Seen any green caps on truck and trailer tires recently? Probably not.
Those hard-to-miss caps are a telltale sign that those tires are filled with nitrogen, which tire experts say reduces air pressure loss and eliminates moisture that accompanies ambient air.
“One of the benefits of nitrogen is that it does not diffuse through the inner-liner of the tire as quickly as air,” said Greg Kidd, application engineer for Bridgestone Americas tire operations. “Therefore, nitrogen does reduce inflation pressure loss over time when compared with air.”
Race car teams that are particularly cautious about maintaining proper tire pressure have used nitrogen for years. Airlines too. But what about truck fleets?
More than a decade ago, stories rolled out announcing fleets that had signed up for nitrogen by acquiring machines that can render the common element from the air, which Kidd pointed out contains “a combination of about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon and other trace gases.”
But as the years ticked away, technology supporting tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) improved and helped fleets to more consistently maintain ideal tire pressure while out on the road; something that’s more of a challenge for nitrogen users.
