It is better but only a little bit. I wouldn't drive out of my way for it or pay (much) extra money for nitrogen fill but it does hold a more constant pressure through temperature swings and it doesn't require "top-offs" as often. The helium and hydrogen in air can escape through rubber rather readily, the oxygen, not as fast, nitrogen lasts the longest.

Also, if the shop you use has a quality nitrogen generator, the fill will have very low moisture. Moisture is bad because it causes more expansion as the tire warms up (increasing the pressure more) and can also cause some rims to corrode faster.

Many gas station air pumps are full of water. Nitrogen fill greatly reduces the need to top off so the risk of intoducing water vapor is much less.

It's not snake oil, it's just that our trucks don't need nitrogen, best to just insure your supply of air is nice and dry.

 

It use nitrogen in my tires because it came free with my truck for the life of the tires. Yes, they tried to charge $299 for this service, but since they wanted to sell me a truck that day, they dropped the cost along with all the other BS tacked on.

Yes, to me the ride is better. I got a nail in my rear passenger tire and lost a good amount of nitro. No shop in my town had nitro to fill it back up when it was repaired, so they used good ol' air. The ride was horrendous with air in that one tire. I mean a night and day difference. It made the whole back end of the truck feel like a POS junker, it would hop all over the place when I hit bumps. It felt like the harsh 2-1 downshift, and while I have noticed THAT, it's never been that bad. So I took it back to the dealer I got it from and had them fill it up with nitro when I got my first oil change.

So call it a crock, BS, or snakeoil all you want. If it's free to me and I like the ride better, I'm using it. I've had the truck over a month now and after putting over 4k miles on it, constant funky Texas temperature shifts and with exception of that punctured tire, not once has the pressure in them dropped. When I put the gauge on them last week, they all read 35psi just as the day they were filled up.

 

I think you are nuts. But honestly has anyone thought about filling their tires with compressed hydrogen? The hydrogen molecules would be even smaller than nitrogen molecules and would therefore leak out even less?

 

Thanks, but I know the difference in how my truck felt before that, and how it feels now once it was corrected. The nitro free to me, so I don't know why anyone gives a sheet what I use.

 

I like the hydrogen idea! Just be careful on potholes or you might explode! LOL! I like helium...makes your truck float!

Seriously the main thing is to make sure the air you use is dry. If it full of moisture you will have a bad ride and it can mess up your wheels.

 

That is exactly what I was wondering. My wife's 2010 camry came with nitrogen in the tires. That car has an unbelievable smooth ride. I was thinking of putting nitrogen in my truck tires...FYI, I wanted to buy a Ford Fusion, but my local dealer pissed me off and I ended up getting the Camry. Then my dealer was so damn desperate to keep my business, he offered me a great deal on a 2010 F150.BTW, the Camry is a great car and so is the Fusion. Poor service when I went to look at the Fusion lead me to buy the Camry. Can't go wrong with either one if your looking for a midsize sedan and the new F150s kick a..

 

Guys with nitrogen, do you really think you've got 100% pure nitrogen in your tires?

 

I am hard pressed to believe nitrogen makes a difference in ride quality. I have two dealerships that supply nitrogen and install into tires. I am going to call and see how much it is, if it isn't much, I will try and compare. Better calibrate my butt meter

Or, better yet, for the sake of testing, I will see if I spill any more beer with or without nitrogen

 

Nitrogen works well for vehicles that don't travel very many miles per year (motorhomes, trailers etc.). The oxygen in air attacks and breaks down rubber over time. these vehicles usually don't wear out the tread, they just come apart due to tread seperation. There are different grades of nitrogen, we use the highest grade (medical grade ) in our asphalt race tires because it has the lowest moisture content. If you're going to wear a set of tires out in two or three years it's probably not worth the money.......

 

Good post, Accurate. I rolled in many tanks of nitrogen to service wide body, 727's and other aircraft for the tires, Just a couple things to think of is moisture and that you don't have to adjust pressure for extreme temp changes. It's great for an aircraft that goes from 95 degrees to minus temps and not have to worry about adjusting pressure. But I wouldn't waste my time or money inflating my tires on my truck with it.

 

The nitrogen thing came out of the aircraft industry. Commercial jets have long used nitrogen because it is free of water vapor and oxygen. This is a real problem when you go from seal level, 100*F, 70% RH to 35,000 ft, 0% RH, and -70*F. And the rims get pretty damn hot during landing, that's why the brakes are all carbon/carbon. The aluminum wheels would corrode like crazy without an inert gas. Could have used Argon just as well, but it costs more 3X as much.

 

considering that the helium and hydrogen content in air is less than 1% of the total makeup, I wouldn't worry about those elements as much as oxygen which constitutes for 21%. Like I said, the smaller oxygen molecules will permeate the rubber 3-4x faster than the nitrogen will... Again, you are seeing the biggest benefit by reducing the oxygen and humidity in the tires.

 

x2- even though there may not be a positive air pressure in a tire after mounted-, there is air in there before they topp off with nitrogen-now if they could put that space in a vacuum and use dry nitrogen , then i'd buy into it

 

How is it possible even in the smallest bit that the ride is better. Whether you have them filled with air, nitrogen or even helium the amount of psi you put in them is the same.

 

Nitrogen has the same ride as regular air when the pressure is the same!

But you shouldn't run air in one tire and nitrogen in the rest because they have different rates of expansion so your tires will rarely all be at the same pressure no matter what the cold PSI is. You are not crazy, you were simply feeling the effects of running a different pressure in one of your tires.