

| Subject: | Re: Michelin Tire Experiences |
| From: | Loren Busch |
| Date: | Fri, 8 Dec 2006 16:45:29 -0800 |
RE: Nitrogen an Low Inflation The use of dry nitrogen in tires has been around for a long time, especially with racers. The object is not to get rid of oxygen or ozone but to get rid of moisture, water vapor in the tire. This keeps the heating to a minimum inside the tire and keeps the pressure down as the tire heats up. More consistent shape to the tire, more consistent performance. And there are two problems combined with running with low tire pressures in addition to the handling and possibility of popping the bead. At lower pressure the sidewalls flex more. This causes more heat build up. Now the hot rubber is being flexed more than was intended in the design and can lead to separations and early failure of the rubber compound. One way to check inflation on your tires is to use a small IR thermometer like those available from Radio Shack. When heavily loaded I'll check the temperature of all four tires the first time I hit a rest stop or stop for gas. I expect to find the temps nearly the same for all four, indicating to me that the combination of pressures I'm running front to rear is putting the same stress on all four tires. On at least one occasion I found one rear tire running about 20 degrees hotter than the others, checked the pressure and it was down almost ten pounds. Pumped it up and the next time I checked temps were equal.
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