As mentioned, in aircraft or the space shuttle having air condense and freeze is a real issue- so they use it for an added margin of safety.
In street cars, Honda is absolutely correct. Nitrogen will do very little for most drivers and air is just fine. My first argument is that most drivers aren't running around with accurate racing tire gauges in the first place, and really need to start there. Further, the quality of the Nitrogen needs to be up over 95%, most aren't using dryers or purging it through anyway, and you would really need to stay on top of the maintenance fill as and forget is not going to be ideal if you want the best results. Most of all, it's simply not neccessary...
On the street, production cars are filled with normal ambient air which contains about 80% nitrogen, and can in some climates often contain a lot of moisture. However, to be frank... it really doesn't matter. You might start out cold in the morning in your ME RWD at 32psi, and after 45 minutes of highway driving edge up to 34.5psi. A 2.5psi difference is not very significant, and if you want to be anal it is very easy to re-adjust your cold pressures for the optimum hot setting next time out because the deviation is so slight. In short, the average driver in a passenger van out there won't ever get them hot enough to get the moisture to cause a pressure difference that is relevant.
For the heavier 70 and up ton commercial truck fleets, firms have seen a benefit in terms of wear on all there tires which is why there is a little more chatter in that sector I believe. For delivery vans and such no it's not as compelling.
Now, in race cars, using Nitrogen stations and cartridge air dryers is all about maintaining predictable and consistent results so you can make good decisions... most importantly so that you can set your cold pressures properly to hit your target hot pressures so you don't have to pit. The pro teams in F1 and such will have the tire factory reps and engineers on site that will have very good ideas about what pressures and temps they are looking for for on a specific track, in specific conditions, even at specific points on the track for a specific optimized compound and using Nitrogen through a dryer if properly purged and coupled with TPMS telemetry can yield results.
For the rest of us back here in the real world, that track our cars or do club racing. Nitrogen can prove to be a good idea so you are not driving yourself totally nuts chasing tire pressures through-out the day as conditions change IMO. Especially up North it starts off very cold in the morning and gets hot in the day before cooling back off in the afternoon and when coupled with changing track conditions it can cause some pain.
Tire pressures are one of the more interesting things at the club level simply due to the event formats/schedule and track layouts. You take that same ME RWD out to the track for a first session, and you can start out at with staggered pressures, say 31/28 cold and come in 20 minutes later all squirrelly and over heated at 38/41 hot. If your target was 35, you'll find yourself bleeding 3/6psi off before heading back out. Also, because your doing "cool-down" laps without having the benefit of a TPMS system you'll not always be sure by the time you get back to the hot pits what you really hit out there.
However, by the time your run group goes back out, conditions could have changed again, so you're back by the tire wall 10 minutes later dong a re-check... and before you know it your spending all your free time in the pits re-checking your pressures trying to hit your magic target hot number instead of relaxing under your tent. It is not all together uncommon to start seeing larger, less predictable, changes in pressure due to the excess moisture causing expansion. Maintaining a half to one a psi accuracy proves challenging and it's good to eliminate pressures as a variable so you have one less thing to blame your slow lap times on. :smile:
...
In closing, I think for car enthusiasts that are avidly tracking their cars at HPDE's or more important club racing, likely that is the really compelling scenario to justify perhaps picking up a tank and a dryer if your seeing some issues there. You can pick-up a small tank of good stuff at a local welding store, and pick-up a re-chargeable dryer from tanner or one of the other race shops.
In street cars, Honda is absolutely correct. Nitrogen will do very little for most drivers and air is just fine. My first argument is that most drivers aren't running around with accurate racing tire gauges in the first place, and really need to start there. Further, the quality of the Nitrogen needs to be up over 95%, most aren't using dryers or purging it through anyway, and you would really need to stay on top of the maintenance fill as and forget is not going to be ideal if you want the best results. Most of all, it's simply not neccessary...
On the street, production cars are filled with normal ambient air which contains about 80% nitrogen, and can in some climates often contain a lot of moisture. However, to be frank... it really doesn't matter. You might start out cold in the morning in your ME RWD at 32psi, and after 45 minutes of highway driving edge up to 34.5psi. A 2.5psi difference is not very significant, and if you want to be anal it is very easy to re-adjust your cold pressures for the optimum hot setting next time out because the deviation is so slight. In short, the average driver in a passenger van out there won't ever get them hot enough to get the moisture to cause a pressure difference that is relevant.
For the heavier 70 and up ton commercial truck fleets, firms have seen a benefit in terms of wear on all there tires which is why there is a little more chatter in that sector I believe. For delivery vans and such no it's not as compelling.
Now, in race cars, using Nitrogen stations and cartridge air dryers is all about maintaining predictable and consistent results so you can make good decisions... most importantly so that you can set your cold pressures properly to hit your target hot pressures so you don't have to pit. The pro teams in F1 and such will have the tire factory reps and engineers on site that will have very good ideas about what pressures and temps they are looking for for on a specific track, in specific conditions, even at specific points on the track for a specific optimized compound and using Nitrogen through a dryer if properly purged and coupled with TPMS telemetry can yield results.
For the rest of us back here in the real world, that track our cars or do club racing. Nitrogen can prove to be a good idea so you are not driving yourself totally nuts chasing tire pressures through-out the day as conditions change IMO. Especially up North it starts off very cold in the morning and gets hot in the day before cooling back off in the afternoon and when coupled with changing track conditions it can cause some pain.
Tire pressures are one of the more interesting things at the club level simply due to the event formats/schedule and track layouts. You take that same ME RWD out to the track for a first session, and you can start out at with staggered pressures, say 31/28 cold and come in 20 minutes later all squirrelly and over heated at 38/41 hot. If your target was 35, you'll find yourself bleeding 3/6psi off before heading back out. Also, because your doing "cool-down" laps without having the benefit of a TPMS system you'll not always be sure by the time you get back to the hot pits what you really hit out there.
However, by the time your run group goes back out, conditions could have changed again, so you're back by the tire wall 10 minutes later dong a re-check... and before you know it your spending all your free time in the pits re-checking your pressures trying to hit your magic target hot number instead of relaxing under your tent. It is not all together uncommon to start seeing larger, less predictable, changes in pressure due to the excess moisture causing expansion. Maintaining a half to one a psi accuracy proves challenging and it's good to eliminate pressures as a variable so you have one less thing to blame your slow lap times on. :smile:
...
In closing, I think for car enthusiasts that are avidly tracking their cars at HPDE's or more important club racing, likely that is the really compelling scenario to justify perhaps picking up a tank and a dryer if your seeing some issues there. You can pick-up a small tank of good stuff at a local welding store, and pick-up a re-chargeable dryer from tanner or one of the other race shops.
