Nitrogen in tires to save gas money?

[psmarine]

hey everybody, i am new to this, just making my first thread, so sorry if it already exists. But have any of you heard of Toyota's in general switching to nitrogen instead of regular air to fill up tires? it is supposed to elongate the life of the tire and better gas mileage, any truth in this?

[bwood87]

The deal with the nitrogen is that it does not expand and contract as much as regular air. Because of this your tires will not lose air pressure often. So its get nitrogen or just check your tire pressure every once in a while, as long as you do that it will be just as effective as the nitrogen.

[Graphite]

do you know what the cost is to fill up your tires with nitrogen? seems like it might be a waste of money to me, but what do I know... I'm not lazy, and don't mind checking my tire pressure

[psmarine]

well see the thing is, i am in the military, and we use nitrogen carts all the time on the Jets I work on, so getting nitrogen for me is no problem. I am not one of the people worried about the cost. Do i keep it at the same pressure as regular air or does it flux?

[bwood87]

Well in that case I would recommend it. The only downside is the fact that you have to pay for it, since that is not the case for you just fill it to the same PSI. I actually go to 35 PSI for better fuel efficiency, it is up to you.

[JRBRUIN7@aol.com]

I had Nitrogen in my tires when I had my truck, I know we are talking about a much larger tire but I really didn't notice much of a difference in the gas mileage, if there was any it was negligable

[psmarine]

so basically you are saying i wont see that much of a difference? i was hoping that i would notice, at least a little bit, but if it is not worth in, then i probably wont do it.

[JRBRUIN7@aol.com]

Yea I'm not saying there isn't gonna be a difference because there will be but its gonna be very small and you may not even notice it, just trying to help you save a few bucks.

[psmarine]

okay, i appreciate the feedback.

[navylife59]

Guess you can tell by my name that I am in the Military too. Nitrogen in car tires has the same practical uses as in aircraft. It weighs slightly lighter than air. If it is dry Nitrogen, then it does not contain water (weight/corrosion). It is inert, being not readily oxidized or an oxidizer (burn). It has the property of retaining it's gas volume, under changing temperature, much better than air. Easy to produce as most volume of air is made up of Nitrogen.

As for MPG, the aviation industry doe snot give a hoot on fuel mileage on a 10,000ft runway. What is just misguided marketing is the fact Nitrogen will increase your MPG. It is all about underinflation which causes the tire to have more contact area with the road, thus creating more friction. That is one of the reasons why econoboxes have such small tires. Nitrogen just keeps your tire inflation pressure difference between hot and cold PSI to a minimum. As bwood87 stated, just keep you tires up to optimum inflated pressure will net you the same MPG as with Nitrogen.