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Air At The Supercharger ?

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Now with no longer a need to go the gas station, how do we air the tires?
Would it be a good idea to provide Tesla-specific air at the supercharger?
That is with a secured hose set at 45 psi or whatever.
.
Gas stations are dirty, the people scary and are charging $1.00 for non-customers.
I hope to never visit another.
~Larry
 
Now with no longer a need to go the gas station, how do we air the tires?
Would it be a good idea to provide Tesla-specific air at the supercharger?
That is with a secured hose set at 45 psi or whatever.
.
Gas stations are dirty, the people scary and are charging $1.00 for non-customers.
I hope to never visit another.
~Larry

+1 Terrific idea.

Edit: Could provide pure nitrogen instead of air -- better for the tires (cooler), no smaller oxygen molecules to leak out and reduce pressure over time,... It would be consistent with the high-end nature of the vehicle too, IMHO.
 
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Just buy one of theses. Keep it in the left hand cubby in the trunk.

Amazon.com: Viair 00073 70P Heavy Duty Portable Compressor: Automotive

Never have to worry about an air compressor ever again.

EDIT: I can not vouch for this particular compressor. I bought one that looks almost identical that is Slime branded from Woot!, at a good discount. There are plenty to choose from. Think of it as jumper cables.
 
Now with no longer a need to go the gas station, how do we air the tires?
Would it be a good idea to provide Tesla-specific air at the supercharger?
That is with a secured hose set at 45 psi or whatever.
.
Gas stations are dirty, the people scary and are charging $1.00 for non-customers.
I hope to never visit another.
~Larry

They should also put squeegees and buckets of water near superchargers as well. Especially in areas with lots of big juicy bugs. Perhaps they could pay one of the nearby businesses a small amount every month to maintain the squeegees and change the water.
 
If we are adding that, may as well add a Tesla approved car wash so we can arrive at our destination nice and shiny.
I believe those items will be at SC eventually...however, I'm still waiting for the SC to be deployed in Canada. Once we have them, I'll ask for the add-ons. :)
 
Just buy one of theses. Keep it in the left hand cubby in the trunk.

Amazon.com: Viair 00073 70P Heavy Duty Portable Compressor: Automotive

Never have to worry about an air compressor ever again.

EDIT: I can not vouch for this particular compressor. I bought one that looks almost identical that is Slime branded from Woot!, at a good discount. There are plenty to choose from. Think of it as jumper cables.

I bought one that looked like that years ago and the handle broke off the front the second time I went to use it. It broke the front face off and had the wires for the on off switch dangling. I used it like that for a couple of years waiting for it to stop working.

I finally bought a slime unit Amazon.com: Slime 40022 12-Volt Digital Tire Inflator: Automotive it doesn't have a handle/front face plate that will break off and it is digital instead of analog. The control UI / buttons procedure is counter intuitive but once you master the logic behind the controls it works well. I just wish it had a simpler user interface.

If you want something a little beefier you could try Amazon.com: VIAIR 85P Portable Air Compressor: Automotive it has decent ratings and still uses the cigarette adapter. A straight forward on off switch with a sturdier handle would be nicer than the two above.

If you want something insane you could try Amazon.com: Viair 00088 88P Portable Air Compressor: Automotive but it doesn't use the cigarette adapter port, you'd have to clip it onto the 12v terminals on the front of the car. Not my idea of convenient. Apparently this one draws so many amps they were afraid it would blow the fuse on the 12v system of a car.
 
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Great idea!

About the Nitrogen in stead of air, kind of pointless, air is already 80% nitrogen or so and there has been no proven real-life benefit to using nitrogen other than the economical benefit of whoever sells you the nitrogen.
 
Great idea!

About the Nitrogen in stead of air, kind of pointless, air is already 80% nitrogen or so and there has been no proven real-life benefit to using nitrogen other than the economical benefit of whoever sells you the nitrogen.

Actually, there are small benefits from inflating tires with pure nitrogen. The oxygen molecule in air is about 3 times smaller than the nitrogen molecule, and will diffuse more quickly through the rubber leading to slower pressure loss over time. Also, nitrogen is dry and excludes moisture from inside the inflated tire. The effects are small, but measurable. Is it worth it? Not if someone charges you $5 or $10 per tire to use nitrogen, but I would use it if Tesla provided it FOC at SC locations.
 
Why not skip the Nitrogen and go directly to Helium? Increase lift, reduce rolling resistance and increase rated range! (OK, -1 for my idea, but +1 for the OP)

Not to derail but if there is any merit to the O2 molecule being smaller than N2 thus escaping I'd hate to know how fast Helium would leave a tire...

Also, a big risk that those helium pumps would be used for a lot more entertaining things than filling a tire :)
 
Not to derail but if there is any merit to the O2 molecule being smaller than N2 thus escaping I'd hate to know how fast Helium would leave a tire...

