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Filling wheels with helium...

reddog64

reddog64

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Just a thought... I had to laugh... Iwas reading a pic description on a website and it said "floating through"
What would happen if you used helium in your tires instead of air? Would it work? might it "lighten the load"...
Just a thought...
I'm not seriously gonna do this....

Um... yes officer I know it's too big...
 
I think each might take 5-10 pounds off, which means a maximum of 40#, which is about 0.8% of the weight of a 5000# beast.

Why not hydrogen instead? If anybody shoots a tire, you'll blow him away too
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Since the helium would be under pressure, it'd still be heavier than the unpressurized air around it.

Heh, you'd probably save a *bit* of weight, but how much does the air in a tire weigh to begin with? ;)

-Al.
 
i believe i heard that race cars use helium or a mixture of other gases becasue it resists heat better and keeps the tires cooler to improve tire life.
 
Even if you were running 44" tires, I doubt they would hold enough helium to make any real difference. Just think of how many birthday balloons it would take to lift just 1 pound off the ground....try it some time.

I could see race teams using other types of gas that are more stable in the tires as regular air is fairly unstable when it comes to temperatures (higher temps cause higher pressures, etc....).
 
I've always considered this to be a good idea. Not only do you save on unsprung weight, you can find your tire leaks just by breathing around the tire. As soon as you sound like a little man from somewhere over the rainbow, you've found your leak.
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But seriously, what you need to know is how much weight is there to helium to provide 30psi (or whatever you run) in the volume of the inside of your tire and compare it to the equivalent for regular air. It's just a simple physics problem. However, it would probably be most cost effective to just sell your steel wheels for Aluminum or ditch the rear drums for some disc brakes compared to buying all that helium, especially if you're always airing up/airing down for on-road/off-road.

One nice thing is that helium usually comes pressurized in a tank, so you wouldn't have to carry an air compressor.
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<font color=green>Stupid tourist at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky: "How many miles of unexplored passages are there?"</font color=green>
 
I used to race BMX bikes & there are bike frames around that you can fill with helium to make them lighter but in that business I guess even ounces can count .
On the tyre thing could you imagine filling them up , you turn around for a second then look up in disbelief to see your K5 going up into the clouds . OOPS ! .
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Just like that story with the guy , his lounge chair , some weather balloons & an air rifle . Did ya hear that one .

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helium inside bike frames. wouldn't that add weight. wouldn't it be better to just suck the air out and create a vaccum. no air, no helium, no nothing, no weight. too bad you can't do that with your tires.

lawn chair, weather ballons, rifel, darwin awards. lol.. heard about that one...

ARQ.

PS: on a bike frame i would create a vaccum and fill with little helium, too much and you could be liquifing it creating weight. kinda like water in your air compressor.
 
On the race car thing they do use Nitrogen. One another note those power tanks (or whatever they are called) use CO2. CO2 expands more than air. If you drive your truck on the freeway w/ CO2 in them your tire press will go up more than if they had air in them.

'71 Blazer CST with alot of rust
 
Most aircraft use nitrogen in the tires, too. Especially high-performance planes. It's much more stable and predictable temperature-wise, and safer in the event of a brake fire.

I think I read somethin in Road&Track a few years ago where they actually did the math and figured out the weight savings of helium-inflated tires on a sports car. It came out to like 0.5-1.0 ounce per tire.

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Semper Maintenance!
 
<font color=purple> They do use Nitrogen in race tires. It's far more stable without all the expanding and contracting. What would happen if you filled your tires with Methane ? ...... Forget it, That idea stinks ............ oh my god , I crack me up !

You could ask a friend to let a little air out of your tires and subsiquently rip one in his face !

L8r,
. Riz . <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.geocities.com/rizmonkey>http://www.geocities.com/rizmonkey</A>

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Ummm isnt helium flammable too? Nitrogen is an inert gas. It dont burn. Thats the main reason for using it. Helium isnt inert, Id hate to try to reseat the bead on a helium or hyd filled tire!

Mike


<font color=blue>Thumper
85 Fullsize Jimmy
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<font color=red>Lets Go Wheelin! </font color=red>
 
Helium doesn't burn. The Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen, another lighter-than-air gas that burns quite well! They switched to helium for lift in zeppelins as a result of that accident.

<font color=black>HarryH3 - '75 K5</font color=black>
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Yes, helium IS an inert (or "noble") gas, along with neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon.

Wow, that H.S. Chemistry class really came in handy here...

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Semper Maintenance!
 
haha My left front is full of eyther (sp?) from when it was rebeaded on the the truck hahaha. Jackit up spray it down and throw a match...worked quite well. Went from rolled bead to rolling in 7 minutes at Dixie run last year.

Diging it in the dirt with my K5's
Grim-Reaper
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mmmmmm......... ether............. huh, were you saying something????????............
 
my personel experience with helium is that it only makes you sound funny :)

It does not make you high......

rezalB

Built for a purpose.
 
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