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The Ultimate in Tyre Inflation...


RedRobin
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....So goes the manufacturer/supplier's claim. A company called Uniflate claims that Nitrogen tyre inflation, as used in the airline industry, F1, and even on the 1969 Moon Buggy, is the ultimate cos it provides "Safer Motoring", "Longer Tread Life", Reduced Fuel Consumption", "No Oxidation".

I don't want this post to be a sales pitch - I haven't tried Uniflate Nitrogen but has anyone else? And is it good or just hot air?

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It's used in aviation and racing tyres because of the water vapour inside the air that we breathe, on an airplace it could possibly freeze while in flight damaging the tyre and in a racing tyre it could expand and cause the tyre to expolde. Nitrogen is a noble gas so it hardly reacts to anything and is ideal to these conditions.

But in cars? Stick to air and spend the money down the pub.

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The benefits of Nitrogen (over air) are:

1) The pressure is (a lot) more stable with varying temperature

2) It doesn't escape nearly as quickly through rubber

I guess that point 1 means that the cold inflation pressure needs to be higher than with air.

Point 2 means that, barring punctures, the pressures will not fall so quickly over time.

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3) Tyres don't explode and catch fire on landing as easily...

(Why aircraft use N2 for tyre inflation - and ABS to keep them on track on those slippery runways)

Speaking of aircraft tyres and fires - anyone see the news (tonight my time) on the jet that landed at LAX with the nose wheel down and locked at 90 degrees to the direction of travel?

Brilliant bit of piloting. 169144-ok.gif

Of course, being America, this "life or sudden flaming death" situation was covered aggressively by the media - and piped into that very aircraft so the passengers could watch their impending demise in the seat-back TVs on the plane. smashfreakB.gif

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