A Stupid Question??

i was talking to one of my sprint car buddies the other day about tire shake. it seems that they get shake just like we do. i never thought about it, but i guess it makes sense. he told be that they use nitrogen instead of compressed air in their tires, and it almost cures tire shake. the way he explained it was that you will get water in the tire from the compressed air, and when that goes to one side of the tire it is likely to shake. it seemed like there would have to be a whole bunch of water in there to make that true. anyone ever try this? or is everyone doing it, and i am just that far behind? anyone?

 

If he is right that would be a different kind of shake than we deal with. That would be a more out of balance shake where ours is a distribution of power shake in making the tire not to know what to do. I would highly doubt that they could shake the tires in the same manner that we do but I would believe they could do it in the way he says even tho I am not sure about the water in the tire problem. Usually they and nascar uses nitrogen just because of the fact that they dont build as much pressure when warmed up as does regular air but I may be wrong on that also.

 

shake

even after long burnouts on a hot day i have never seen a significant difference in tire pessure after a run. i think ladon is right, sprint cars have balance issues where low pressure large diameter/wide slicks have transition problems
frank

 

I've used Nitrogen in my slicks in years gone by and comparing the pressure rise through temperature change between Nitrogen and good old compressed air, the Nitrogen does not expand as much as air does. This is good for the stock car guys in particular as less pressure change as the tire heats up makes its characteristics more predictable / consistent. The stock car guys also use or used to use Nitrogen for their air guns as well, it's amazing what 250 or 300 pounds of pressure will do to an air gun!

 

Tire Shake

We run a Pro-Mod and we ran a funnycar for a few years, we also run a World of Out-Laws Dirt car. We used Nitrogen in both. Nitrogen is a dry gas with little to no water in it. On the dirt car water can end up in the tire when using just air. This can make the tires run out of balance and build up PSI. It also builds up more heat. We run it in the Pro-Mod because it is in the trailer and we think it can't hurt