Nitrogen versus Air

Hey everyone.

This is a bit unusual, but a neighbor of mine offered to fill the tires on my North Trail 31RED with nitrogen instead of air. :confused:

He said that he's had nitrogen in the tires of his travel trailer for the past year and hasn't lost any air pressure at all - over a year!

Does anyone know anything about this? It seems a little flakey to me, but he might be on to something?

We would appreciate any feedback. Thanks
Jim and Carolyn
 

Pulltab

Well-known member
Nitrogen is better than air as it is not affected by temperature so much. We used it in the tires when I raced. To really make it effective you have to get as much of the air out as possible before filling with Nitrogen. It really depends on how anal you are about tire pressures, losing pressure is more of a sealing issue though.

In short it hurts nothing to fill with nitrogen but does add cost. You need the tank and regulator.
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
If you do need to increase the pressure in your tire.. due to a nail or have it repaired where do you get the nitro? You can use air in the same tire but then it defeats the purpose of using nitro.

Why complicate things when air works every where. We have sensors on our tires do not loose air to test them every day. Just push a button.

BC
 

jayc

Texas-South Chapter Leaders
As Tab said, the racing industry uses nitrogen in their tires because racing tires are subject to much higher operating temperatures. Aircraft typically use nitrogen because of outside pressure changes, going from ground level to 20-30,000 (or higher) feet in altitude.

Nitrogen has a different molecular structure than oxygen, which can leak out through the "pores" in a tire. As Bob said, where will you find nitrogen when you're out enjoying your trailer?

Personally I use a blend of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% miscellaneous gases to fill my tires. Been working for me.....
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
Many people, RVers and non-RVers alike swear by using Nitrogen in their tires. While attending the RVers boot camp at the Escapade in Sedalia Mo this year the tire expert (37 years as a tire engineer with Goodyear) was asked about the benefits of using Nitrogen versus air. He said that although it could be beneficial for some applications he saw no real benefit for RVers. He said as far as he was concerned the use of Nitrogen in tires was over rated and only a was for tire dealers to make money. One problem is if you have to add inflation Nitrogen is hard to find, is expensive and if you put just air in the tire which has nitrogen it defeats the purpose of Nitrogen. FYI

I use just air and carry my own compressor.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
Air - Mostly nitrogen

Gang:
I don't know if people caught on to JayC's comment but air is mostly nitrogen anyways - 78%.
 

Nabo

Southeast Region Director-Retired
We have been using nitrogen in all of our vehicles/5'res for over 6 years now without any problems. Nitrogen helps keep the tires running cooler (don't understand why-not a science major) but since we have changed to nitrogen, we haven't had a blow out with any of the campers. Cost is cheat - only $5 per tire at our local tire dealership. Our current camper has over 15,000 miles on the tires and they still look as good as the day we picked up the trailer. Most tire dealership now carry at least the cylinders of nitro but most have invested in the nitro machine.
 
Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the replys.

We just purchased an air compressor at Home Depot. Not a big thing - sits in the back of my truckbed. The wife is anal about air pressure, and maybe thats a good thing.

Anyway, I think I'll just stick with O2 since I have the compressor.

Thanks again for all the feedback.
Jim and Carolyn
 

porthole

Retired
Costco now uses nitrogen with all new tire installs (and for adding). They even go as far as adding green valve stems.

I wouldn't pay extra for it - waste of money.
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
If your DW is wife is anal about air pressure.. Then you should get a set of pressure pro tire pressure monitors.. You don't have to test the pressure with a tire gage and loose some each time you check them. Also you can check the pressure as your going down the road..

BC
 

Pulltab

Well-known member
Tire pressures are really important, especially with tires being so closely rated to weight. As bob said a pressure monitoring system is a great idea and will give you a lot of assurance. I can tell you though that they are still not 100% but pretty close. I have had the sensors read that I was losing pressure only to pull over to check and see the pressure going back up! HMmmmmm, unusual. Have had this happen a couple of times and actually the last trip we made to the rally I had one do that. It is most likely a problem with the dill valve or the seal, so I have some checking to do.

Personally I don't think Nitrogen is worth the investement. Like I said if you can't purger all the O2 then you are only partially helping. It is just a big sales gimmick, put your money into the tire monitoring system. Nitrogen don't do nothing for you if you blow a tire and don't know it.
 

crazybanshee

Well-known member
I have tried nitrogen in our trailer tires with the pressure pro system. I set them at 80PSI and when we travel pressure rises to almost 90PSI. When going over a mountain pass in cooler weather the pressure can drop to almost 70PSI. The only good thing nitrogen does is keep the inside of your tires and wheels dry.
Doug
 

Pulltab

Well-known member
Doug, you have experienced exactly what I was referring to. If you don't get ALL the air evacuated then Nitrogen does you little good. Tires are designed to expand and contract with pressure, air is cheap. Nitrogen had a purpose when I was racing and we often would run as little as 8 lbs in tires. We really needed to control the pressure rise as the temps often got near 200 degrees and greatly affected how the tires worked. We still did not have a good way to exchanged the air for nitrogen though, it was often a matter of repeatedly filling and draining to get enough Nitrogen capacity.
 
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