[align=center][/align][align=center]Filling Tires with Nitrogen Gas
Pat Goss & MCF `Space : )
[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Tire technology changes at an amazing rate. One of the things that engineers figured out is if you make the sidewall of the tire shorter, it gives better traction, goes around corners better, because it's stiffer. Well, fifteen years ago this was a high performance tire (right). Today we can see that the side wall on this one (left) is very short, works extremely well, handling is amazing and they wear better than older designs as well, but there are some problems when it comes time to have those tires mounted onto your wheels.[/align][align=center]You have to look for some special equipment. One of the first things to look for is a tire machine that has rubber pads like this Hunter unit has. These rubber pads actually extend out into the wheel, like that, they clamp the wheel from the inside, and they don't damage the wheel. Now, a lot of machines out there, they have little metal points on them, they leave marks in your expensive wheels. Look for the rubber units![/align][align=center]Now here's something that's relatively new, something you should be looking for, this is nitrogen and nitrogen in tires has a number of advantages, but one of its biggest advantages is that it's dry. Whenever you fill a tire off of a regular air supply there will be moisture in that air. Moisture can corrode the wheels, it can damage the sensors if you happen to have a tire pressure monitoring system on your car, all of these things. Nitrogen is completely dry! [/align]But, a couple of things: number one, if you have nitrogen in the tires, you should have valve stem caps, or something that identifies it, like green markings on the caps, so that anybody knows that there is nitrogen in the tires. Also make sure that the repair shop has a nitrogen tester. This will tell if the nitrogen they're putting into your tires is a proper concentration, without that you might get air. [align=center]And finally, no matter what you have in your tires, the most important single thing that you can do is routinely monitor air pressure. Use a high quality gauge and do it at least once a month, it makes all the difference in how long your tires wear.
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[/align][align=center]If you have a question or comment, write to me. Not `Space
The address is MotorWeek, Owings Mills, MD, 21117.[/align]

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[align=center]Has any MCF Members done this to their Tires ?[/align][align=center]Please post & Share your cost & Experiences doing this.[/align][align=center]Thanks in advance 4 your post.[/align][align=center]Are you going 2 do it ?[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align]

 

[:-]More Infor Found on Subject [:-]

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[blockquote][/blockquote][align=center]By TOM ZUCCO, Times Staff Writer
and MCF `Space : )
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[/align][align=center]Gassing up your car is about to take on a new meaning.[/align][align=center]Fill your tires with pure nitrogen and you'll get better gas mileage, advocates of the practice say. Your tires will be safer, and they'll last longer.[/align][align=center]A colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that makes up about 78 percent of the Earth's atmosphere, nitrogen could cost you as much as $10 a tire. But what you save on gas, tire replacement and peace of mind will make up the difference, according to the pitch.[/align][align=center]Already, retailers like Costco and Olin Mott stores offer nitrogen, and Pep Boys has test-marketed it.[/align][align=center]Starting Saturday, buyers of all new cars sold at select Crown dealerships in the Tampa Bay area will find their tires filled with nitrogen. Eventually, all 13 dealerships will offer it.[/align][align=center]The thinking is that nitrogen's larger molecules prevent it from seeping out of a tire as quickly as air. So inflating tires with nearly pure nitrogen - which has been done for years in race cars, commercial airliners and long-distance trucks - allows them to retain correct pressure longer.[/align][align=center]Pressure is vital because a properly inflated tire is a safer, more efficient tire. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says most drivers can improve gas mileage by nearly 3 percent by keeping their vehicle tires within the recommended pressure range. The government also estimates the nation loses more than 2 million gallons of gas every day due to underinflated tires.[/align][align=center]Enter nitrogen. Chemical No. 7 on your periodic chart of the elements. At anywhere from $2 to $10 per tire.[/align][align=center]Besides attracting customers and addressing safety concerns, it's a way to fight inflation. Or rather, the lack of it, said Jim Myers, Crown's chief operating officer.[/align][align=center]"The whole theory is that air bleeds through the tire slowly," Myers said. "And if someone isn't diligent, any tire will lose air over time. But because of nitrogen's properties, that doesn't happen as quickly."[/align][align=center]Myers said Crown will also offer to replace air with nitrogen on any vehicle for $39.[/align][align=center]What happens if tire pressure drops and the driver is not near a garage or tire store that sells nitrogen?[/align][align=center]Topping off with compressed air won't hurt, tire experts say, and the tire can be purged and refilled with nitrogen later.[/align][align=center]So should motorists feel ... pressured to put nitrogen in their tires?[/align][align=center]"It sounds like it has mostly positive points," said Randy Bly, director of community relations for AAA Auto Club South in Tampa. "Nitrogen helps keep tires cooler under open highway conditions, and it's less likely to leak out, so that would help with fuel mileage.[/align][align=center]"The only negative would be the cost. But it may well be worth it."[/align][align=center]Nitrogen-filled tires stay inflated about three times as long as than air-filled tires, advocates say, and while a typical tire inflated with compressed air might lose 2.7 pounds of pressure monthly, one filled with nitrogen loses 0.7 pound.[/align][align=center][b]But Jim Davis, public relations manage

