Hello, a newbie here. I'm a bicyclist and use CO2 inflators with 16G cartridges on all my bikes, they work great. I see that one company offers 45G inflators for motorcycles, has anyone tried them for their Model Ts?
Hey Mark - welcome to the affliction!
I have never seen/used a CO2 inflator for a tire of any kind. Sounds like a neat idea, would be a lot easier than the big hand pumps that some folks carry with them.
Let me be the first to welcome you, Mark. In answer to your question, No, I have only ever used air from my air compressor in my T tires. Jim Patrick
Oops. Too slow. Make me the second to welcome you. Jim Patrick
Mark's CO2 comment is an excellent example of why new blood is always good for an organization. Welcome, Mark.
Dick
Hey mark,
I too have been known to cycle and i carry my small pump type bike pump in my car for emergencies. It goes up to 120 psi... so i think im good haha. Ive never used the Co2 type simply because i dont like the idea of buying those cartridges over and over. But if you already have it idk why it wouldnt work.
Anyone ever use a can of "Fix-a-Flat" in a T tire to get you home after suffering a flat?
Mark, What a concept, Going "Green" riding a bicycle and inflating the tires with green house gas. Kinda makes for a zero sum environmental gain, HUH! GRIN!
BTW: Welcome aboard!
Buying those cartridges over and over?.... How many flats do you intend to have? Sounds like a good idea for a roadside fix. At home, I would use my air compressor like normal.
As for Fix-a-Flat. Never tried it in a T, but did on a motorcycle once. It did not work. It says it will work on tube or tubeless tires, but I will never try it again on a tube type.
John & Hal - My limited experience with "fix-a-flat? and similar products leads me to believe that once you get home and have to deal with the tire repair, you're gonna' have one heck of a sticky mess to deal with!
John - Tried to answer your message in Yahoo but I'm new to the Yahoo thing and you may or may not have received it,.....???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9jZkdsvV9Q
It might even help to reduce the greenhouse effect if every tire on every vehicle on earth were to be filled with CO2. Think of how much carbon dioxide will be locked up in the tires!
Norm
Norm, Sounds good until you get a flat and the EPA fines your pants off for emitting green house gas into the atmosphere. :-)
Yeah, we'll need a recovery system and only certified tire technicians will be allowed to work on tires.
Would those cartridges inflate the T tires to 50+ psi?
You might need two of them to get up to full pressure, but it would still be quicker and easier than a tire pump. I don't know about the 45G cartridges, but you can buy the 16G cartridges in bulk pretty reasonably on ebay or Amazon.
Doing a rough calculation, the internal volume of a 30x3.5 inch tire is 801 cubic inches (likely a little less because the tube is a little smaller than the tire). I have emailed a supplier of the motorcycle inflation systems to find out if one of their 45G cartridges would be sufficient to pump the tire up to 55 psi, we'll see what they say. Here is their website:
http://www.genuineinnovations.com/
The fix a flat products generally only work well on tubeless tires, or a tube tire with a slow leak, the biggest problem with them is they are much more expensive than a co2 cartridge, and will only get your tire to about 25 psi, and as Harold said, it is a mess to deal with, usually meaning that the tube is discarded. I think the co2 option is a great idea.
I got a reply from a different company that supplies systems for car tires. The tank looks plenty big, but the system is pretty pricey compared to a hand pump.
http://www.powertank.com/products/sfID1/36/productID/459
Doing further research, I see that some paintball guns use refillable 88G CO2 cartridges, but as far as I can see nobody makes hoses & adapters to allow them to inflate a car tire. I also saw that at least some Walmarts now carry paintball equipment and offer the cartridges on an exchange basis, like propane tanks.
Here is a better system, available from Lowe's. It has a pressure regulator and hose to handle air tools. You could just plug in an air chuck and have at it. When the tank is empty you take it to Lowe's and exchange it for a filled one.
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=166441-61735-J-6901-100&langId=-1 &storeId=10151&productId=1040295&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=rel&rel=nofollow&cId=P DIO1
I'm going to go to Lowe's and give this system a good look.
Oops, scratch the Lowe's system, I read the user reviews and apparently the pressure regulator is poorly built and slowly leaks all the CO2 out. Good concept, but apparently needs more work.