Just a fact: tires DO get really hot in Arizona in the summer. In two years, with properly inflated and new tires, I’ve had 5 tire failures (4 were tread separation and blowouts). The road temperatures easily exceeds 200 degrees and the tires are subjected to extreme conditions. Therefore, the use of nitrogen, and the elimination of water vapor does let the tire run significantly cooler in the SW US. If you don’t have extreme temperatures, I wouldn’t worry about the use of nitrogen vs. compressed air. Thanks.
Regular air is 78% nitrogen anyway. I’d take nitrogen for free, but would not pay 5¢ extra for it. Race cars use nitrogen because the expansion rate is less and pressures are more predictable when a pound makes a difference.
Heat is worse for tires and batteries than the extreme cold is in most of the country. The tire pressure goes up with heat so that has to be considered. However, I would run the highest pressure that I could. I think that would help to keep cooler because of less flexing. I run 40# in my Sierra tires and that is more than recommended. It’s my truck. I can do what I want within reason. Maybe you just had a string of really bad luck. If all the damage was on the front or back or one side, perhaps that would suggest some vehicle problem-alignment, worn struts or shocks, bad stabilizers.
OP doesn’t need a cite. I used to work as a construction inspector, and frequently did road work that needed an infrared thermometer to do my bit. Even in the northeast US, pavement temperatures on hot bright summer days would usually exceed 150 degrees, and sometimes hit 180+. I don’t doubt that 200 degree statement for southwest US at all.
Because higher air temperatures enable higher pavement temperatures. I don’t recall any day I was working being over about 100 air temperature, so I assume that if I’m getting temps of 180+ on the pavement when the air is about 90 - 100, then if the air temp is 120, the pavement temp should reasonably be expected to be correspondingly higher.
Road temperature is dependent almost entirely upon absorption of sunlight, which is why it is so much higher than air temperature. It is only indirectly related to air temperature, and that relationship is mostly due to the fact to the fact that air temperature is also partly related to the amount of sunlight. In the absence of sunlight, once a surface reaches air temperature it can’t possibly get any hotter. It is only if it is absorbing heat faster from sunlight than it can lose it that it can possibly rise above air temperature. So of course air temperature has no real effect on road temperature. Higher air temperatures may make the loss of heat from the road somewhat slower, but when you are talking about a difference of between air and road of 80oC and a time of several hours needed to cause the rise in temperature, a difference of 5oC in air temperature can’t have any measurable effect.
So while road temperatures can be higher on warm days, they can also be much, much lower. To illustrate this, imagine that air temperature today is higher than yesterday because of the movement of a warm air mass into the region, bringing with it a lot of cloud and high winds. But the amount of sunlight is actually much, much less than yesterday. As a result the air temperature today is 5oC higher than yesterday, while the road temperatures are 20oC less. That’s an deliberately extreme example of course, but it doe illustrate why an expectation that warmer air temperatures leads to warmer road temperatures can’t be justified.
Thanks **Blake…**just a couple things to add.
A hot summer day in the northeast will have more sunlight hours than in the south and temperatures tend to remain stable overnight as opposed to the desert, say, in Arizona.
I think you have something else going on. I’ve owned cars in the desert for 40 years, and don’t experience tire failures at all. Are these retreads? Used? I can’t imagine 5 million residents here are experiencing what you do. :rolleyes:
Batteries last as little as 18 months, that is true. But I often buy new tires, maintain them, and eventually they wear out evenly, as they should.
Because of the tilt of Earth’s axis. Think summer in the arctic, sunlight 24 hrs a day. At the equator it’s 12 hrs year-round. So, the farther from the equator, the more daylight hours in summer (fewer in winter, of course).
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, kitsrball, we’re glad to have you with us.
When you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers to provide a link to the column you’re discussing. It helps keep us on the same page, and avoids repetitions, and cuts down on searching time. No biggie, you’ll know for next time, and I’ve added a link to your post. And as I say, welcome!
Nope, we’re talking hours. For example, On June 21, the arctic circle has 24 hrs of daylight while at the equator has only 12. Here is a simple graph to illustrate daylight hours/lattitude.
