NITROGEN TYRE INFLATION

Have had nitrogen in my m/cycle tyres for the last 2 years ,pressure has not varied in that time, B/JANE had $10 per wheel about 8/9 mths ago when fitted new tyres to trouble and strifes car,no pressure variations as yet ,would be a waste on my 4x4 as need to vary pressure for monthly beach trips ,

Rum pig,
have had nitrogen in my 295 BFGS AT'S for 10 months,have done 40,000klms hard driving," and as the publican says," the tyre pressure does not alter.I get them checked every 10,000klms .
regards,
baz.

Ordinary air from the petrol station compressor is about 80% nitrogen, and usually is filtered so it contains no moisture. About 18% of what comes out of the compressor is oxygen, and the remaining few percent is argon.

Aircraft use nitrogen in their tyres because of the tremendous heat generated when landing and braking: the tyres can get hot enough that the oxygen in an air-filled tyre can auto-ignite (ie the tyre explodes). By filling with nitrogen, and so removing most of the oxygen, this problem is greaty reduced. That's why truck use it and racing cars use it.

Apparenty oxygen inside a tyre accelerates the aging of rubber, but 99% of us will puncture the tyre or wear out the tread before it falls apart because of oxygen aging. Also, oxygen will diffuse out of the tyre a bit faster than nitrogen.

So, by using air you will need to check the pressure more often, but aside from that, I'm not sure why pure nitrogen is supposed to be SO much better, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was anything more than a way of getting you to pay $60 to get your tyres pumped up!

I have had Nitrogen in my BFG,s for 2 years - 40,000k.
Tyres never get got but thats just BFGs anyway - they all run cool. Maybe they run too cool cos they have slowly chipped away. Never added any air in that time. Honestly, for these type of tyres, I cant see any advantage.

Just my opinion

Sean

Just for interest for years I carried a D cyl of nitrogen in the back together with an air line and regulator for the bottle, good system and could inflate tyres faster than a service station, the bottle would do about 30 10x15 tyres from nil to 30 psi cost wise it was much cheaper than an expensive comp depending on use as a refill was only $40 and plus if the worst came to the worst you had a very efficient fire ext on board
victatwo

thanks for the help. very interesting about bob who you just never know what you are getting

Why would any of us pay for nitrogen unless we carry some CIG canisters - or whatever the equivalent is these days.....

Unlike almost all other tyre users 4wd'ers are required to fiddle with pressures regularly.

No question - pure Nitrogen is inert and more stable and both Gp and aircraft companies don't do it for bragging rights (which some of us in this forum do though) - but I don't think Bob Jane will be there to reinflate our tyres with Nitrogen between Suicide Pass and Madness Mountain.......