Nitrogen tire inflation

Ok, completely off topic, but for those of you that listened to me hype up for hypermiling (a lifestyle that now has me getting 37 mpg with regularity and ease) I have a new trick for you.

Inflating your tires with nitrogen instead of plain ol' air.

I was introduced to this awesome new trend when I had to replace my tires this week.
The information I've heard on it is that it helps increase that gas mileage a little bit more. It helps your tire keep from wearing out quite so quickly and also since nitrogen doesn't expand and contract with the weather, it prevents the typical squish that has you topping up your tires occasionally.

At my local place Discount Tire and Brakes, if I spend 30 bucks, they'll suck the air out of my tires, refill me with nitrogen and then if I have a flat, I can haul it back to them, they'll fix the flat for free and refill me with my nitrogen. If I do find myself needing to add air, I can simply go to any gas station and put regular old air in, then stop back by my tire place and they'll suck out the air and refill me again with nitrogen. And supposedly the whole process just takes 15 minutes.

One of the customer service guys said he averaged about 1.5mpg, while another guy got about 2mpg better than what they were doing before. According to the calculator on the Get Nitrogen website that's a savings of about 58 bucks a year. At least for my stats anyways.

Get Nitrogen says: "With nitrogen tire inflation, improvements can be noted in a vehicle's handling, fuel efficiency and tire life through better tire pressure retention, improved fuel economy and cooler running tire temperatures."


For more information on the use of nitrogen in your tires, check out GetNitrogen.org, or Fox News.

Happy savings!