Free nitrogen tire fill-up at Costco?

The air we breathe and pump into our tires is already about 78 % nitrogen. How can an additional 22 % make any difference in terms of safety and handling? Also, where would you fill-up regularly in order to maintain accurate pressure? Not worth it, IMHO.

 

Where would you fill up regularly? Costco :mrgreen:

I think that's the point. But I'm a Sams person myself, being from the south and all, so I'll drink my Coke and not get my Nitrogen. :mrgreen:

 

I obviously need a education. Is this good? Why nitrogen?

 

Not only that, but costco will also rotate them for free (no matter where you bought the tires). For $4 per tire, they will rebalance them.

rpm

 

From what I read, I think I gathered that in theory, it expands less than normal air when heated. It's a sporty/racing thing, so probably on par, practicality-wise, with getting a spoiler on your Prius.

 

ooh!! ooh!! one of those big erector set ones (like I had when I was 7). Now where can I get high performance door handles. Edmonds!!

 

And let's not forget the engines they put in just about any car these days in terms of practicality. :mrgreen:

 

I recall that race cars have been using nitrogen in their tires for many years so I decided to give it a Google. Now i'm hooked. Does anyone know tha real deal behind using nitrogen in street tires?

If it is really better, then how do we get all that old nasty air out of there so we are sure that there is only nice pure nitrogen in there?

Does it improve fuel economy at all?

http://www.aftermarketbusiness.com/afterma...l.jsp?id=101650
http://popularmechanics.com/automotive/sub...504/print.phtml

Then I found this topic has made the rounds on Priuschat before:
http://priuschat.com/forums/archive/o_t/t_...lled-tires.html

OOh, I'm getting dizzy from all those nitrogen fumes.

 

"OOh, I'm getting dizzy from all those nitrogen fumes. "

It's the nitrogen bubbling out in your blood stream. You may have the bends. Go straight to the nearest hyperbaric chamber a few sessions on O2 at 66 feet that should fix it. You need to be cleansed of the excess nitrogen before a bubble strokes you out!

 

How about filling the tires with helium to make the car lighter?

 

Costco will rotate your tires for free because they bet that many folks will also want their tires balanced for $4 each. :roll:

Costco will inflate the tires with nitrogen for free because they know that many folks will come in the store and buy a bunch of stuff they don't need. :roll:

A tire inflated with helium will practically weigh the same as one filled with air, and it will certainly won't float. Also, I doubt that Costco will inflate with helium for free.

 

Yes it would work but the car would only be up to 2.6 ounces lighter.

 

Actually I'm starting to like that bubbly feeling, who knows, it may improve my personality too

 

Helium is such a tiny atom, it probably will leak out through the tire in no time at all. Just look at a helium filled balloon, it's deflated overnight.

 

The air in our environment contains only 0.0335% CO2. How can changing it to only 0.0400% make any difference in terms of global warming?

One of the principles behind the Prius is that small changes can make large differences.

 

The place where I have always bought tires uses nitrogen. No extra charge. They seem to think it's good. I don't care. When they get low I top them off with air.

The advantage of filling your tires with helium would be that if you ever need to speak in a squeeky voice you could just get down on your hands and knees on the pavement and inhale some air from a tire. And if you drive a monster truck that 2.6 oz advantage might grow to a pound or so.

Comic book superhero: HelioPriusMan: At critical moments in his adventures (e.g. cat in a tree) he causes the helium-filled tires of his Prius to get really big and his Prius rises like a blimp.

The heck with yachts and learjets and 78-million-dollar subs. I want a blimp. Or a dirigible.

 

Back before bicycle tech went all titanium and carbon fiber there was a lot of effort to lighten up by drilling holes in the components, using short pitch chains and so forth. One of the tricks for track racing (short duration events) was to use helium in the tires. Not only did it save weight but rotational weight, the best of all. And made for some high pitched fun onthe infield between races. Unfortunately, such hi tech bikes also tended to have lightweight tubes which were very permeable to those little bitty helium molecules. I don't recall seeing any real discussion of what the tradeoffs were including the increasing rolling resistance as the race went on. Since I was always saddled with 10 lb spare tire I couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

 

I remeber reading about helium fillesd tires for Olympic bikes. It doesn't make much a dufference, but when races are measured in thousandths of a second, every .01% helps.

By the way, blimps ARE dirigibles. "dirigible" means "steerable" not "rigid"


Brian