nitrogen

[jlat]

hello people; I seen an ad for tires and they say they put nitrogen in to inflate. So now you got nitrogen in them can you just add air if the tire goes down a bit? Does it change things?
thanks
IBBY

 

[Fast87Buick]

The regular air we all breathe is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases. So yeah, you can put regular air in there. Using nitrogen in tires is usually to eliminate the other gases such as moisture vapor in the air to keep corrosion of the wheel to a minimum, that's just one of the reasons it's used in aircraft tubeless wheels and tires.

 

[NEVER ENOUGH]

I know it's not the entire reason, but part of the reason to use it is so they don't loose (or gain) pressure with changing temps.
I can say I have nitrogen in a set of tires that have been on a car for near 3 years. Haven't lost a pound (with exception to the slight amount that bleeds out when I hook up the gauge).
I know they charge extra for it most places, but for some reason when I had those tires mounted, they didn't charge me extra, Or even ask me about it for that matter.
If I lost any, I would probably just add air, or have my HVAC buddy bring over his portable tank he uses for blowing out coils.

FWIW- When I used to be into off roading/rock crawling, it was the easiest way to contain alot of "pressure/volume" in a small package instead of carrying an air compressor onboard. A small nitrogen tank would reinflate several large tires, where a cylinder with only 150psi or "air" would maybe refill a small tire or two. I think they used to charge the nitrogen tanks to 2000psi.