The discussion of trail repairs for tires came up recently in regards to CO2 or an on board air compressor for refilling tires. This article seems to add another factor to the discussion in how fast does CO2 pressure drop compared to atmosphere air.
Exploring Overland: Does CO2 leak out of tires?
I used the front tires on our Land Rover One Ten, since it was due to be parked for a while and I wanted perfectly stable conditions. I deflated both tires completely, then filled one with a compressor, the other with my CO2 tank, to 40 psi (in the process learning a valuable lesson about tire gauges, see here).
A week later I checked both. The compressor-filled tire remained at 40 psi. The one filled with CO2? Thirty six. Aha. Two weeks later the air-filled tire had dropped about a half pound, while the CO2 tire was a smidgen under 33. That’s about a 20-percent loss in three weeks.
My tentative conclusion is that CO2 does indeed suffuse through automotive tires, albeit at a substantially slower rate than it does from a thin butyl bicycle tube. This means that if you use a CO2 tank for tire repairs and airing up, it would be wise to check the pressure more often than you normally would.
So does this add any weight to one side or the other of the CO2 vs on board air compressor discussion?
Exploring Overland: Does CO2 leak out of tires?
I used the front tires on our Land Rover One Ten, since it was due to be parked for a while and I wanted perfectly stable conditions. I deflated both tires completely, then filled one with a compressor, the other with my CO2 tank, to 40 psi (in the process learning a valuable lesson about tire gauges, see here).
A week later I checked both. The compressor-filled tire remained at 40 psi. The one filled with CO2? Thirty six. Aha. Two weeks later the air-filled tire had dropped about a half pound, while the CO2 tire was a smidgen under 33. That’s about a 20-percent loss in three weeks.
My tentative conclusion is that CO2 does indeed suffuse through automotive tires, albeit at a substantially slower rate than it does from a thin butyl bicycle tube. This means that if you use a CO2 tank for tire repairs and airing up, it would be wise to check the pressure more often than you normally would.
So does this add any weight to one side or the other of the CO2 vs on board air compressor discussion?
that would also be an acceptable answer. It is the rigs way of saying it is time to get in the dirt.