| Author | Message | ||
| Mitch Alsup (Mitch_alsup)
Member Username: Mitch_alsup Post Number: 337 Registered: 4-2002 |
At the tire shop, after the first bead is set, take an air jet hooked up to a nitrogen tank, stick it inside the other beed, blow lots of nitrogen as you move the jet around the rim. Seat other beed with compressed nitrogen. This will get 80%+ of the air out of the tire. | ||
| V.Z. (Ama328)
Junior Member Username: Ama328 Post Number: 103 Registered: 11-2002 |
ok, i'll bite - anyone know a cheap, easy way to go from air filled to nitrogen filled? Would rather not spend $x,00 to pull this all off. Can you get stuff to do this at local parts store, race shop, or where ? Do like the blurb about vacuum sucking air out before nitrogen in, tho... | ||
| Rob Schermerhorn (Rexrcr)
Junior Member Username: Rexrcr Post Number: 206 Registered: 11-2002 |
Nitrogen's advantage is total absence of water, either liquid or gas. This benefits with longer rubber life because water attacks the compound, which is the primary reason industries other than racing utilize nitrogen, like over the road trucks, aircraft, off-road construction equipment. Those tires are very expensive to purchase and maintain, so the cost in time and materials to fill with nitrogen is a good investment. For racers, we use nitrogen to try to maintain a predictable pressure gain with the increase in operating temperature of the tire. Moisture in the "air" of the tire causes deviations from what otherwise can be a reasonable prediction of what the pressure gain will be. But to simply let the air out of the valve stem, and then refill with N2, does only half the job or less. There still remains 14.7 psi in the tire before refilling. Use an industrial vacuum pump to pull down the remaining "air", have a tee installed that allows you to immediately begin filling with nitrogen, now you've nearly 100% nitrogen atmosphere in your tire. An industrial pump will pull vacuum in an average car tire in 20 seconds. Formula One teams actually own nitrogen generation machines due to the volume of their use. I don't think they bring these to fly away events due to weight, there they use tanks not only for tires, but also for air tools. You can go to your local welding supply store and purchase an aluminum nitrogen tank (I can take it to the track in a small car), regulator, hose and fittings for about $150, which is what I have in my garage at home. I don't have a vacuum pump at home, but still run nitrogen. For anyone living in the Chicago area, Waukegan Tire, located off Route 41 at Washington Street, offers nitrogen for free and has the equipment to do it right. | ||
| Charles Barton (Airbarton)
Junior Member Username: Airbarton Post Number: 207 Registered: 11-2002 |
Here are some more pic's. I had a lot of fun building this thing. If you have small kids I would highly recommend it!   | ||
| Charles Barton (Airbarton)
Junior Member Username: Airbarton Post Number: 198 Registered: 11-2002 |
Not quite but close! I got the plans from a company called Aviation products inc. It was not a kit although they do have liks to other people who make the parts. I cut the parts out myself from plywood and sheet metal. The only kit parts were the wheels and axle which I assume were made from lawnmower parts, and some of the decals. Many of the decals on the plane were made by my wife on her computer. | ||
| Jim E (Jimpo1)
Intermediate Member Username: Jimpo1 Post Number: 1271 Registered: 7-2001 |
I think this might the plane... http://www.pedalcar.com/pedalkits.htm | ||
| James Glickenhaus (Napolis)
Member Username: Napolis Post Number: 487 Registered: 10-2002 |
Good Stuff! | ||
| Charles Barton (Airbarton)
Junior Member Username: Airbarton Post Number: 189 Registered: 11-2002 |
Thank you but actually it's not an RC plane. It's a peddle plane for my son. I built it for him from a set of plans I got off of the net. It is mostly plywood and sheet metal construction. It was all done with a table saw and some basic hand tools! He loves it when I chase after him pretending to be another fighter plane. We have dog fights out in the driveway, it's alot of fun. | ||
| James Glickenhaus (Napolis)
Member Username: Napolis Post Number: 486 Registered: 10-2002 |
Charles That rc plane in your garage better pull up soon! Nice. | ||
| Charles Barton (Airbarton)
Junior Member Username: Airbarton Post Number: 180 Registered: 11-2002 |
Mitch is right about aircraft tires. They use nitrogen because it lacks water vapor and tends to be much more stable under varying conditions. The tires on our airplane are filled with nitrogen. | ||
| Craig Dewey (Craigfl)
Member Username: Craigfl Post Number: 536 Registered: 1-2001 |
The other slight effect is that dry nitrogen is more inert than air. Even though air contains a large percentage of Nitrogen, it does contain Oxygen and other gases which will deteriorate the rubber quicker over time. | ||
| Mitch Alsup (Mitch_alsup)
Member Username: Mitch_alsup Post Number: 332 Registered: 4-2002 |
Nitrogen is used in aircraft, and most real racing car tires. Nitrogen is dry--lacking water vapor. Take a tire mounted in the standard way--swab on some detergent and water to lubricate the bead as the tire is mounted ont a wheel. Much of this swabbed mixture remains in the tire for the life of the tire. Take another tire, mounted with a dry lubricant and filled with nitrogen. Now apply these tires to a car and drive around a race tract for 10 laps until they get hot. The tire with air will have about a 30% pressure rise over the tire with nitrogen. For example, say you are using 32 PSI, the tire with air may come off the track with 44 PSI, while the tire with nitrogen may come off the trace with only 40 PSI. THis difference is the water vapor. This leads to setup issues at the track, where an air filled tire would have to start racing at 28 PSI to finish at 40 PSI, while the nitrogen tire could start at 32 PSI to finish at 40 PSI. The first few laps on the nitrogen tire will be better than the air tire. When driving (even outrageously) on the road, it makes absolutely no difference! | ||
| James Glickenhaus (Napolis)
Member Username: Napolis Post Number: 480 Registered: 10-2002 |
Race cars used to do this. I don't know if they still do. As N has less molecular friction it does work. | ||
| Lung (Lung7707)
Junior Member Username: Lung7707 Post Number: 109 Registered: 1-2002 |
Anyone tried filling tires with nitrogen? I heard that the pressure remains relatively stable? Any thoughts? Pros and Cons? |