Quote Originally Posted by flyu2there View Post
Joe,

Airplanes have been using nitrogen for years for three reasons. First, it's very dry, no moisture at all. Second, the molecules of nitrogen are much bigger than oxygen, although I will yield that you only have 25 to 30% oxygen in your typical outside air, it leaks out slower and all tires do leak. Third, oxygen does not do well with heat...it gets hot and stays hot, the molecules get hot and start moving like Banshees and the pressure goes up......nitrogen on the other hand gets hot but cools quickly. Yes the pressure will go up but not nearly to the degree as standard outside air. While nitrogen is not one of the inert gases it can be stated that it's behaviour is inert.

I will yield to fact that nitrogen probably is not required in most typical operatios, especially with these busses however the evidence is out there that nitrogen is a far better medium. My personal reason for supporting nitrogen has to do with road heat. It is not uncommon for the roads and highways in the Desert Southwest to reach 130 degrees or more. I cannot tell you how many truck/trailer recaps are spread over the highways and byways of the Desert...they get hot and fail although we all know that most truckers use the low speed rated tires and usually re-cap as well...cheaper. Nitrogen, while it does not run any cooler, at the end of the day it will take longer to heat up will dissapate the heat much faster and that's enough for me.

I guess we can agree to disagree....

John
I purchased 8 Michelin's at Jacksonville Prevost the other day. They are in the process of installing a nitrogen service there.

The Marathon Florida location is considering installing one as well. When you dump nearly $7K in new thread adding a few $100 doesn't seem like too much for all 8. My concern was when I needed to top off the tires, this will not be an easy process finding Nitrogen, plus there is no reason in the world it has to be so expensive. Get the price down and more people will get onboard. The machine costs $5k, how much does a really good balancing machine cost. Price it right and all trucks and RV's will fill up on it.