Driving on dirt roads

Lin · July 03, 2010, 07:55:58 AM

This subject came up in another thread and brought a question to mind. I live down a one mile dirt road. It is made of sand with some clay so it can pack down nicely if there have been rains. However, this is a desert and we do not get much rain. Hence, by now the road has lots of loose sand. Just leaving and returning home therefore kicks up huge clouds of this dust sand mixture that gets sucked into the filter. I know there have been warnings against blowing out your air filter for fear of damaging the media, but I was wondering whether it would be okay to pop off the intake hose, which feeds to the inside of the filter tube, and vacuuming at least the bigger stuff out.

My other thought has been to create a temporary mount for some big AC filters that could cover the grills for that one mile.

Just Dallas · July 03, 2010, 09:03:20 AM

Removed

BG6 · July 03, 2010, 09:59:48 AM

Vacuuming your filter won't hurt it any. You might want to use one of those soft round brush fittings on the end.

When I take out the filter, I whack the rubber or metal end a few times on the ground.

boogiethecat · July 03, 2010, 10:01:37 AM

If you have room consider using two air filters in series. Then you can safely blow out the first almost as many times as you want to without worrying that anything will get thru the second filter(which you NEVER blow out, but replace every so often).
I do this quite successfully with my Burning Man engines.

Lin · July 03, 2010, 10:23:02 AM

Just wanted to mention that most of the dust gets blown up by the exhaust. The tires are secondary.

eagle19952 · July 03, 2010, 10:51:20 AM

K & N. Thats what i use.

prevost82 · July 03, 2010, 11:00:11 AM

I go camping with the bus in the bush and have to drive on some very dusty gravel roads. What I do is have 2 filters 1- for dirt road and 1- for highway. When the highway filter gets dirty it becomes the new dirt road filter and I buy a new one for the highway.

gus · July 03, 2010, 02:54:19 PM

Lin,

I live on a two mile dirt road.

I also thought that the exhaust was the culprit so I changed them to shoot straight out instead of slightly down. I then found that the tires were, indeed making most of the dust. I slowed down a bunch, the speed makes a lot of difference.

I also shut down my gen set because it really blows a lot of dust since all the heat is exhausted out the bottom.

Ed Hackenbruch · July 03, 2010, 03:17:41 PM

The radiator squirrel cages on our 5's suck air in thru the radiators and blows it down over the engine and out the bottom. Nothing you can do about that. I stay off of dirt roads as much as possible.

Lin · July 03, 2010, 03:51:00 PM

Ed,

I wasn't thinking about the blower, but I guess that would be the major storm. There is no avoiding that one mile in and out though. I was looking at the air intake, and it would be easy to clip some filter over it. Even some window screen would keep the big stuff out.

Gus,

The road also gets to be washboard. The faster you go, the smoother the ride.

Hi yo silver · July 03, 2010, 04:15:52 PM

I know a lot of you don't have over the road a/c, but since mine is still working, I still have it. When I'm on a dirt road I shut it off because the condensor fan blow straight down and stirs up quite a cyclone.
Dennis

JohnEd · July 03, 2010, 05:01:11 PM

WOW! Remember when the bus intake was up on the center of the roof? More dirt roads and dust back then. What a idea....whose time has come again, and again, and again. Those Outback type Japanese 4X4's have the air intake up at the top of the windshield. Seems an odd place to put it, no?

John

belfert · July 03, 2010, 05:35:08 PM

Quote from: JohnEd on July 03, 2010, 05:01:11 PM
WOW! Remember when the bus intake was up on the center of the roof? More dirt roads and dust back then. What a idea....whose time has come again, and again, and again. Those Outback type Japanese 4X4's have the air intake up at the top of the windshield. Seems an odd place to put it, no?

I remember all the way back to 1995 which was the year my bus was built. It has a roof mounted air intake. It is a bad design as birds could get in and block the intake. More than one Dina engine has had to be rebuilt due to this. I covered my intake with hardware cloth after cleaning out the partially clogged intake.

I suspect this was done due to dirt roads in Mexico. Dina designed this model as if it was to be used in Mexico even thought it was built for MCI for the USA and Canadian market. I wish the wheelbase was longer as it has the same amount of luggage space as a 35 footer.

NewbeeMC9 · July 04, 2010, 04:56:03 AM

Quote from: JohnEd on July 03, 2010, 05:01:11 PM
WOW! Remember when the bus intake was up on the center of the roof? More dirt roads and dust back then. What a idea....whose time has come again, and again, and again. Those Outback type Japanese 4X4's have the air intake up at the top of the windshield. Seems an odd place to put it, no?

John

usually that is a snorkle for water crossing.

gumpy · July 04, 2010, 05:10:59 AM

Quote from: NewbeeMC9 on July 04, 2010, 04:56:03 AM
Quote from: JohnEd on July 03, 2010, 05:01:11 PM
WOW! Remember when the bus intake was up on the center of the roof? More dirt roads and dust back then. What a idea....whose time has come again, and again, and again. Those Outback type Japanese 4X4's have the air intake up at the top of the windshield. Seems an odd place to put it, no?

John

usually that is a snorkle for water crossing.

Yeah, kinda like this...

Hummer H1 Very Off Road Drives Completely Underwater!