Re: Air Intake
Reply #4 –
Roland,
Does your air intake look anything like the attached pictures? With the side ventilated air intake, there may be two issues. First, rain blowing onto the side of the coach could enter the air filter. That is why a baffle was placed in front of the intake opening. Secondly, on occasion, birds were building nests inside the air filter. When I bought our U-280 in '03 the service manager said that once I was on a long trip that I could if I wanted, remove the baffle. The original baffle was a circle of fiberglass that barely fit into the square opening and seem to me to be overkill. So I reduced the size and modified the shape to a teardrop. It still prevents water from rain (and overzealous rinsing of coach with a water hose) from entering and yet allows air more access from the louvers.
Frequently I found large leaves (oak especially) and even letter-sized pieces of paper inside the air filter cartridge that significantly reduced the surface area for air intake. Therefore, I fashioned a screen of 1/2" hardware cloth that fits over the opening in front of the baffle. See attached photos.
I believe that after '92 FT modified the configuration of the air cleaner canister so that air enters the outer circumference of the filter and that clean air from the center is drawn into the engine. In my year it was just the opposite: Air enters the inside of the cone-shaped filter, is drawn through the filter and then enters the engine intake from the outer circumference of the filter.
Topic: Air Intake