When I was a kid growing up on the farm we used to put water in the back tires of the tractor. Git r dun!

 

Folks, I'm curious... it's been said that the race drivers/crew chiefs have been using N for the tires instead of air because the pressure changes are less due to temperature... that the water vapor inside the tire causes that extra swing that only N doesn't have...

Now, I can actually see this, in *racing*, because of the high temps realized in the tires... and the bigger molecule of Dihydrogen Monoxide, when excited, would need more room to wiggle (this is what the pressure is, after all, the molecules trying to spread apart, but contained so they can't.)

Am I missing a point here?

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BUT, even if I'm right on that... in a passenger car tire, there would be little to no difference between straight N and [78% N + 21% O + 1% (other)], I'm thinking, because the temperatures aren't nearly high enough.

Overall, I say this N thing is only good if you're going to run steel rims on a car for 40 years. Like a '60s F150, maybe.

 

I'm guessin' that's for weight transfer and/or traction?

 

Yup. I had nothing to add.

 

Nope, you hit it right on the head. One extra consideration for cars that run _really_ high speeds. Dry air prevents condensation from forming which could throw off the balance of the wheel, again only at very high speeds.

 

This! I read a Honda window sticker on a new minivan and the stealership charged 150 bucks to install nitrogen.

I dont know where they get thier nitrogen and there is only 2 ways I know of to get it. Either in compressed form from a prefilled bottle or from a generator. The latter is around 99.XX pure and the machine is about 6 grand but after that the only costs involved in generating nitrogen are for some external replacement filters and however much it costs to supply pressurized air to the machine which all works out to pennies a day.