First let me thank all that sent expressions of sympathy. My mother, an Rver from the way back machine, always said, “that there were no strangers in the RV fraternity, only friends that you had not met yet.”
Now on with the subject at hand, nitrogen in tires in place of plain old compressor air. I have rewritten this blog at least ten times from the politically correct view point, from the gloss over the facts point of view, and finally from the let it all hang out perspective. Now remember that my blogs are my own opinion as I have arrived at them from a study of the facts as I see them.
But we need a little background here. Yes my primary life’s work can be categorized as automotive education but my view of education was in places markedly different from the standard definition. If I was going to teach automotive technology I needed to know the industry inside out. That meant getting into the minds of the guys sitting in the board rooms, the sales meetings, design and engineering, marketing and advertising, the technical side, and the customer service end. As a result when things like this nitrogen wave comes along my mind begins to work.
Now in the last blog before my short hiatus we heard George say that switching to nitrogen was a no-brainer. Now I really like George, although I have never met him, but I need to express my views.
Lets look at afew of the claims.
1. Better fuel economy.
This claim appears to be based that all who still have air in their tires instead of nitrogen never check the air pressure and have not for years, all of them, have driven around on under inflated tires. Consumer Reports has tested the “loose less inflation” theory and found that over a year in their test that plain air lost an average of 3.3 PSI while nitrogen filled tires lost 2.2 PSI. If tires are checked monthly this hardly seams a difference worth the price of the nitrogen.
In the claims for nitrogen they state that there is less pressure deviation due to temperature. This indicates that when driving on a warm day that the tires will not build up as much pressure as a tire filled with air. To my mechanical mind this is built in under inflation over what the engineer designed into the tire. Hey, don’t blame me for this assumption I am only using the words supplied by those hyping the product.
2. NASCAR uses nitrogen to control tire pressure under heat better.
True, it works on race cars running 200 miles per hour. The tire patch on one NASCAR racing slick is bigger that the patch all four tires on your family car puts down on the pavement, More patch, more heat developed. 60 miles per hour vrs 200 miles per hour. Taking turns at the limit of adhesion with the pavement. And running a soft compound tread that sticks to the track. This point is driven home by the fact that at the NASCAR race at Indy this year they were wearing out tires every 25 miles of racing! Also at 200 miles per hour a driver can tell the difference in handling when tire pressure chages a quarter of a pound per square inch.
Now I could go on point by point and I’ll bet that when the comments start to pile up we will, but I want to touch on another point. Adding nitrogen to your tires is another in a long line of profit centers for the auto service industry. Years ago I was involved with a company the made automotive diagnostic and front end alignment equipment.
The sales reps were taught that the main focus on the sales call was return on investment. It was true that a shop could make more money in the front end alignment bay than with the guy that replaced clutches. Front end alignment was marketed and every 10,000 we were brainwashed that the front end needed to be aligned. In my last three vehicles with a total mileage of over 300,000 miles I have had the one front end alignment and that was when a tie rod end needed to be replaced on the pick up.
It is strange that catch phrases developed in the sales and marketing meeting becomes the accepted truth without back up or minimal back up.
As the manager of our local TV station says at the end of his editorial comments, “that is my opinion, what is yours?” Lets have some dialogue.
Brad