Holy Mackeral!

 

um AIR is Free guys who wants to pay a few hunder bucks to fill up there tires with nitrogen and have to have a special tank when they do actually leak. for what its worth when your air does seep outta the tired a little and you loose Tire preshure add more AIR its Priceless why spend more money on pure nitrogen it sounds like a Scam to me and a total waste of money.

 

Im more concerned about a little helium in the super bowl football.

 

Don't have it in the Vette, but it came with my company truck. 16 months and the tire pressure in all 4 tires remains at 34lbs. If I get the chance, I'll have it installed in the Vette, but I'm not going out of my way, nor will I pay much for it.

 

Please Make This Go Away!

 

Not true.

Air is about 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, and 1% other gases.

Nitrogen complies with the laws of physics just the same as any other gas - i.e., it will expand and contract with changes in temperature, or, if in a confined space (such as a tire), the pressure will change with changes in temperature. All gases do that - check out Boyle's and Charles's Laws.

Planes do not use Nitrogen in the tires because of the large temperature changes (which they do experience in unheated/unpressurized wheel wells). The FAA requires that the tires on transport category aircraft (airliners) be filled at least 95% (the regulation actually says that the tire may not contain more than 5% Oxygen) with an inert gas such as Nitrogen.

A 777 or 747 have normal tire pressures for the main gear tires in the range of 195 psi. The wheels have "fuse plugs" which will melt to relieve the tire pressure so the tire won't explosively decompress in the event of an overheat of the tires due to hot brakes, or especially a wheel well fire with the gear retracted and the gear doors closed.

The pressure in the tire can increase up to something in excess of 1,000 psi before the tire explodes. The pressure will increase a great deal up to the point the fuse plugs melt to relieve the pressure.

If the tire had air in it (21% Oxygen) at several hundred psi, it would come out of the hole where the fuse plug melted and fan a fire in the wheel well like a blow torch.

If the tire is filled with an inert gas, such as Nitrogen, there won't be any Oxygen to aid in combustion. That's the main reason Nitrogen is used in aircraft tires.

Bob

 

Thanks for blowing away the "snake oil" fog.

 

What he said.....

 

Well, I called Big-O, and it is only $5.99 per tire, plus they evacuate the air prior to filling.

 

For free?!

I genuinely hope your $24.96 is well-spent.

 

What I heard it is the nitrogen source has to be at least 95% pure....94.5% won't cut it. The problem is most all suppliers cannot provide such a purity level.

IMO there would be some advantages to using nitrogen but for all practical purposes....it's not worth paying for. If you have a free and convenient source then use it.

 

I was considering doing it on my own. I always check the air in my tires every 2 weeks.

My new coupe from Boardwalk came with the tires already filled with it.

Why would a dealer do it for free, before you even asked for it? Must be some benefit to it or why would they bother? Air is free...

 

One benefit is that bottled Nitrogen is usually very dry. However, you can put a drier in your compressor line to dehumidify the air, such as you would do for spray painting.

Another benefit might be that you don't need a compressor - you just need a bottle of compressed Nitrogen. This might be a benefit in a racing pit, where you don't want high pressure air with Oxygen in it that could feed a fire.

Some feel that the real dry and inert Nitrogen will reduce corrosion in your wheels. I feel that I change my tires often enough on my C6's that the moisture just can't very well be kept out.

If you're going to DIY, you'd have to devise a way to suck the air out of the tire so you aren't just putting Nitrogen in with the air that's already in there. Maybe you've seen this other thread:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1849184

Scroll down to the picture with the "square" tire, where the machine has sucked the air out and collapsed the tire before putting Nitrogen in - you'd have a hard time doing that at home without a machine like that!

For the aircraft tires, they take the fuse plug out and blow Nitrogen into the tire to push all the air out. When they think all the air is out and has been replaced with Nitrogen they'll replace the fuse plug and pressurize the tire up to the prescribed pressure (as much as some 200 psi).

Bob

Forum member formerly known as "beezeye"

 

What I meant by doing it myself was taking it to "America's Tire Co.", to have them do it.

Thanks for the info, though!

 

And again. You would do this............ Why???? What documented benefits?

 

As you might have read in some of the pevious posts, we (Boardwalk Chevrolet) put nitrogen in all of our Corvette tires. The main reason we do it, is because it doesn't expand like air does and it doesn't react to temperature changes like air either. Plus I know a lot of Corvette owners at some point drive well over 100+ mph and it is safer at higher speeds.

 

Once again....we are done. As usual some people cannot stay away from their keyboard and post without any knowledge or personal experience.





funny thing is looking at the poll the people who posted "they have it and have noticed differences" didn't even post.....for the most part