 

Nitrogen-Filled Tires for the People
by Steve, Monday,


[/align]N2Revolution is the name of a company that is pushing its new product, "PurigeN98". It's effectively nitrogen gas (98%) used to fill automobile tires.

The company claims that using nitrogen has advantages over compressed air, in that nitrogen doesn't cause rubber to oxidize, and that moisture in the air also damages rubber.

Filling tires with de-oxygenated air has been in use with racing cars and on Air Force One. The company plans to bring this technology to the masses, through service stations equipped with "Nitroflators".


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[/align][align=center]Some local stores filling car tires with nitrogen
[/align][align=center]By Jay Wilson
DAILY Business Writer
jwilson@decaturdaily.com · 340-2440 [/align][center][size=4]Brian's Tire & Service, a new business at 3025 U.S. 31 S., is filling tires with nitrogen instead of oxygen.
"I'm always looking to be the first to do something," said owner Brian Lombardino.
Race cars and airplanes have used tires inflated with the gas for decades.
Lombardino said nitrogen is an inert or slow-moving gas that has no moisture. The gas has larger molecules than oxygen. These two facts combine to make nitrogen more efficient for use in automobile and other tires, he said.
Moisture causes tire pressure to be susceptible to temperature changes. As the car is driven, the tires heat up, and the tire pressure increases.
Oxygen's smaller molecules seep out of tires more easily, causing a gradual loss of pressure. Nitrogen avoids this problem, creating a constant tire pressure, Lombardino said.
"I'm upset I didn't know about it sooner," Lombardino said.
He has been in the tire business since he started at Goodyear on Sixth Avenue Southeast. That was about 17 years ago. He has owned a store since he opened Brian's Tire & Service in Huntsville about 1993.
The constant pressure wears more evenly, and tires last longer than those that wear unevenly, Lombardino said.
Properly inflated tires also increase fuel economy.
Lombardino said he may have been the first to use the gas locally, but others followed suit as the major tire manufacturers, including Michelin and Goodyear, approved the use of nitrogen.
Manufacturer approval means the tire warranty remains intact with the use of nitrogen.
But tire dealers are not changing quickly.
Larry Hollaway, manager at Goodyear on Sixth Avenue, said he didn't know enough about it, but he didn't think it was that big a deal.
"It's supposed to last three to five times longer and reduce the need to check air pressure," he said. "It probably has a few advantages."
He said Goodyear has not planned to use the gas, but it might be something that the industry turns to in the future.
[b][font="times new roman,serif"]Curtis Hopper, assistant manager at Minor Tire and Wheel on Sixth Avenue,

 

