DealersEdge Professional Forums

With gas prices still being what they are I am hearing of more independants offering a nitro fill for tires. The service seems to run about $3.99 a tire locally and is an add-on to LOF services.

Is anyone out there doing it?

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** Rob, Editor Dealersedge/WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

Rob,
Please enlighten me on what nitrogen in tires does for you. A link or 2 would be nice.

Among other things it improves the rolling resistance of the tire to help improve fuel consumption.Check out this site www.branick.com

NITROGEN PROVIDES A BETTER RIDE...INCREASED TIRE LIFE..AND COOLER RUNNING TIRES....
WE USE IT IN ALL OUR 20 INC AND 22 INCH TIRE UPGRADES

While we are watching and discussing the benefits of nitrogen in tires,keep in mind a
few things.The only purpose is to eliminate or reduce the water content in whatever we use to inflate our tires.What has not been mentioned yet is that the true goal is to reduce the humidity in the mounted tire.Simply leting the air out and refilling with nitrogen has little or no benefit to the customer.What is needed is a tire humidity meter.It may take purging a currently mounted tire 2-4 times to reach less than 10%,where it may take up to 10 purge cycles to remove all the moisture introduced during mounting.Once again the only way to be certain is to check it with a meter.How many here do this and do you really make any $$ at $5.00 each ?
Just throwing this out there for you to consider.

Here's a couple of links, most informative would be the story from aftermarket business, a publication I highly recommend for required reading to see what the dark-side of the force is saying http://www.aftermarketbusiness.com/afte ... ?id=101650

Popular Mechanics http://popularmechanics.com/automotive/ ... rint.phtml

That should get us started more in the discussion.

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** Rob, Editor Dealersedge/WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

I have done some serious investigation into using nitrogen. We sell approx 500-800 sets of custom wheels and tires a year, and thought it would be a great marking tool that does have positive long term benifits. But here is my problem which I have reviewed with 3 manufacturers of nitrogen generators, 2 in person at the SEMA show and they do not have an answer: It would work perfectly if the customer never went anywhere. But what happens if they are towing a boat, and get a flat 400 miles away from you. they fix the flat and now you have regular air in one tire and nitrogen in the others. After a while when the tire gets hot, the increases in tire pressures will be different. I think as much as 5-10 PSI. Now the driver has to make a panic stop with unequal tire pressures, swirves and crashes into someone. Do you think a slick laywer would find a way to own your butt?? All three nitrogen generators agree with the potential differences in tire pressures. This is the only thing that is holding me back. I welcome everyone's input on this.

[This message has been edited by Michael White (edited 07-06-2004).]

After 30 years of Service Management, I tend to be very skeptical about stuff like this and lot of the other schemes that come along. I sent e-mails to Goodyear, Firestone/Bridgestone and Michelin asking their opinion on replacing air with nitrogen. I thought that since they dont make any profit on this, I might get an unbiased opinion. I have to tell you that all 3 responded favorably. They all thought that nitrogen had definite advantages and talked about them.

With so many shops looking for income to replace what has been lost, this looks like the new big thing.


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Frank Burrows ABS
fburrows@absdata.com

While we're on the subject of tires - whats the opinion of siping the tires. Siping is several cuts that are perpendicular to the tread.

I am a big believer in intelligent siping. (Not going crazy with it.) In fact, I did it last night to my personal vehicle to get a few more miles out of the treads. I absolutely think, especially on bigger tread truck/4x4 tires that it helps.

That being said, I'd never do it on an R.O. I know some tire shops out there that will - but it just seems like a big risk to me. Not just from some freak of nature accident, but more from the tire chunking if it isn't done right.

I'll show a customer what it is, lead them to a website or two to explain how to do it, maybe even lend them my 1/4" depth-set razor blade - but I'd never do it professionally.


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** Rob, Editor Dealersedge/WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com