Alright so I was told something yesterday, which led to a heated discussion with another at Offroad meet. This person was talking to a part of the group about filling their tires with a nitrogen blend. I asked the guy if he realized that nitrogen had oxygen in it, so they are paying for oxygen? Second I reminded him that this is horrible additionally because of you need to air down your truck when you go off grid, so what you supposed to do, fill up and pay for this crap each time? Then the 'not so smart person' stated this was best for on road rigs.
I'm so surprised people pay for crap like this.
I absolutely love that discussion. I can take either side and win by leaving out certain facts.
Here's the argument for "Pro Nitrogen"
1.Air contains water and oxygen. Water vapor is smaller than the pores in the rubber. The water turns to acid as it seeps out with the lighter gasses, breaking down the rubber and the metal cording from the inside out. Oxygen is also acidic but doesn't cause the same issue as fast as the water does.
2. Nitrogen has no water so this effect is eliminated.
3. Air seeps out of the tire three times faster then Nitrogen.
If you run air, your tires will rot, explode and you will die. See, you need nitrogen and i will install it in your tires for $400. What a deal.
Even when all of that is true, what no one tells you is "how long does it take to harm the inside of the tire?"
The average passenger car tire lasts around five years, "Air" will take around ten plus years to cause any noticeable damage. AND your breathing 70%-75% nitrogen now (depending on where you live).
Another great thing here is, How did they install the nitrogen? There's machine your suppose to use. It pulls the air out, puts the tire into a vacuum which boils the water and pulls that out, installs the nitrogen and checks to see if there's any air. If it detects it, the process starts over.
There's several places here that do nitrogen. All but one are dealers. The Mercedes dealer is the only one with the machine. None of the others do it properly. Even done correctly in my opinion its still a scam.
Like anything we hear today, most of the info is filtered and were only told part of the fact. All the facts they tell you about nitrogen are true, they just leave the important stuff out. I think that's called Lie by Omission?
Is nitrogen a good thing, sure, "If" you have access to it and you use it on a vehicle that doesn't see much driving. My tow rig saw about 2000 miles a year. Keeping the tires covered, coated with a protective spray and nitrogen. The tires had no cracking or dryness after 20 years. On my offroad toys its pointless and my street vehicle will wear the tires out before there's any real benefit from nitrogen other than the tire pressure staying correct longer.
