Nitrous in Tires???

[walleyemaniac]

Heard a couple guys talking today about filling their vehicle tires with nitrous.

$3/tire at most places

Suppose to help with milage and traction in cold weather.

First time I've heard anything of the sort!

Any truth to it, has anyone else heard of this.

I could see where nitrous might keep the tires cooler and maybe not melt down into the snow and ice as much, but with regular vehicles there's not that much load on the tires to get them to heat up. Any info, if any, would be appreciated.

[duckso67]

u might be thinking nitrogen... my truck tires are filled with nitrogen.. tire plus screwed up so i didnt pay for it but so far nice. nitrogen wont absorb water so no rust on inside of rims. also nitrogen is not affected by heat or cold. the tire psi stays same all the time...

[leech~~]

u might be thinking nitrogen... my truck tires are filled with nitrogen.. tire plus screwed up so i didnt pay for it but so far nice. nitrogen wont absorb water so no rust on inside of rims. also nitrogen is not affected by heat or cold. the tire psi stays same all the time...

Yep it's nitrogen, not sure that you would want to fill your tires with highly flamable gas! Blow-outs may turn in to blow-UP's!

[ted4887]

Basically the way it was explained to me when I was at a GM dealership, was that the nitrogen molecules are much smaller than oxygen molecules, thus the air won't leak out of your tires so much. When you maintain the correct air pressure in your tires, you are going to increase mileage, and I suppose it can give you better traction.

[highlife4me]

FYI nitrous oxide isn't really flammable, what is does is decreases the air temp making the air more dense thus more oxygen plus when it is heated to about 570 the molecule splits the oxygen from the nitrogen. The more oxygen you have the more fuel you can add thus more power.

[walleyemaniac]

Thanks guys don't know if it's worth it to me.

And ya nitrogen makes more sense, but they were calling it nitrous, thats what had me puzzled.

[hydro]

Basically the way it was explained to me when I was at a GM dealership, was that the nitrogen molecules are much smaller than oxygen molecules, thus the air won't leak out of your tires so much.

Did that actually make sense to you? Smaller gas molecules would have an easier time working through any path to escape the tire cavity and this cause more leakage. Exactly the oopposite of what was being claimed. Remember, air is 4/5 nitrogen to begin with so where is the great benefit?

Do a search for "Myths about nitrogen in tires" and read up on what it actually does. It sounds like a service writer at the dealership was trying to fatten their commission check on that one.

[harvey lee]

Many race car teams use nitrogen instead of air in their tires because nitrogen has a much more consistent rate of expansion and contraction compared to the usual air. Often, a half pound of pressure will radically affect traction and handling. With track and tire temperatures varying over the duration of a race, the consistency of nitrogen is needed.

Nitrogen pressure is more consistent than normal air pressure, because air typically contains varying amounts of moisture due to changes in the relative humidity on race day. Water causes air to be inconsistent in its rate of expansion and contraction. So, a humid race in the southeast United States or a dry race in the desert western United States could make for unpredictable tire pressures if "dry" nitrogen were not used.

[JWB475]

I fill my tires with 78% nitrogen. Works almost as well as 100% nitrogen, plus it is free

[hydro]

JWB, Is that the "Winter Mix" blend? I hear that you can get up to 23% better mileage on that when temps are below 32 drgrees F.

[PurpleFloyd]

It may be a benefit to a highly tuned race car at 200 MPH but it is not any more than a marketing gimmick for your every day ride.

I think helium will give you better mileage and it just might be the hot ticket this year so we can just "Float" over all of the slush on the lakes this winter.

[Macgyver55]

If you check your tires regularly its a non issue. If you are among the extremely high percentage of people who rarely if ever check their tires unless they look low, there is the negligible benefit of having them hold pressure slighly longer, and/or keep a more consistent pressure due to temperature.

That said, I wouldnt pay to have it, but where I buy my tires its included.

[CAMAN]

JWB, Is that the "Winter Mix" blend? I hear that you can get up to 23% better mileage on that when temps are below 32 drgrees F.

LOL!! No its the year-round blend, in fact it's the blend you're breathing right now!

[croixflats]

Highlife-for me and harvey lee nice explanations.

I personally have not used it but a guy I work with claims it helps with his mileage. Then again he also adds an additive to his gas and between the two he claims to get 21mpg out his 5.3 chevy truck.

I'm a weary about claims that boost mileage, put all theses claims that add ons do on your truck and you should be getting 52mpg. Some do make sense like air filters for better flow but beyond that it gets questionable.

[delcecchi]

Isn't nitrous also "laughing gas" so you could huff the gas from your tires and feel good?

[croixflats]

Get kinda disy doing that even before you get a wiff

[harvey lee]

We use what I call hospital nitrogen as it has very little for water molecules in it. The water molecules is what can raise the air temp in the tires and can also change the tire size and change ones stagger in a race car tire.

