Automotive Expert Question:Is there any information out there that demonstrates increases in MPG for nitrogen inflation of Commercial Motor Vehicle tires?
Hi I'm Wayne I will help you with this Good Morning YEs, YES, YESI worked 10 years at a truck/Trailer leasing company , (national lease)that is all they put in the tires , that was law, at this companyRuan Leasing, also runs it in there tiresReason being , tires ran cooler, Less dry rot on trailer tires, longer Thread Life and if you ran recaps on trailers , cut the peeling of caps down 75%Hi Some quotes from the web Most tires are filled with compressed air, which when dry consists of about 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and 1 percent other gases by volume. Water vapor (humidity) can make up as much as 5 percent of the volume of air under worst-case conditions. Filling your tires with nitrogen mainly does two things: it eliminates moisture, and it replaces skinny oxygen molecules with fat nitrogen molecules, reducing the rate at which compressed gas diffuses through porous tire walls. That means, theoretically at least, that a tire filled with nitrogen retains optimal pressure longer, leading to more uniform tire wear and better gas mileage. The commonly quoted figMore important, nitrogen doesn't support combustion, which is one reason aircraft and the space shuttle use nitrogen in their tires. The wisdom of this precaution was brought home by the crash of Mexicana Airlines flight 940 on March 31, 1986. Shortly after the Boeing 727 took off from Mexico City en route to Puerto Vallarta, an overheated landing-gear brake caused a tire improperly filled with air instead of nitrogen to overheat as well and explode, rupturing fuel and hydraulic lines. The ensuing fire and crash killed 167 passengers and crew. However, unless your driving habits are of the X-treme variety, the chances of your tires catching fire anytime soon are slim.
Experience: worked on lift trucks, and IR air compressors