Bob jane are advertising filling tyres with Nitrogen. They say u get a smoother softer ride. It says that the Formula 1 guys are doing it & so are many other motorsport teams are doing it as well. Has anyone heard of this before???
regards
Jak

yup, guys also do it in their bikes (marathon guys ) apparently its not as easily effected by temprature changes.

Yep sure have

Aeroplanes have been doing it for years n years.

But dont ceramic coat them. HAHAHAHAH

Deffinate advantage, keeps yr wheels cooler and more stable.

with nitrogen you can run the tyres at a lower pressure also. good news on a 4x4. smoother ride. nitrogen does not expand with heat so the tyres stay at a constant pressure so less wear as well. i.e. your tyres last longer and you should't have to pump them up as often as with just air. to top them up you have to get the nitrogen guy and his bottle around. usually costs around $60 to fill and $25 to top up. cheers, fish

Um, horses for courses guy's. If your after performance, maybe yes, but for a stocker on the street I don't see any benefit.
With properly selected tyres and my very sedate driving style, neither the tyres on be '73 beetle or '77 bus ever get warm, even on long runs. They get more heat from the tar on a hot day!!
Just my 2 cents worth.

I'd think it could be worth the effort if you are racing/hillclimbing. I know that I was running some funky Pirelli's on my civic that after only about 5 laps of Lakeside were totally stuffed. They were so hot that they would scorch for fingers + the sidewall had gone a nice blue colour. A change to W1's was the answer for me but perhaps some nitrogen would have save me a set of tyres?

Jak, I'll bring out a G size nitrogen bottle at the next Porsche sprint day and we can all get a dose....for nuffin.

Why not some helium it will make your car lighter! Mitchell.

Yeah, but ya tyres will squeal!

I had nitrogen put in my tyres at Bob Jane for $6 a wheel. They haven't needed topping up in about 3000k.

I mentioned it on the American Vanagon mailing list and got guffawed off the screen by learned folks who said it was a scam. (I had repeated Bob Jane's rhetoric that the nitro molecules were larger so wouldn't leak out, and that it didn't expand with heat). I replied that Aussie nitrogen molecules were bigger than yank molecules (like most things here, Texas, for example, being about the size of the back paddock in an average Aussie cattle station) and that our nitro molecules, a hardy mob like us, were not bothered by heat. But later, some came back and said they knew of it, and that the advantage was through not having water vapour in the tyres - that's what expands when it gets hot.

In practice (this is on an 84 wasserboxer camper) I think there have been two changes. First, I think the tyres don't seem to expand so much, so do not increase in diameter, so she hangs on a bit better in fifth gear up gradients or into headwinds, but doesn't want to roll out past the cruising speed of 95k so much. Second, perhaps because the engine labours less, I got 18-19 mpg instead of 16-17, in three long trips (each about 1000k) recently.

Ah yes, and when kids ask about the bright red valve covers, I can tell them it means she runs on nitro, man.

Bob

Thanks very much for that Bob, most appreciatted.
regards
Jak

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/index.mv?photo+83328.jpg 

One reason tyres get hot is due to the side walls flexing and creating heat, so pump your tyres up more and you reduce the ability for the tyre to produce heat.

From someone who works in the aviation Industry nitrogen is used for two reasons one because its not affected as much by temp. and the main reason nitrogen does not contain water so no corrosion unless this is an issue save your money.

Hi

I guess that they would also use it aeroplanes because any water in the air in the tyres would freeze at altitude.

1302Steve

Aircraft tyres on landing go from frozen to bloody hot in an instant.

with nitrogen, the tyre is kept cooler and theres less chance of a tyre blowing and catching on fire.

Most of the "benefits" of inflating normal road tyres with nitrogen appear to relate to tyres inflated with air losing pressure as the oxygen leaks out and the deterioration to the carcass from water/oxygen reducing the number of times they can be retreaded.

Maybe an issue for a big commercial fleet, but for your ordinary car it's just got to be another way of parting you from your money!

Especially since normal air is 78% nitrogen anyway.

Nitrogen has an atomic weight of 14 and oxygen is 16, so nitrogen is smaller than oxygen. Nitrogen gas in the atmosphere is diatomic - two atoms of nitrogen - so nitrogen actually weighs 28. Oxygen is the same - 32. Therefore, a mixture of the two (air) is heavier than pure nitrogen, which should be EASIER to heat up. All gases expand as they are heated - that is a fundamental law of nature called Boyle's Law.

Yes it's the removal of water vapour that aircraft have a special mix in their tyres. Paying $$ to do this in your road car...hmmm.

You can get an increase of up to 30% extra tread life from normal road tyres by using nitrogen instead of normal compressed air.

This is due predominately to the reduced tendancy for N2 to leak ie ensuring the tyres maintain constant pressure and also to the fact that the tyres do not heat up as much and therefore remain harder decreasing the amount of wear on them



:vader

No offence, guys, but some of you seem to be quoting advertising... Nitrogen does expand with heat could leak through any hole that would allow air and has slightly lower conductivity than air (so it would actually hold more heat - if you were able to measure it.) Nitrogen is used in aircraft because it contains no water, it is inert (the heat in aircraft tyres can cause them to react with air) and it is a convenient, cheap source of such a gas. There were also theories of air reacting with rubber at extremely low temperatures, causing leakage - but I'm not sure they were ever proved. Try not to fall for "Volvo Theory."

Hmmm well if air is 82% nitrogen, then in my opinion that's enough for me. It may give the edge for formula one or superbikes, but I would prefer some beer for my money.

<scratching head>

Why would nitrogen NOT leak from a tyre where comp. air would?

Do ya get a set of steak knives with the fill-up!

plus suposidly the nitrogene tyres dont kneed filing up as often and also "allegedly" dont leak as easily

so if your VW "flies" then use it !!!!!


just a bad pun !

very bad Craig but half funny