Adding Pump air to Nitrogen filled tires

Charger060 · 02-14-2018, 07:04 PM

Hi, figured I'll ask the experts. Seems the new Goodyear Endurance tires come through filled with nitrogen. Mine are approx. 10 PSI below max pressure and would like to take them up to 80 PSI. Can you fill them with air or do I have to find a tire dealer with room for my unit and nitrogen to bring to max PSI. If this is the case, I will replace all nitrogen with just air. Thanks everyone

Lowmiler · 02-14-2018, 07:08 PM

Fill em with air. Don't fall for the nitrogen bs. Air is mostly nitrogen anyway.

Only place that nitrogen filled tires might have a valid function is on a race car where you are trying to minimize inflation changes related to heat. Where a psi can make an actual handling difference.

Everywhere else it is a marketing gimmick and not worth the cost or hassle.

I'm in the car industry for what it's worth.

RVhiker · 02-14-2018, 07:09 PM

Air is about 78% nitrogen. You can add air to your nitrogen filled tires whenever you want to. Others will disagree, but for most normal vehicles I believe that nitrogen filled tires is hokum and nonsense.

**norty1** · 02-14-2018, 07:28 PM

What they said! I would never pay extra for nitrogen or worry about mixing it.

Chrisb-24 · 02-14-2018, 07:35 PM

The benefit of nitrogen is that it doesn't have moisture in it or very little so it makes it easyer to regulate the pressure. Pumped air at the station has moisture in it so when you fill your tires to like 60lbs and you travel several hundred miles your tire psi will grow. Adding 10lbs of pumped air to N2 filled tires won't hurt anything, it'll just make regulating your tire psi a little harder.

Charger060 · 02-14-2018, 07:40 PM

Thanks for the info, sorry for the question, I should been able to figure it out, wasn't thinking of the chemical makeup of air we breath. Thanks again to all.

Mopar_Earl · 02-14-2018, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charger060

Thanks for the info, sorry for the question, I should been able to figure it out, wasn't thinking of the chemical makeup of air we breath. Thanks again to all.

Hey neighbor, Chambersburg area here.

Earl

Grumpy · 02-14-2018, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lowmiler

Only place that nitrogen filled tires might have a valid function is on a race car where you are trying to minimize inflation changes related to heat.

Or airplane tires.

RAurand · 02-14-2018, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lowmiler

Fill em with air. Don't fall for the nitrogen bs. Air is mostly nitrogen anyway.

Only place that nitrogen filled tires might have a valid function is on a race car where you are trying to minimize inflation changes related to heat. Where a psi can make an actual handling difference.

Everywhere else it is a marketing gimmick and not worth the cost or hassle.

I'm in the car industry for what it's worth.

Uhhhh, Nitrogen is in Turbine aircraft tires as well! I know, I fly them!

Lowmiler · 02-14-2018, 09:22 PM

Yeah, ok, got it. Airplanes, too.

Either way, BS marketing gimmick for street driven vehicles.

John from Central Florida · 02-15-2018, 05:06 AM

But with nitrogen you get the cool looking valve stem caps!!!!

**Mustang65** · 02-15-2018, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrisb-24

The benefit of nitrogen is that it doesn't have moisture in it or very little so it makes it easyer to regulate the pressure. Pumped air at the station has moisture in it so when you fill your tires to like 60lbs and you travel several hundred miles your tire psi will grow. Adding 10lbs of pumped air to N2 filled tires won't hurt anything, it'll just make regulating your tire psi a little harder.

In my younger days as a teen, after school I worked at a gas station "PUMPING" gas, tune-up's..... and tire repair. Most of the tires that I changed/repaired had water in them. I remember one that had at least a quart of water in it. The problem was that the gas stations did not have a moisture trap on the air line.

The F150 came with nitrogen filled tires. The benefit was that the tires held pressure without filling a lot longer, but that got to be a pain going to nitrogen filling locations, when they did get a little lower. Eventually, I just started filling up the tires with pump air. The other issue was that not all nitrogen filling stations had high pressure pumps.

I even thought of getting a nitrogen pump. That thought lasted about 2 nano-seconds.

I was thinking that since I have to replace 3 of the 4 TT tires this year (blow-out on one), I will fill them with nitrogen and monitor the temp/pressure difference between them... maybe 2 tires one on each side of the TT.

Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

Danno · 02-15-2018, 08:01 AM

The reason nitrogen is being used in so many tires lately is like was already mentioned, it's free of moisture. If there's a bit of moisture in a trailer tire, who cares, but if a vehicle has TPMS sensors you'll want to use nitrogen. As far as the aircraft tires using nitrogen, it has nothing to do with heat. Actually the opposite ! The engineers don't want any water in the tires to freeze at high altitudes.

**norty1** · 02-15-2018, 08:16 AM

Opposing opinion:

My trailer is always at ground level. I have been running a TSPS on my rig for 6 years and have not seen problems with the TSPS or the tires due moisture.

Lady Fitzgerald · 02-15-2018, 01:11 PM

There is a lot of misinformation (I have another name for it but mama told me not to use that word) flying around here (ew). Here is a link to a series of articles about the use of nitrogen in tires from an expert who was in the business for around 40 years:

RV Tire Safety: Nitrogen

Mopar_Earl · 02-15-2018, 01:38 PM

Is there benefits to using 100% nitrogen, sure! Is it worth all the hassle and costs to use it on a personal vehicle or trailer?? That's up to each person. For me, it's not worth the trouble and cost. Now if it was free and readily available, I would inflate all my tires with it.

Earl

vcbice · 02-18-2018, 08:50 AM

Yep, it is 'better'. You could also get most of the same benefits from using a good dryer on your air compressor.

I have never used nitrogen for filling tires and have had TPMS in my vehicles for over 20 years. I have never had an internal TPMS fail to function.

WeRJuliian · 02-18-2018, 09:05 AM

There are two issues...

Nitrogen doesn't "bleed" from the tyre as readily as oxygen/air, but the difference is relatively small.

Your friendly local gas station doesn't necessarily dry the air in their air pump, and moisture will also contribute to pressure variations.

If you plan to go racing, these may be concerns. In general, for road use, regular checking and topping-up is all that's needed... and certainly cheaper than nitrogen.

And, no, there's no reason not to mix nitrogen and "regular' air.

Charger060 · 02-18-2018, 09:22 AM

Many thanks to all, I knew we could get great information from you, the experts.

curver900 · 02-21-2018, 12:30 PM

man you would have to add ALLOT of air to a tire to get water in it from any source of volume.. if you have to add that much air that you get that much moisture you might need to have the tire fixed... or the rim or...

I have to add about 5-10 lbs in the winter and maybe 5 lbs all summer... in any of my tires.. if they need more than that I head to discount tire and make them fix the tire... and they do that for free

my mom has the nitrogen filled tires on her van and it takes just as much air in the winter due to the cold.. so they do about the same for air consistency...

Don't forget your blinker fluid...

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