Airplane tires, If ya got'em, Run'em

[Green-Hornet]

Here is some info I read while looking for tires on my BMW motorcycle, about nitrogen.
Nitrogen:   There is a lot of misrepresentation, and just plain hype, on the use of nitrogen in any type of tire for road (and off-road) use.   The facts are, that while there ARE benefits, use of nitrogen to fill tires is NOT practical, for anything but pure racing.   On the plus side, molecules of nitrogen are larger than average air molecules.  These larger molecules do NOT pass through the rubber used in tires and tubes, as easily as common air molecules.  Thus, pressure loss over time is lower.   Another plus, is that nitrogen is less prone to accumulate water vapor.   Water vapor in common compressed air in tires can lead to rather wild fluctuations in pressure as the tire heats up, and cools down.  Obviously, this is minimized by using clean, dry, air.   Nitrogen is, due to its lack of extra affinity for water vapor, a safer, more stable, tire pressure, which can be somewhat important for very high speed driving (much more so at racing speeds).  The final good point about nitrogen is that it does not contain oxygen, which tends to degrade rubber compounds over long periods of time.
The PROBLEM with nitrogen is cost, not easily available, and if you top off the tire with even a very slight amount of compressed air, the advantage of the nitrogen is LOST.

[roadrunnertex]

Aircraft tires!
Well for one thing if you were to put them on a coach you would have to locate split rims as I don't think you could mount these type many ply tires on a regular type Accuride type 22.5 rim.
Also I don't think that you could get very many miles out of a aircraft tire like you will get out of a 12R/22.5 tubeless tire.
The main cause of tread wear on a aircraft tire is not rolling down the runway but landing and braking the airplane to a slow taxi speed.
Airline industry counts landings not miles on the tries.
The major air carrier that I retired from used recap tires and also new tires on their airplanes the tires were re caped as long as the tire carcuss was still good. I have seen quite a few tires that were re-caped more than a dozen times.
Each tire had it's own tire gauge that was used by the flight crew on their walk around inspection to check for low pressure or flat tire  ::)after the airplane was sitting over night.
On maintenance checks we would check the tire pressure with a known accurate tire gauge (dial) type to see if the tires were inflated to a proper pressure.
Yes we did use nitrogen to inflate our tires.
Our source was a high pressure nitrogen bottle service cart (3000 PSI) which was reduced down to a lower PSI with a known accurate pressure regulator for servicing the tires.
Nitrogen in the airline aviation industry is wonderful as it is handy and required.
I use compressed air in my tires on all of my cars and my GMC bus/conversion.
Not to say that I would not use nitrogen it if it were as handy as my air compressor.
Hope this helps.
jlv

[kyle4501]

In my mind, the biggest benefit of nitrogen is it is DRY. Plain ole shop air isn't. How many have air dryers on your shop air compressor? Water inside a tire will make a mess of any tire ballancing powders too.

It's your bus, do what you gotta do.

[gus]

Stan,

I really like your system-now I know how to get all my tires inflated with free nitrogen!!

[chargePlus]

2. Nitrogen does not expand as much in volume when heated compaired to air

The reason for this is the moisture content of "air." Pure nitrogen doesn't have moisture in it, and thus expands at a nice constant known rate. Racers have been using nitrogen filled tires for a while. Me? Yep, I race, but I use plain old cheap/free air. I know that if I start my tires cold with 30psi, when they heat up (usually within 1-2 laps) they will have 40-42 psi, which is the manufacturers recommended pressure.

- John

[ghanson]

Speaking of airplane tires, here's what can happen to them if a brake locks up.  Bummer.....ghanson

[Green-Hornet]

Wow...quite a lil flat spot on that one!

[ghanson]

Yes, the mother of all flat spots.  Here's a closer in, although it's not got a lot to do with busing.   Only thing to do with this one is make a flower pot of it....g