nitrogen vs air

[kraazie8]

i have found what i thought was a ploy to be true, nitrogen gets 1 mpg better than air on my truck. yeah i know its only 1 mpg, but hey at 3.29 a gallon every bit counts right?

[Caforddude]

Yep every bit counts.

Prolly notice the difference because the nitro filled tires will stay "filled" longer then air because of the bigger molecules. If you were the kind of person to always check your air filled tires and ALWAYS kept them properly aired you would probably not see any difference.

[Paralyzer]

if i fill my tires with helium my truck can fly and i get 100mpg.

[DarrenWS6]

Originally Posted by Paralyzer

if i fill my tires with helium my truck can fly and i get 100mpg.

[Patman03SprCrw]

try using hydrogen, its the best!!!










(kidding)

I have nitrogen in my tires, didnt notice any significant gain or loss

[zeruin]

nitrogen wont give you better gas mileage.. more psi will give you better gas mileage.. your "1mpg" increase was more than likely a psuedoincrease associated with simply putting more pressure in the tires.. mind you, there is very little difference in the composition of "air" in comparison to nitrogen.. air is naturally about 80% nitrogen to begin with.. so how can you assume that a 20% assumed variance will increase your mpg that substantially?

anywho.. consider this.. the atoms of nitrogen are larger than oxygen and etc, and oxygen and other elements only amounts to less than 20% of the air around us.. so say you regularly inflate your tire to about 30psi (24psi nitrogen/ 6psi oxygen/etc) and you had a drop in about 5psi/yr.. due to the molecular size of nitrogen, your losing about 4psi oxygen/etc and only about 1psi of nitrogen.. this brings you to (23psi nitrogen / 2psi oxygen/etc).. so you refill with regular air up to 30 psi, and now your at 27psi nitorgen/ 3psi oxygen/etc.. this could go onand on.. but in theory, after time (about 1-2years) you would naturally be running your tires on fairly pure nitrogen anyways from using air at the pump alone..

fact of the matter is.. nitrogen alone just wont increase your mpgs.. atleast not to any extent on passenger vehicles..

[pos racing]

but nitrogen fluctuates less than compressed air to temp changes.

[zeruin]

meh..

nitrogen does a lot of things.. but like i said.. it already about 80% of the air you put in your tire.. over a couple of inflations, the air in your tire would nearly be pure nitrogen anyways, due to the permeability of oxygen over nitrogen..

[kraazie8]

I didnt realize Daniel Rutherford was still alive!

[noblem]

a friend of mine who works at a tire store once told me nitrogen really doesn't do anything signifigant and probably isn't worth the money invested in it. I also once saw a magazine article about a study done that showed tires dont run any cooler, dont maintain pressure longer and they didn't see any signifigant increase in mpg. i personally think its sales gimic, but thats just my 2 cents.

[Galaxy]

The hassle alone of getting pure nitrogen would negate any real or percieved benefits IMO.

[kraazie8]

the 18 x 9 rims i switched to now filled with air must have been the 1 mpg loss vs my stock rims and nitro fill. forgot they are wider. i know how to do simple math and i was getting 1 mpg less, forgot to factor the wider rims. i dont know what i would do without all the chemist on this forum.

[abervintageman4]

you should try filling your tires w/ methane i hear its the s**t

[Warhound]

ok if it does not good in tires then tell me why so many racers us it ?

[Caforddude]

Again I think the benefits are based on the fact that the tires hold their psi longer because of the bigger molecules.