Also, a big risk that those helium pumps would be used for a lot more entertaining things than filling a tire :)

Yeah, Helium is notoriously difficult to store and will leak out of many so-called 'air-tight' containers. Hydrogen, anyone? :biggrin:

[...yes, people: it's a joke...]
 
Actually, there are small benefits from inflating tires with pure nitrogen. The oxygen molecule in air is about 3 times smaller than the nitrogen molecule, and will diffuse more quickly through the rubber leading to slower pressure loss over time. Also, nitrogen is dry and excludes moisture from inside the inflated tire. The effects are small, but measurable. Is it worth it? Not if someone charges you $5 or $10 per tire to use nitrogen, but I would use it if Tesla provided it FOC at SC locations.

As far as I'm concerned, nitrogen is a scam for passenger car tires. And what about the "air" that is already in the tire when you pressurize it with nitrogen? It's not like you pull a vacuum before re-filling the tire. I've often wondered if those tire dealers that offer nitrogen are not actually just pumping air (80% nitrogen already) into the tires and collecting your money.
 
As far as I'm concerned, nitrogen is a scam for passenger car tires. And what about the "air" that is already in the tire when you pressurize it with nitrogen? It's not like you pull a vacuum before re-filling the tire. I've often wondered if those tire dealers that offer nitrogen are not actually just pumping air (80% nitrogen already) into the tires and collecting your money.

For what it's worth, here is a Popular Mechanics article on using nitrogen in car tires.

Nitrogen vs Air In Tires - Why Nitrogen in Tires - Popular Mechanics

The article mentions the correct procedure for filling with nitrogen is to pressurize and purge a few times to dilute the oxygen and moisture in the tire. Not doing that makes a costly fill with dry nitrogen really no better than compressed wet air. Topping off is simply adding more dry nitrogen, but filling a new tire, or refilling one which already has air in it requires this procedure. Pulling a vacuum is not a good idea since that will collapse the tire inside out, a deformation it was not designed to take.

I run nitrogen in my BMW M3 tires (yes, I have a high-performance ICE car as well). Nitrogen is provided by BMW at services -- and the tires definitely don't lose pressure as quickly as when I was filling with compressed air (maybe 3 times as long between fills). I only have 4k miles on the Tesla so far, and based on my M3 experience, I would prefer to use dry nitrogen.
 
My understanding is that nitrogen was a fad and has pretty much gone away. I do not see the green valve caps they were using to indicate nitrogen anymore.
.
Yes, we can ALL carry our own compressor around. I hope to not have to use my Tesla optional, still in the wrapper. Should my car ever fall into the hands of a collector, he will be pleased to find it.
~Larry
 
I bought one that looked like that years ago and the handle broke off the front the second time I went to use it. It broke the front face off and had the wires for the on off switch dangling. I used it like that for a couple of years waiting for it to stop working.

I finally bought a slime unit Amazon.com: Slime 40022 12-Volt Digital Tire Inflator: Automotive it doesn't have a handle/front face plate that will break off and it is digital instead of analog. The control UI / buttons procedure is counter intuitive but once you master the logic behind the controls it works well. I just wish it had a simpler user interface.

If you want something a little beefier you could try Amazon.com: VIAIR 85P Portable Air Compressor: Automotive it has decent ratings and still uses the cigarette adapter. A straight forward on off switch with a sturdier handle would be nicer than the two above.

If you want something insane you could try Amazon.com: Viair 00088 88P Portable Air Compressor: Automotive but it doesn't use the cigarette adapter port, you'd have to clip it onto the 12v terminals on the front of the car. Not my idea of convenient. Apparently this one draws so many amps they were afraid it would blow the fuse on the 12v system of a car.

I took another approach, a little more cost and weight but no hassles with the cigarette adapter and also it can start an EV with a 12V problem:

Amazon.com: Stanley DPS109 Digital Portable Power Station: Automotive

It also has the automatic shutoff for the compressor, but it appears that particular model isn't available any more (I've had it for a few years now.)
Walter
 
Actually, there are small benefits from inflating tires with pure nitrogen. The oxygen molecule in air is about 3 times smaller than the nitrogen molecule, and will diffuse more quickly through the rubber leading to slower pressure loss over time. Also, nitrogen is dry and excludes moisture from inside the inflated tire. The effects are small, but measurable. Is it worth it? Not if someone charges you $5 or $10 per tire to use nitrogen, but I would use it if Tesla provided it FOC at SC locations.

Sorry Steve - I spent many years studying and teaching chemistry. For all practical purposes the size is the same. If you want details,
http://tinyurl.com/oz8c3be

As has been said, the only benefit measurable by a normal human for using nitrogen is the the financial interest of the person selling the nitrogen.