I do not use it in my vechiles as I do not know if there would be much if any benefit.

[delcecchi]

Get kinda disy doing that even before you get a wiff

You have to remember to stop the car first.

[Tom7227]

When I was working on C130's we put it in the airplane tires. Claimed benefit there was that the tires would last longer. Don't know if it worked.

One goofball wanted to put it in his bike tires so they would last longer. Problem was that the tanks were 3,000 psi. I set the regulator incorrectly and he got it a bit past the 30 psi he was looking for. Sounded like a shotgun went off and the guy jumped about 10 feet.

I still laugh at the thought of that one. Art Christopherson.

[leech~~]

Isn't nitrous also "laughing gas" so you could huff the gas from your tires and feel good?

Maybe but watching you suck on your tire valves would make me laugh and feel good!

[bikeoutback]

between the two he claims to get 21mpg out his 5.3 chevy truck

Ha ha ha, I'm calling [PoorWordUsage] on that one. I've got a 5.3 in my chevy crew cab and best I ever got was 18.5mpg. That was all highway at a reasonable speed with a tailwind the entire time on my way to the Dells. These days with all the 4 wheel drive I've been using I'm happy when it's averaging out over 14mpg. And I have a K&N air filter and it's not to increase my gas mileage it's simply cause I can clean it instead of replacing = cheaper in the long run.

Recall hearing about nitrogen but figured it was a gimmick. My air compressor works just fine for me and I check my tires monthly. The wife's jeep has an air tire pressure sensor and it's annoying. Her PSI drops from 35 down to 32 and the darn thing comes on. Nice to know but a pain on me as it seems I'm always putting air in her tires. Hopefully her new tires will take care of that though. By the way they did come up with a solution for people that don't check tire pressure regularly = air pressure sensors = +$$$$ cause the valve stems cost more according to the tire place.

[Jeremy airjer W]

By the way they did come up with a solution for people that don't check tire pressure regularly = air pressure sensors = +$$$$ cause the valve stems cost more according to the tire place.

If there charging you for "valve stems" your getting taken to the cleaners! If there installing new TPMS seal kits that's a different story. So far I have found it is not necessary to replace the seal kits when replacing tires.

If a tire is constantly going low than you have a leak. If all the tires are going low when it gets cold that's normal. Think of it this way, every time the light comes on to warn you of low tire pressure your saving money. One because you inflate them back to the proper spec which saves fuel and the other is it prevents you from potentially running the tire flat and ruining it.

[bikeoutback]

airjer, I know that the place I got the tires from it was an added $3 per tire - possibly for seal kit? I know the other tire place wanted something like $10 per tire for the extra parts and labor they said.

The tires were getting rock punctures and holding the rock = slow leaks and I think the cold weather was affecting it. Just was funny cause wife would leave for work and say the sensor was on, at lunch it would be off and on way home from work depending on what time it could be on or off. It must have been bordering on that 1 psi up and down due to temp that causes the sensor to go off, I'm not sure how sensitive those things are, alls I know is I constantly got "are you going to check my tires again". Oh well.

[St_Croix_Banks]

I just had some new BF Goodrich KO's put on my F350 which I park both outside and inside in a heated garage during the winter. I think Tire Proz charged me about $5 per tire for Nitrogen. I thought I might see a benefit since my truck is changing climates frequently. I will be paying attention this winter/spring to see. I appreciate the above commentary.

[LightningBG]

I think Harvey has it right on.

Look at it like this....

Regular Air:

70 degree fall afternoon, you fill to 35psi. 5 days latter it drops to 25 degrees in the morning when you leave for work. Your driving at 30 psi because the air is so much colder (these numbers are made up, just to emphasize the idea).

Nitrogen:

70 degree fall afternoon, you fill to 35psi. 5 days latter it drops to 25 degrees in the morning when you leave for work. Your driving at 34 psi because the nitrogen is so much colder, but doesn't change that much.

With all that being said... I still run regular air.

[delcecchi]

I think Harvey has it right on.

Look at it like this....

Regular Air:

70 degree fall afternoon, you fill to 35psi. 5 days latter it drops to 25 degrees in the morning when you leave for work. Your driving at 30 psi because the air is so much colder (these numbers are made up, just to emphasize the idea).

Nitrogen:

70 degree fall afternoon, you fill to 35psi. 5 days latter it drops to 25 degrees in the morning when you leave for work. Your driving at 34 psi because the nitrogen is so much colder, but doesn't change that much.

With all that being said... I still run regular air.

Air is 80% nitrogen. And PV=NRT so the pressure vrs temperature response of air and nitrogen is identical anyway.

There is conceivably some reason for nitrogen over air but I'm not sure what it is. Control fire?