Nitrogen in tires
I have been told by our local tire dealer that since nitrogen is an inert gas you not will have the fluctuation in psi when tires warm up. How true is this statement? Thanks for your input. Skip
Forum Discussion
frankdamp wrote:
Nitrogen won't cause an explosion if the tires get VERY hot and out-gassing of compounds in the rubber occurs. This happened on a Boeing 727 some years back and one main-gear tire blew. The pressure spike was enough to fail the steel cord in the tire bead in tension. Detailed analysis, which I and a couple of fellow engineers did, suggested the pressure had reached about 12,000 psi before it blew out.
It turned out the airplane had taxied over two miles and had the engines at higher than normal thrust level because the brakes on one wheel were dragging. The burst occurred about 10 minutes after take-off, with the wheels retracted. Boeing and the FAA concurred that nitrogen would not permit the explosion, and it became mandatory to use it on transport category airplanes.
Bottom line - if your RV can accelerate to 150 mph in a couple of miles with a dragging brake and then you can put the wheels into a closed box, you should use nitrogen. Otherwise, don't waste your money!
Nitrogen will not support combustion but it also will not prevent a blow-out on an RV tire that is overheated from running the pressure too low. No flame but same results.
