Replaced the air filter today, about 10k and one year on it. The filter minder showed 10 in restriction, as you can see it was plenty dirty. We do drive down quite a few dusty roads boondocking.
Does look pretty bad for 10k miles.
Curious where your air intake is located?
Air intake runs up inside the rear cap on the right side. Where the rear view camera is mounted there are intake slots. A lot of dust back there in dirt roads no Mayer how slow you go. Moral of the story here is if you run dusty unsaved roads much check your air filter. Again the filter minder only read 10".
Yep same place mine is located, worst possible for dust intake as it's a low pressure zone. I have long considered moving (and enlarging) the intake to the side.
If you think that location is bad, check a GV with the intake almost on the ground behind the right rear tires.
P
I just moved mine last week. I plan to do a short write up about it at some point.
As Pierce stated, the location of the air filter on our 91 GV is low and behind the rear tires. I removed the original dome shaped cover on the intake and built a filter cage to fit the entire louvered area. I can remove the outside screen of the filter housing and clean or replace the filter material. I haven't had to do any thing with the installed filter for years. Guess I should check it to see how it is doing. This can be done on the older GV's but I don't know if any thing can be done on the newer rigs. Have a great day ---- Fritz
As filter replacement is a double edged sword, new filters allow larger particles to pass thru the filter media and nobody has economicaly solved this delima. Larger particles cause the most damage. A filter more accurately described as a particle arrester functions by rapidly changing the direction of a fluid, be it air or any other fluid, the denser particles can't change directions fast enough and impact and stick to the media. Big pores in the media get filled up first as they are the path of least resistance and therefore the highest velocity, and less ability to change directions. Micron and percentage ratings of filters are typically done at 2/3's of there design pressure loss. I kinda like Brett Wolfs three year plan on air filters, unless I hit 25" on the filter miinder. Just tried to present some facts and the science behind it. My opinion on oil filters is every other oil change on our mostly low mileage per year coach's based on the info.
Looking forward to seeing it.
I use the blue media air filters,Donaldson makes them and would never go by the filter minder.Here's an example,if Mr. Beane
went by it his filter would have imploded.They are just not that accurate.Not knocking you Phred but unless you have super low
mileage I would change the oil filter at every oil change,just my opionion.My reasoning on the filter minders is after checking air
filters on industrial engines for years most of them do not work.I'm sure Mr. Beane is not the only one out there with his setup,look
how dirty his was at 10 inches,imagine at 25.On my 8.3 the air intake is on the drivers side maybe half way up in the back and
they installed a Donaldson particulate contraption,this is where the duckbil is and should be cleaned periodically.
Found this on YouTube. Helpful for folks like me that need a pretty good rundown. Explains from a fleet owner perspective.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cHRNtYBgrf4
X2 on the filter minder. And yes as Phred said an air filter is more efficient when slightly dirty. When I talked to Baldwin engineering they said something like 10% dusted makes the filter more efficient. However when you see material caked on the pleates it's time to change. I didn't intend for this to become a debate over filters. Rather as an example of what happens if you run extremely dusty roads in search of boondocking in the South West.
John 44, what is your source for Donaldson Blue air filter DBA5029 I couldn't find anyone that stocked it.
Our GV has the air intake on the driver's side, just below the bedroom window and immediately forward of the rear cap.
I pulled the air cleaner a couple weeks ago and blew out the filter. Still looked clean after 12,000 miles, altho I think I replaced It somewhere in that time.
Found one at discountfiltersonline.com Forgot where I got mine but they had one.
Look on Petroil web site good prices on the blue also. P/N DBA5029
John
The late 1993 U300/U280s used an big pipe across the bottom of the air cleaner and then up the side a few feet where the intake is. It's nice and I'm going to fabricate the same for our earlier 1993 U300. Ours is on the passenger's side.
Pierce
That is a great price ($47.88) but...
Please note that we require a minimum order of USD 250 for wholesale pricing. Complete your order and Take $10 Off.
They also say 6 to 8 weeks to complete order.
>:( >:( >:(
see ya
ken
Got my filter P148043 from Ryder 54 dollars and change including freight in 3 days.