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[/align]Dear `Space : )
I caught a segment on some car show about modding up your car. One of the things they mentioned was the benefit of filling your tires with nitrogen instead of air. Considering I fill my tires with air and don't have much of a problem constantly refilling them, what is the straight dope on nitrogen in car tires? — Dave from Massachusetts
Cecil replies:
Oh, there are plenty of benefits: (1) Cool fluorescent green valve stem caps (assuming your nitrogen vendor has any marketing savvy), which will look sharp with your spinning wheel covers. (2) Bragging rights. OK, you were behind the curve with cell phones, iPods, thong underwear, etc. Nitrogen in tires is relatively new to the mass market. Now's your chance. (3) Reduced fire danger next time you land your space shuttle or commercial aircraft, and tell me you won't sleep better knowing that.
Most tires are filled with compressed air, which when dry consists of about 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and 1 percent other gases by volume. Water vapor (humidity) can make up as much as 5 percent of the volume of air under worst-case conditions. Filling your tires with nitrogen mainly does two things: it eliminates moisture, and it replaces skinny oxygen molecules with fat nitrogen molecules, reducing the rate at which compressed gas diffuses through porous tire walls. That means, theoretically at least, that a tire filled with nitrogen retains optimal pressure longer, leading to more uniform tire wear and better gas mileage. The commonly quoted figure is that tires inflated to 32 psi get 3 percent better mileage than at 24 psi.
Does nitrogen make any practical difference? You couldn't prove it by me. I found no scientific tests showing that nitrogen-filled tires stayed inflated longer than average under normal conditions. A car-buff buddy was sure it worked but conceded he had only anecdotal evidence that it did.
As for moisture, changes in humidity affect tire performance two ways. First, the density of humid air fluctuates more with temperature than that of dry air, so removing humidity can keep your tire pressure more consistent, especially when the temperature climbs over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That may be a legitimate concern in Formula One racing, but it's not much of an issue if you're just tooling around town.
Humidity can also be a factor in wheel maintenance — since pure nitrogen doesn't have moisture in it, supposedly your wheels won't rust as quickly, which could lead to improved wheel performance and air sealing. The question is, how big a problem is wheel rust these days? According to a few tire and wheel shops we contacted, not very. Seriously rusted wheels are uncommon in typical steel-wheeled cars, and many high-performance cars have alloy wheels that don't rust at all. One exception is work vehicles such as dump trucks, which are exposed to a much harsher environment.
Another claim I've seen is that since nitrogen is slightly lighter than air, you'll save weight and get better performance. However, we're talking about a weight difference of less than 4 percent of the gas in the tire — in other words, a difference of less than an ounce for most vehicles. A possibly more realistic benefit is that nitrogen is largely inert chemically at low (i.e., normal) temperatures, so it won't attack the rubber in your tires like oxygen does. Oxygen attack is something both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Ford Research have studied, and can be a problem for tires used for a long time or in rough conditions.
[b]More important, nitrogen doesn't support combustion, which is one reason aircraft and the space shuttle u

 

I had this done at Saturn of Fond du Lac about 3 weeks ago. My front tires always needed a fillup about once a week, and I need to do it again, but it took 3 weeks this time.

Cost $40 but it is well worth it. As long as I have my new tires put on the car there I get to have them refilled for free for the life of the car.

Well I plan on keeping this one for probably the next 20 years (too much sentimental value pissing off the ex-wife), and I'll always be getting my tires done there.

 

Well, Interestingly enough we use them on our blackhawks. And we use them for those exact reasons. The nitrogen prevents any type of corrosion, and also is alot more predictable and stable. Unfortunately, this method has not caught on in the civilian world, as it is too expensive for "Joe Shmo Auto Repair" to keep cylinders on hand. However, in the future, this will be the prime way to fill your tires. I give the automotive industry another 6-10 years before we start seeing them at the gas station down the street.

But, that was a great article Space! And if you had the extra money, getting a small cylinder of nitrogen and filling your tires would definitely be the way to go.

 

i do think nitrogen is better than air, but i dont see the cost to benifet being worth it.

pressure fluctuations? as much as i'd like to think, my monte is not actually a race car :P if you have a tire that goes low in less than a month youre going to have a leak that wont be too hard to find, and nitrogen doesnt stop a leak, just slows it down. oxidizing rubber? ive never had my tires rot out from the inside, usually i wear down the tread. oxidizidation on aluminum rims, yea, but it takes years. and it only takes me an extra 10minutes to take it off the bead when replacing a set of tires.

as for the wave of the future, i think michelins 'twheel' and other variations of the sort will eventually make pnumatic tires obsolete.

 

[align=center]"Remember,tires areonly part of the vehicle that touches the road."[/align][align=center]Why ?[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Whenever you fill a tire off of a regular air supply there will be moisture in that air. Moisture can corrode the wheels, it can damage the sensors if you happen to have a tire pressure monitoring system on your car, all of these things. Nitrogen is completely dry! [/align]