The journey begins - purchased a truck.

It isn't about dirty vs clean. It's about a better design that allows more air to flow freely through the filter.

 

I guess they didn't test any farm or off road equipment. We would blow out the filter daily when combining anything. Soybeans are about as bad as it gets. They'll choke up an air filter after a day's work like nothing you ever saw. I would never blow out the filter on my truck like that but it that's what we did with the harvester. Just not practical to buy a new filter daily. With most highway tractors I agree they could go a really long time without needing replaced. I toss mine every 50,000 as a matter of routine. I just can't see where a dirty filter could be beneficial in any way regardless of taxpayer money wasted on some University study that claims otherwise.

 

Blair, now you found my business model1 week of work and 3 off.

 

All of our heavy equipment has an inner and outer filter. We tap out or blow out the outer, but never touch the inner as insurance in the event we damage the outer. In some conditions this is a daily task as rollin coal mentioned.

 

That was when I was a kid. Probably the same kind of fliter an inner and outer just so long ago I don't remember what it looked like, just that it was a daily task.

 

On my first truck,my 69 Transtar,it had a huge oil bath air cleaner.PITA to service,but they did an amazing job of cleaning the air.Everytime I cleaned it you would get huge amounts of dirt out of it.

 

When Mt. St. Helens blew and deposited ash I was working on a ranch in Northern Idaho. Th radio stations were cautioning not to drive in the ash as it contained silica, and was too fine for paper air filters to catch. I had a 78 GMC pickup and had to drive in the ash, so I soaked a piece of foam rubber in oil and stuffed it into the air cleaner intake. It helped, but some folks found oil bath cleaners from the junk yard and fitted them in place of the paper air cleaner. Nothing gets passed oil bath!

 

I use the K&N's on all of my cmv's for no other reason than I can clean, re-oil, and re-use them instead of running to town to buy another paper one. I keep a minimal stock of parts in my shop, but I just know that I'd be out of filters when I needed one. The K&N's are about 3 times the cost of paper, so it seems to be well worth it in the long run.

 

I was in Portland when Mt St. Helens blew.The stuff was eating wheel seals out from abrasion.I remember Portland police cars cut holes in their hoods,and stacked air cleaners 3 high to keep them running.Piles of ash were stacked everywhere.Short time later we hauled a dredge out of Ellicott Machine in Baltimore out to the Toutle River to dredge ash out of the river.One Machine,over a dozen loads,spuds,pontoons,house,conveyors,etc..The pic below of my black 4300 with the 4 axle lowboy is the engine house to the dredge,120k lbs.Full of Cat Motors and pumps.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your information, Blair! Not only is it interesting and well-written, it's genuinely useful and appreciated by those looking at going O/O down the road.

Great thread, great stuff, everyone!