If you haven’t inflated the tires on your car in a while, and the overnight temperatures where you reside are now dipping into the 30s or lower, it is more than likely that each of your tires is under-inflated by around 6 pounds PSI (per square inch).
In general, air stored inside your tires will have a PSI that will either drop or rise by one pound with every 10 degrees fall or rise of the ambient temperature. Over time this pressurized air will also escape from the tires at a molecular level. Driving your car with tires that are under-inflated is associated with a number of risks that can include fuel efficiency that is lower, accelerated or uneven tire wear, and a reduction in safety, especially when you are carrying heavy loads. Under-inflated tires also increase your chances significantly of eventually having to make a call to tow companies such as Leahy’s Towing to ask for assistance.
What You Need To Know About Nitrogen
The air that you usually fill your tires with is associated with two primary virtues, which include low cost and wide availability. This compressed air is in fact already 78% nitrogen, which is described as a dry and inert gas. When performance tire dealerships or new car dealerships offer to fill your tires for free with nitrogen, what this actually means is that most of the remaining oxygen (about 21%) will be purged from the tires and then replaced with a nitrogen content that is higher, without having to use a specialized compressor.
The military, motorsports racing, and aircraft industries, typically use tires that are nitrogen charged, because they need tires that are free from oxygen. Oxygen carries water, is flammable, as well as molecular smaller when compared to nitrogen. This also makes it easier to escape passively from your tires. To condense this story, nitrogen provides a more stable and consistent inflation pressure when compared to standard compressed air.
What Does It Cost?
If you are similar to us, then the costs involved to inflate your tires will be a consideration. We have already seen these green-stem caps, and the cheapest price we have found for nitrogen fills is $6 per tire (before tax). Nitrogen will also leak out slowly and contract and expand according to the outside temperatures. So keep in mind that this is not one of those one-time expenses. After a number of refills, you could have already purchased your own small air-compressor.
If you contact our towing service company when you need roadside assistance, we will drive to you using standard compressed air. We suggest that the money you about to spend should rather go towards rotating the tires on your car when necessary as this provides a way for the tires to wear out more optimally along with offering you with improved traction over the long-run.
Let Leahy’s Towing help you when you need assistance. Call us for more information, our service professionals are here to help.