People are usually surprised when I tell them how much nitrogen we carry on our trailer. They picture a bobtail, the big 40 to 55 foot tractor and tank rig, because that has been the standard for high volume nitrogen for a long time. It works. But it is not the only way to get a lot of product to a job, and on a lot of jobs it is no longer the easiest way.

So let me answer the question I get most: how much nitrogen can you really fit on a trailer small enough to pull behind a pickup. The answer is 50,000 plus SCF of usable nitrogen, and once you understand why that is possible, the rest of the story makes sense.

It Comes Down to Three Things Working Together

Everything good about this trailer comes from one simple combination.

The product. We carry 50,000 plus SCF onboard. That is enough to run four or five sequential pressure tests on a single fill, so the work does not keep stopping for a refill.

The footprint. The whole package is about a third the size of a bobtail.

The movement. Because it is small and tows behind a pickup, you can put it where the work is and move it as the work moves.

A lot of product, in a small package, that you can actually move around the site. That is the combination, and it is the thing I am most proud of in how we built it.

Why Pressure Is the Trick

The reason we can carry that much in that little space is pressure.

A bobtail stores nitrogen at around 2,200 PSI. At that pressure you need a very big tank to hold a useful volume, which is why the rig is so large. We store at up to 6,500 PSI on select systems. Higher pressure means more nitrogen packed into the same space, so we get the same usable product in a much smaller trailer.

What is onboard is not one exotic tank. It is 16 high-pressure tubes plumbed together as a single delivery system. Your crew sees one connection and one steady supply. Behind it, sixteen tubes feed the line without the start and stop you get from swapping individual cylinders. The nitrogen comes out at 99.5 percent N2 or better, which is clean enough for the purging, drying, and commissioning specs that actually matter.

About Moving It, Plainly

I want to be straight about this, because honesty is the whole point. You still need a CDL to move this trailer. What you do not need is a big rig. It tows behind a standard pickup, so you are not routing a semi-tractor onto a tight site or waiting on one to come free. That is a real difference on a congested plant or a lease road, and I am not going to dress it up as more than it is.

Why the Product Onboard Matters So Much

The expensive part of a nitrogen job is usually not the gas. It is the waiting. A crew standing by for a refill, a driver tied up on a resupply run, a test window that slips because you ran short halfway through. Carrying 50,000 plus SCF onboard takes most of that off the table, because you set up once and keep going.

Here are a few real field results that show what that looks like:

• A 22.5 mile, 20 inch transmission segment, roughly 60,000 SCF of internal volume, handled through commissioning
• A minus 40 degree F dew point reached in 14 hours, inside an 18 hour window
• Twelve well laterals commissioned in three days
• A 24 hour commissioning window closed in 19 hours

Where a Bobtail Still Makes Sense

I am not here to tell you bobtails are finished. If you are running a long, multi week mainline job with full semi access and plenty of room, a bobtail’s continuous volume is a sound choice, and I will tell you so. The point is narrower. For tight sites and multi test sequences, our trailer brings the product you need without the rig you do not.

Lots of nitrogen, small footprint, easy to move. For a growing share of work, that combination just wins.

Frequently Asked Questions