Ever Used N2 or CO2 to Fill Your Tires?

By John Coyle

Editor

Regular old air works fine for most people, but racers and off-roaders often use nitrogen or CO2 to fill their tires. The theory is than since those gases are inert, the rubber will be less susceptible to heat, and because their molecules are fatter, they don’t seep out as fast as air. It makes sense, and some regular consumers—citing safety and fuel economy—are even choosing to use them in their daily drivers. Since I’ve always just filled my tires with air, I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of whether filling up with "exotic" gases is worth the extra money. But I’m curious… Have you ever used them? And did it make a difference?

Permalink:

Posted at 9:52 pm in BFGoodrich, John Coyle, Racing, Tire

Comments

Evan
May 30, 2008 at 5:36 am

Nitrogen is the only thing that the Costco’s up here are using now. Interesting that a lot of the tire shops are going to N2 now…

NewMuscle67
May 30, 2008 at 2:22 am

umm… the Big O Tires down the block fills all tires all the time with
N2.

Gary Faules
May 30, 2008 at 12:34 am

As a full time racer I can assure you nitrogen is the way to go and there are many reasons to use it. Moisture that is found in compressed air tends to cause tires to heat up faster and pressures raise as well. Controlling tire pressure/heat is very important when racing on tracks. We also use compressed nitrogen bottles to run our air tools. Not only does the absence of moisture help out air tools but the work much faster as well which is a great advantage during endurance races when tenths of a seconds spent in the pits are everything. Furthermore there is no need to wait for a generator to run an air compressor. That’s why all pro team use it.

Junimrox
May 30, 2008 at 12:12 am

Since air is 70%+ N2, it shouldn’t make much difference… I don’t know about CO2

Josh
May 29, 2008 at 10:09 pm

Doesn’t really seem to make a difference while you’re driving. But, you have to refill it A LOT less.