Has anyone done this yet? I heard a Radio Commercial saying that companies out there are using Nitrogen in place of regular Air in vehicle tires. Apparently it saves fuel cost.... I guess by cutting overall weight?

would it not be a lot easier to use lighter panels?
I mean, how much weight can you actually save by using nitrogen instead of air?
And when taking into consideration that ordinary air consists of about 78% Nitrogen anyway, the point of making big deal out of having it in tyres seems to me pretty pointless.

Not by overall weight. The city of Mesa and Tempe (Arizona) converted over to nitroen-fill tires and are proposing to save 3.xx million annually. Cox communications here in AZ is doing the same to all their fleet vehicles.

The military has been using nitrogen in aircraft for years. I have a buddy who works for ford, and I now have nitro-filled tires. Thus far, even with a few curb hops, Ive yet to drop from the 35psi that was initially put into the tire.

The biggest idea is to keep wearing even, lose less nitrogen than you would compressed air over time due to molecule size, and since there is "no" air in the tire, you eliminate oxidation inside the tire, increasing its longevity.

NitrogenMan Nitrogen Tire Inflation
This is a local business that will coonvert you over to nitrogen, or do mobile servicings.

Indy and or F1 only run nitrogen, and I believe nascar does too, but dont quote me on that.

Bottom line for me--If its good enough for indy cars, c-130s, and police cars/fleet vehicles, its worth me trying it out on my f150. Especially since it was free

Garrett

I did a bunch of research on this when I first heard about it a couple of years ago. The only benefits that I've found are:

1. Nitrogen doesn't corrode the inside of your rims like compressed air which contains water particles unless run through a dryer.

2. Nitrogen takes up less space so you can have a lot more of in a smaller tank than the equivalent amount of compressed air. This is the reason the race teams use it in the pits.

I could find no evidence of any of the other claims being true. My take on it is the tire service companies are using it to lure unsuspecting customers into reliance upon them. I actually overheard an employee at one such place tell a customer that once they had nitrogen in their tires, they could only use nitrogen going forward. That's just complete BS and I called him on it. He wasn't able to explain why, just that was what he was told to say.

Thanks garrett!
I am a big fan of F1 and should have known that
Do you think they have it in Le Mans cars as well?

I used to road race, and the reason that you use nitrogen in tires is that air will expand as it gets hot and nitrogen does not. When the air expand's the tire pressure will go up and now the tire will be out of shape and the car will not handle the same.

Sharkdive

One more thing. If you use nitrogen in your tires you can not use air. The reason that it is good for the street is that people do not check their tire's.

The reason that we use nitrogen in the pits is that it is easier to have just one tank for the tires and for the air guns. Nitrogen is better to use that is not BS, but you do have to take all the air out and then put in the nitrogen. You can put air in it but if you do you have just lost all the benefits of the nitrogen, because the air will expand.

I kept trying to opst a FAQ I found about nitrogen tires and this is the type of information that was available. Thanks for posting...Dont know why my replies got stuck at waiting to post for 10 minutes. Heh.

Garrett

Nitrogen filled tires is for the lazy amongst us

Nitrogen itself, does not directly give you better mileage. YOU do. If you are diligent about monitoring your tires and pressure that is. Here is where most people fail. Being a Aircraft Mechanic, I actually do weekly detailed visual inspections on all my vehicles. This includes checking/serving tires. Just anal that way I guess. A lot people check their tire pressure when the tire "looks" low. That is too late! Low pressure --> bad mileage.

Now... there are some properties of Nitrogen that are beneficial, but not required for the average Joe to take advantage of.

Less leakage with nitrogen due to the natural effusion tires exhibit. Air is passed through the tire more easily then nitrogen. A good example is the old grade school science experiment where a balloon filled with low molecular weight hydrogen left alone for a some time deflates faster than a like balloon full of higher molecular weight oxygen. I forget the particular gas, but if you fill a balloon with it, it will actually grow! (outside air effuses in to the balloon) End result... tires stay inflated much longer than those filled with plain old air. My GMC is plain old air and loses about 1 psi a month. My Toyota & VW... still do not need servicing.

Tires are more temperature stable than with plain air. End result... better wear on the tire. Not really appreciable for John Q. Public.

Tire degradation/corrosion due to the inherent moisture in plain air (normal shop air/service station air is not dried)

And YES.. you can mix plain old air and nitrogen. You just lose the (minute) benefits of the nitrogen.

It does not make sense to pay to convert to nitrogen filled tires IF you are diligent about maintaining/servicing your tires. I wouldn't do it unless it was offered to me for free. Now if you are talking about aviation or racing... that is a different and much harsher environment for tires.

Just my 2 cents from personal experience: I got new tires from Costco 10k miles ago which they filled with Nitrogen. I've got a 2005 Toyota 4Runner. I honestly can't say that I've seen any performance/fuel saving benefits from this. If it does work for others then more power to you!

I think the question is have you seen a decline in performance and or fuel economy versus having compressed air filled tires?

I dont think this is an "instant" fuel economy solution. This is something that will pay off over the long-haul.

It's been 7 months and I haven't seen any difference + or - in performance or fuel economy. I had to add a bit of air to one tire, didn't seem to change anything. I've been commuting about 30+ miles a day and then more on the weekends.

It's my belief that nitrogen allows a tyre to run at a lower overall operating temperature as the nitrogen doesn't expand or react to heat like air does.

As you know, air expands with heat, so the longer you run a tyre on a hard surface, the warmer it becomes, this warming of the rubber expands the air inside and lifts the set pressure by a few PSI, the hotter the tyre, the higher the PSI will climb. The harder the tyre becomes the more heat it generates.

This can also cause a ballooning effect on the tyre as well, effectively running it on the centre section of it's tread. This narrowing of the "footprint" will then increase the heat build up, so as you can see, prolonged running in a situation like this will be detrimental.

It could evenually get to a point where the tyre may blow out. People who live in the warmer areas of the world will have noticed all the blowout debris along the roadside, and those who live in the cooler areas will notice much less of this kind of thing.

I saw a program a while back where Jay Leno was running a car on a race track at very high speed, after they got to a certain point in the testing, they switched out the air in the tyres for nitrogen, thus extending the safety margin and making it possible to run at higher speeds for longer, with relative safety.

I don't see nitrogen as being practical for day to day running, where your tyres are only just becoming warm by the time you get to your intended destination.

Should you regularly make long haul runs, carry weight, or live in a warm climate, it could then be viewed as being practical.

People living in the cooler regions would likely benefit from staying with air inflation, as it would aid in warming the tyre.

Horses for courses I guess.

I've had nitrogen in my tyres for a few years now and I have only had to get them regassed once (when I got new tyres). It does help with reduced/even wearing, and as my tyres are about $600 each I need all the help I can get.

Dambit,
Dude, you need to get a better car.
Dan

It's a high performance car. Unfortunately that means unreasonably high price for upkeep.