Tires – Which Kind of Air Should You Put in Your Tires?

Recently, more manufacturers than in the past have been using nitrogen as the air to fill the tires that you drive on every day. There have been studies done and the use of nitrogen overfilling your tires with the standard compressed air that most of us use does have its benefits. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find tire filling areas when you’re out on the roads that will use pure nitrogen in the same way that the dealerships use this substance when they sell you a new car.

Not to worry, if you use regular compressed air when you’re out for a drive and put this substance in your tires that have been filled with nitrogen in the past, you’re still going to be able to drive without too much worry at all. You don’t have to avoid mixing the two substances at all, but nitrogen does have some benefits that regular compressed air doesn’t possess for the drive that you’ll need to make. This means you don’t have to plan an air fill or refill when you go out for a road trip, any air station should work just fine.

What are the Differences Between Compressed Air and Nitrogen for your Tires?

While these two substances are two different things, they do work well together, which is why you don’t have to worry if all you have to fill every tire with is regular air. With regular compressed air, much of what enters your tire is water. When you drive on the roads the air inside your tires is heated up and it expands. With water in the tires, this expansion can be unpredictable and can cause the tires to over-expand and work against the effectiveness of the rubber of the tire. On the other hand, nitrogen is a much drier substance and doesn’t bring as much moisture into the tire as regular air. This means you’ll have less expansion to deal with as the tire heats up and you’ll be able to predict the expansion much more accurately. For normal highway driving, nitrogen isn’t required in order to get the results you’re looking for on the road. If you take your vehicle out for competitions or drive it hard for a long period of time, nitrogen is the right substance to use in your tires to make the drive more predictable for you.

Of course, during the warmer months, in areas where temperatures can get up over 100 degrees on a regular basis, it’s important to have your tires ready to perform the way you need them to. The air in your tires will expand and cause your tires to expand. If you’ve ever seen or heard a tire explode in the heat of the summer when on the highway, it’s likely the air expanded and the conditions were perfect for the tire to give way to this expansion. Take a look at the video below to see which type of air you should use in the tires you ride on. Whether you drive a new car or one of many used SUVs, now you can make sure your tires are properly aired up and ready to go.