davidfarmer

just "vacuuming" a tire to diagnose and repair a leak around the bead. Thought I'd snap a photo to show what many of the Pro teams used to do to get all of the excessive moisture out of the tires before filling with nitrogen or "dry" air. Not trying to start another debate over what kind of gas to use, just showing a picture if anyone cares.

This is a c6Z06 rear wheel/tire

Jason

That might give you a little vibration.

wallyman424

david farmer, hard at work trying to devolve the wheel.

Falcon

Something about a square peg and a round hole come to mind when I see that picture.

davidfarmer

better picture. You get LOTS of grip if you fill them with water....like a Tractor!

wallyman424

I can't get over how funny that looks.

davidfarmer

The Porsche guys invite "volunteers" to help at the races..... They get to Vacuum the tires, and they get to clean out the holes drilled in the rotors. Good times!

Kubs

Ive had tires like that before. For different reasons though... Since driving a car with ABS it hasnt happened.

SIK02SS

So how does this affect tires other than pulling the wet air out? Any performance lost after?

rasrboy

We did this for all the teams when I worked in ALMS. Works great!

It also maintains the pressure as to not build up as much.

With a relative humidity gauge, I was getting 25-30% moisture from regular air and after purging and filling with nitrogen it dropped to 3-5%.

Good stuff David!

1991Z07

We used dry nitrogen in the fighter tires and struts when I was in the Air Force as well...

That stuff really works wonders to keeping the pressures stabilized when temps go up and down.

Good stuff for sure

travisnd

I hear square tires are the hot new thing....

redtopz

At my last race, I was bleeding pressure off my tires and water was literally blowing out of the valve . It's been a foggy damp winter here and they were probably filled on a cold humid day... I think I will bleed them down and fill with dry air/nitrogen. Thanks David for the reminder.

rasrboy

A tip for those of you that dont have nitrogen at your disposal! Make sure you drain your compressor of moisture often and upgrade to a good inline filter system to cut down the moisture.

I bought roughly a 36" tall nitrogen tank from a local welding shop supply store and the regulator with flexible yellow hose. I then went to sears and bought the $19.99 mini portable fold up dolly and ratchet strapped the tank to it.

I probably have $300.00 in the whole set up but when I want to exchange the tank, it is only $20.00. This was also used to check and set my Moton triples at the track as they can slowly bleed down over time.

Something to look into for all you track junkies.

Aaron

mgarfias

Don't just bleed down, you won't get all the water out. You need to apply a vaccum to boil the water out of the tire. Think swapping an A/C compressor.

travisnd

When using dry air or nitrogen do you run higher cold pressures?

uberC5

How many tires(Corvette tires) you think you get out of a tank? I know when I had my Jeep, PowerTank was just coming out with a portable N2 inflation rig for refilling on trail, but it would only do a few re-inflates of a 35" tire

rasrboy

For a whole season in 09 doing 4 sets plus my shocks all year long. Plus I still have some left.

mgarfias

Just remember to shut the tank off when you're done.

uberC5

That's kinda what I thought you would say. A setup like that would last me quite a while.