The engine tech (his name is Arvie, really) at Cummins NPower Coach Care in St Paul MN told me that if you ever open the air filter canister, carelully remove the air filter and throw it away no matter how old or new it is. Carefully and completely clean the interior of the canister. Put in a new filter that has the screen mesh in both the inside and outside. Close the canister and reset the filter minder.
The canisters that have a side air inlet use different filters than the canisters with the end air inlet. They look the same but have different part numbers. The air flow between the two canister types in in the opposite direction.
Do not skimp on these filters. It is only $20 or $30 between the worst and the best. They must have a screen mesh inside and out. The PO on our coach (outside-in flow) used a cheap filter with no inside screen, it failed and caused more the $25K in engine damage. All to save $20.
Also be aware that "shape alone" does not indicate the correct filter.
Some (same exact dimensions) are meant for air flow "outside to inside", others "inside to outside" and others are bi-directional.
I know if at least one engine failure (dusting) due to collapsed air filter from a "wrong direction" filter.
We have a inline Donaldson filter seperator part number H000878,keeps dirt and water from getting to the actual filter.Most of
the filter enclosures Foretravel used were Donaldsons and have a label somewhere with the filter number,and from what I have
seen they used what was availible at the time,Jerry's 96 270 may not have the same air filter as mine.
I have used Wix, Baldwin, Napa, no dusted engine. Last 2 have been Donaldson as indicated on the filter housing. As far as opening the can up to check filter condition, as long as you wipe the housing out and reinstall the old filter "properly" what can be the problem. Done hundreds of them in my work years no dusted engines. Back to my original post the filter minder read 10" and you see the shape it was in. Suppose I had not visually inspected it. With all being said most of the filter manufacturers will tell you air filters are usually replaced too frequently under " normal" highway use.
In commercial applications, I completely agree.
But, with the few miles more RV'ers drive, air filters are (or should) be replaced on time as well as on condition. Paper and glue dry out. 3 years on a filter is "CHANGE TIME".
Same for tires-- very few RV's wear out the tread-- tires are replaced based on time as well.
X2 on what Brett says. On air filters I do once a year, as I said we do a lot of dusty roads.
I don't have one of those on my 98. Could you post a picture of where it is installed on yours? I'd consider installing one if it works, especially at keeping water out of the regular air filter which seems to be a problem due to the location of our air intakes when driving in the rain.
Referencing the Beamalarm website details this is what I feel is good advice regarding air filter service:
http://www.beamalarm.com/Documents/know-your-air-cleaner.htm
Also somewhere in my memory I remember that on the Donaldson filter housing on my coach the filter minder hose fitting is mounted in the end cover. This provides a sealed area where the filter minder can read filter restriction. For this to happen there must be small, maybe 1/16", hole in the metal plate at the end of the air filter. If you have a filter that doesn't have this hole the filter minder won't ever read a restriction. There are filters out there that appear to be exactly like the OEM filter but lack this hole required for the filter minder to work. I learned this the hard way.
Steve
Has anyone looked into spraying a thin coat of oil on the new filter to close any potential gaps leading to dusting? Some high performance filters use this method, although, in gas engines, I imagine too much oil could damage exhaust sensors. It most likely would not harm a diesel. I will look into it, good thread.
One would need to know a LOT about the chemistry of what oil would do to paper and resin that make up the filters. I would not consider it.
Good thought Cube but it just will not work with the paper,that's one reason some of us use a by-pass oil filter,mine holds about
the same amount of oil as the stock filter and goes down to one micron.Years ago Amsoil sold the oil impregnated foam air filters
and about twenty years ago they switched to the blue material,if I were to do anything I would install one of the seperators if I
did'nt have one,we went on a 10k trip to Alaska last year and had some dusty roads and my filter did not look anything like Mr.
Beane's .
If you EVEN suspect there are any gaps, replace the filter. Anytime your gauge goes past your recommended restriction number, it's time to replace it. Blowing it off just makes a big mess and you have the potential of tearing the paper element. Replacing the $65 filter sure beats dusting the engine and a $20-$30K overhaul.
It really depends where the engine air intake is located on the body as to how fast it gets dirty. All our coaches are not the same.
Most Foretravels are rear engined and go through filters much faster than a front engine rig.
Pierce