Nitrogen versus Air in my 2600RB Tires

[Steve507]

Hello from Washington State:

My wife and I just purchased our first RV trailer (2600RB). When we picked it up, I was informed that the tires had been filled with nitrogen which apparently is a better and more stable substitute for air. It was a very hot day when I picked up our RV about a month ago. I just purchased a tire pressure monitoring system that I am getting ready to install. I was a little dismayed to see the tire pressure on my tires were already low, e.g., 55 PSI on the front axle and 57 PSI on the rear axle. It was cold on the day that I checked the tires.

To have my tires filled with nitrogen, I would have to hook up the trailer to my truck, then drive to Costco and have them fill the tires with nitrogen. They probably charge for that service. Then I will have to bring it home and unhook everything. It seems like a big hassle when I could just fill them quickly and easily with air using my big compressor here at the house. IS THE NITROGEN WORK THE HASSLE?

Also what PSI is most appropriate for the 2600RB tires, 65 PSI or something a little higher. Thank you, in advance, for anybody that can give me some guidance on this issue.

Steve507

[bertschb]

"Regular air" (that comes from your compressor) is already 78% nitrogen. There are a LOT of threads on the internet with folks debating the pros and cons of adding the last 22%. I won't bother to add my $.02 because 50 other people will come in on this thread with their opinions :-)

I don't know what tires come on the 2600RB so I can't speak to what pressure you should use for them. Sorry.

[Steve507]

Brian & Kellie:
Thank you for the reply. My take on your response is that the extra 22% of nitrogen are NOT worth the hassle of having to go to a special place to replenish tire pressure. I'm in agreement with you. I am just waiting to see if someone can talk me out of that position.

Steve

[Steve7]

Steve, regarding your psi, your tire should have a cold maximum psi rating on the sidewalk. I always keep mine at max psi, which many recommend. If you don’t use max psi, you need to go by a tire psi chart, and you need to know what your trailer weighs when loaded for a trip. It’s better to have more psi in your tires than not enough. Blow outs primarily occur because of low tire pressure, driving faster than tire specs specify (also on your sidewalk, or determined by the letter rating on your tire), and overloading above tires specs. Stay within tire specs and you will be better off.

[Capt Jim]

I am not going to waste time and space on this thread explaining why nitrogen fill is nothing more than a profit-making fantasy promoted by tire dealers.

...oh, sorry.

Safe travels.

Jim

[Cate&Rob]

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCnWvMleVD0

Rob

[sande005]

I've followed the nitrogen controversy for several years, in many threads. The only real arguments I've heard in its favor is that it has little moisture in it, which reduces the variation in pressure a slight bit. But, that variation really only comes into play on the race track, where you want everything to be as stable, consistent and predictable as you can get it during a race. But, for us average users, there is no benefit in using pure nitrogen.
Note too, that your tires should only be checked when cold. Even a little bit of driving can heat them up, and cause the pressure to climb. Tire manufacturers take that into account when publishing their recommended pressures.

[Steve507]

Thank you for the response. Good advice!

Steve

[klenger]

I have some experience that I will pass on, from all places, my bicycles. When I change a tube on my bike, and pump up the pressure to, let's say, 90 lbs, within a day, the pressure has dropped maybe 15 lbs. Keep in mind that bicycle tubes are thin rubber and subject to air loss. This is normal. After filling the tires back up to 90 lbs a few times over the next few days, the pressure holds to maybe 3 lbs loss per day.

This experience tells me two things:
(1) The 22% of the non-nitrogen (oxygen mostly) leaches through the rubber at a faster rate that the nitrogen, causing the pressure to drop faster, ... for a few days.
(2) After filling the tires back up the set pressure a few times, the pressure holds much better.

Conclusion: (1) Nitrogen does indeed hold the pressure better than air. (2) After a few refills, the oxygen is replaced with more nitrogen until it is close to 100% nitrogen without the hassle of filling with pure nitrogen.

Take a guess what gas type I use in my vehicle tires.

[JCZhome]

I have some experience that I will pass on, from all places, my bicycles. When I change a tube on my bike, and pump up the pressure to, let's say, 90 lbs, within a day, the pressure has dropped maybe 15 lbs. Keep in mind that bicycle tubes are thin rubber and subject to air loss. This is normal. After filling the tires back up to 90 lbs a few times over the next few days, the pressure holds to maybe 3 lbs loss per day.

This experience tells me two things:
(1) The 22% of the non-nitrogen (oxygen mostly) leaches through the rubber at a faster rate that the nitrogen, causing the pressure to drop faster, ... for a few days.
(2) After filling the tires back up the set pressure a few times, the pressure holds much better.

Conclusion: (1) Nitrogen does indeed hold the pressure better than air. (2) After a few refills, the oxygen is replaced with more nitrogen until it is close to 100% nitrogen without the hassle of filling with pure nitrogen.

Take a guess what gas type I use in my vehicle tires.

Like many others, I thought nitrogen was hocus pocus. But years ago they were giving it for free if you bought the tires from that Harley dealership and so I went for it. My experience was pretty much what yours was. Much, much less loss of PSI and (I believe it's because of that) that I got mileage on those new tires that I'd never gotten previously. A motorcycle doesn't get near the mileage that a car gets so when it came time to buy tires for the car I went for the "free" nitrogen. Same results.

Fast forward to I bought my 276TH used from a gentleman in southern California that owns a professional street bicycle racing team. During the course of conversation I learned that they use nitrogen in their bicycle tires for racing. Auto race car drivers use it, bicycle race teams use it, truck lines use it and it's free if you get it when you buy tires and then it's free top off (except I've only had to go back a couple of times over the years. I recently put the Goodyear G614 on the Momentum 376Th and yes, I went for the free nitrogen with the free top off for the life of the tires. So I'm not really sure what they're talking about when they say it's a money making scam. By the way, Momentums come with nitrogen in the tires folks.

Flashback to the past......remember when everybody was saying that synthetic oil was hocus pocus snake oil? I remember that, too.

See what Jay Leno and some of the truck lines say about nitrogen.......... http://www.getnitrogen.org/