Nitrogen filled tires

[pwb01]

My Rockwood came with Nitrogen filled radial tires. I figured that there is no way I'm going to hook up and look for someone with nitrogen to top off the air pressure. Afterall, air is 80% nitrogen anyway.

I'm starting my third season and after all summer and winter, again, the tires were only down a couple of lbs again, that's all. I did top them off with my compressor but maybe there is someting to Nitrogen fill.

Any experience with them?

[PanamaRvers]

If you have easy access to a nitrogen fill, go ahead and use the nitrogen. I would not worry to much about staying with nitrogen if it is not easy to find or refill. The biggest advantage of nitrogen is less bleed thru, meaning less refills. If you can easy refill the tires, just use normal air.

[mainah]

Originally Posted by pwb01

My Rockwood came with Nitrogen filled radial tires. I figured that there is no way I'm going to hook up and look for someone with nitrogen to top off the air pressure. Afterall, air is 80% nitrogen anyway.

I'm starting my third season and after all summer and winter, again, the tires were only down a couple of lbs again, that's all. I did top them off with my compressor but maybe there is someting to Nitrogen fill.

Any experience with them?

You nailed it there is plenty of nitrogen in normal breathable air. If air is made up of many things and nitrogen is not how can it be any less likely to leak? I have all ways questioned the nitrogen group about how do you get the air that's in a new tire out in order to put nitrogen in? Even a flat tire has air in it. It's primary use is in aircraft tires because it does not promote combustion that makes sense.

[dtstanton]

I wonder about the drying effect of N2 in tires. Nitrogen is used all the time commercially/industrially to remove moisture and keep moisture out of various closed systems. I wonder how detrimental this could be to the rubber over time. Even if N2 is available, I personally think I'll keep plain ole air in my tires - with whatever moisture it provides.

[mainah]

Originally Posted by dtstanton

I wonder about the drying effect of N2 in tires. Nitrogen is used all the time commercially/industrially to remove moisture and keep moisture out of various closed systems. I wonder how detrimental this could be to the rubber over time. Even if N2 is available, I personally think I'll keep plain ole air in my tires - with whatever moisture it provides.

I guess if one is concerned about rubber and moisture it would not be a good ideal to drive around in the rain. I have changed thousands of tires and I really have never seen rims rusted on the inside to any extent frankly I think is a real good way to sell little green valve caps for a ridicules price. I used to use nitrogen in A/C systems to check for leaks because it was dry and could be safely released afterwards and a huge cylinder was only about $15 to refill I’m sure that price has changed but it's still pretty cheap and you could fill a lot of tires with one cylinder.

[dtstanton]

Originally Posted by mainah

I guess if one is concerned about rubber and moisture it would not be a good ideal to drive around in the rain.

I wouldn't be concerned about the moisture, but the lack of moisture - removing the moisture from the rubber. Moisture is a good thing.

At a previous job at a chemical plant, we used N2 regularly for removing moisture from chemical process lines and equipment after servicing/repair. Any moisture at all can have grave consequences in some processes.

Yes, it's great for leak-checking refrigeration systems too, and will keep moisture out of them as well as remove any that might not have gotten evacuated completely for whatever reason.

[GWildey]

Nitrogen is also used in NASCAR. I think that is why everybody is using this as a marketing tool. Again as was mentioned because of it's quality of having no moisture. In NASCAR as a tire on the race track is used for a while it heats up quite a lot with cornering and braking and if there is any moisture in the tire it will expand and change the size of the tire and thus dynamics of the race car's handling. Your trailer tires does not heat up very much at all because they just roll following the tow vehicle, not the heavy turning and braking a race car will endure.

[mainah]

Bottom line check your tire pressures every once in awhile and leave the N2 to those that have a need. Ignoring pressures because you have nitrogen in the tires is just as bad as not checking tires with air in them.