on the compressor to remove excess moisture from the air, if air is used. And you need exposed areas of unprotected steel on the inside of the rim. Oxidation advances exponentially under pressure (a tire is about 2 atms, 1 atm being about 14.7 psi), but you need moisture to get oxidation started. Absent any moisture and an unprotected steel rim, there is no significant diff between 'air' and N2 in a tire.
Is that pressure in the tire being measured as absolute- PSIA? In other words does your gauge read 14.7psi before you add any additional pressure. Or Is that pressure being measure as gauge pressure- PSIG? Your gauge reads zero before you fill the tire.So at PSI (gauge) a tire inflated to 29.4 psig would actually have 3 atmospheres, the one it started with, plus the two you added.All that BS aside, the only place where I have seen absolute pressure readings used, is in an industrial production setting. Just imagine for one moment trying to explain to the HS drop out that is installing your tires what is absolute pressure. Most of them read the gauge as 25# plus four little marks. Moisture in air being compressed is not removed via a filter, it is remove via a dryer. Compressed air dryers use either a descicant to collect the moisture or an intercooler to condense the moisture in warm compressed air. In a tire shop, the air is compressed and held in a volume tank. As the air cools in the tank, the moisture condenses, then collects at the bottom of the tank. It is then removed manually by "blowing the tank" or a little solenoid valve that does it on a timer. Or: As in most shops, not at all, until visible moisture starts blowing out the air lines. Used to be in the tire business myself, on a regular steel highway rim with tubeless tires, you will see very little rust, regardless of air used. Now off road tires like tractors, with tubes, now that's where you see lots of rust.Nitrogen in everyday tires, gimic.
__________________ Cape Horn 17, Yamaha F115
with
Elmo the Boat Dog
In race car tires, 100% nitrogen does make a difference. Personally I can't drive my tow rig and trailer at 100+ MPH long enough to notice the "benefit" of the extra 22% of Nitrogen.
As for moisture in the rim causing rust, last time I changed the tires of a tractor with steel rims and running 70% calcium filled tires (read concentrated salt mixture) there wasn't any rust to speak of. That is about as extreme of an environment that a steel rim and tire combination is going to encounter. I've NEVER had a tire fail because of rims rusting from the inside out, that is just another argument to get people to switch to Nitrogen, one that isn't a problem to begin with.
Moisture in shop air expands as it heats. Every compressor lets some condensation in the tire. Nitrogen does not. Stop at a gas station and top up and the effort is wasted.
The moisture causes the tires to run higher pressure at the SAME temprature. You don't need a heat sensor; you need a tire gage.
Most race cars run nitrogen for consistant pressures. For a boat trailer this seems like overkill unless the load is heavy and the haul is long.
Nitrogen filled tires 
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