Nitrogen; An Extra-Income Opportunity for Expediters

ATeam · Aug 20, 2012

There are several proponents in the Open Forum of using nitrogen in your truck and van tires. The thought came to mind today of buying a small nitrogen generator to put in your truck and then do what the tire dealers do; charge a few bucks to put nitrogen in people's tires.

Feasible? Yes or no?

moose · Aug 20, 2012

Solicitation on a privet property?...nay!.
'working' while 'off duty'...
marketing, book keeping, tax reporting, ROI, business plan ?...
it's a whole other 'small business' to take care off

BigCat · Aug 20, 2012

Under the table? You know the ole handshake and thanks for airing up my tires buddy kind of deal? Yea sure do it.

Turtle · Aug 20, 2012

You can get a Single Tire Inflation unit for $2600.00, and after that they start at about $6265.00 and go up rapidly after that.

LDB · Aug 20, 2012

It takes quite a bit of time for even a van sized tire. No clue how long for a truck size. "Uh, dispatch, I'm going to be about 2 hours late to that pickup as I'm nitrogen filling some tires right now." or "Uh, driver, I have to go on a run now. Sorry about your half flat tires but I have to pull the hoses off now and run." Pretty sure neither one is going to be pretty.

pearlpro · Aug 21, 2012

Ive been looking at Nitrogen and when I get back in the new truck Im going to have the tires filled with it, Ive got it in my car now and its made a definite difference, Ive noticed better handling, and cornering, its not affected by the heat and before my cars LOW PROFILE, HI PERFORMANCE TIRES would simply leak air and become mushy, If I went off and drove for a month, and came home, the tires would be 5-7 lbs low, Just had them checked and they had not lost a Pound....I think its a definite improvement, I dont think Id start my own business doing it...

Moot · Aug 21, 2012

Raising chinchillas has less start-up costs and potential for a greater return on investment.

scottm4211 · Aug 21, 2012

Nice try Moot. I tried chinchillas in my tires and they wore unevenly. Smooth ride though.

jaminjim · Aug 21, 2012

LDB said:
It takes quite a bit of time for even a van sized tire. No clue how long for a truck size. "Uh, dispatch, I'm going to be about 2 hours late to that pickup as I'm nitrogen filling some tires right now." or "Uh, driver, I have to go on a run now. Sorry about your half flat tires but I have to pull the hoses off now and run." Pretty sure neither one is going to be pretty.

Okay, how long would it take based on 1.4 CFM?

Turtle · Aug 21, 2012

About 160 seconds for a van tire.

BobWolf · Aug 21, 2012

Do you have to log that as on duty?

Turtle · Aug 21, 2012

Only if I'm placarded.

twentyhigh · Aug 21, 2012

You guys crack me up! Thanks for the chuckle!

LDB · Aug 22, 2012

When I take my van and have to evacuate the tires and refill with nitrogen it's usually connected to the system for 15-20 minutes and that's a system doing all 4 tires concurrently.

ATeam · Aug 22, 2012

LDB said:
When I take my van and have to evacuate the tires and refill with nitrogen it's usually connected to the system for 15-20 minutes and that's a system doing all 4 tires concurrently.

How often is the evacuation/refill done?

LDB · Aug 22, 2012

In theory only once unless regular air is put into the tire for some reason and then it has to be redone. Then of course when a new tire or set of tires is put on the process repeats.

Jenny · Aug 22, 2012

When we had the nitrogen in our sprinter tires, we never had to mess with them for the 160,000 we got out of the set of tires.

ATeam · Aug 24, 2012

OK, nitrogen fans, help me think this through.

Diane and I have 10 tires on our truck, so at $5.00 each, it would cost $50 to fill our tires with nitrogen. Say we do so. In what way will the nitrogen-filled tires make that money back and more?

I understand about consistent inflation pressure, but I have an air hose built into our truck for inflating tires and I keep them properly inflated using the truck's air compressor. I understand about heat build up but the modern-day Michelin tires we run on are made to stand that, are they not?

Ride difference with various inflation pressures seems like a lot of hot air to me. I have experimented with pressures +20 and -20 from the tire data book level. No ride difference is noticable (air ride all three axles, Volvo suspension, tandem drive axles).

We have never had a blow out in over one million miles of truck driving. We got over 300,000 miles out of our last set of drives and could have gotten more but I tend to buy new tires sooner than needed.

If I put nitrogen in my tires, how do I make the $50 back?

scottm4211 · Aug 24, 2012

In your case I'm not sure it's a necessity if you're vigilant on keeping proper inflation.

zorry · Aug 24, 2012

You make your $50 back in time saved. Once you believe they'll stay at the right pressure you can leave them alone.
The savings is really more for people like my friend Jim,who checked his pressure after six years of owning the truck,for the first time.
For the average guy the money is saved thru proper inflation.
Do it once,and you can spend your time elsewhere.
No more, Fill, Fill,Fill.