Air Precleaners - which ones work best?

All of my purpose built forestry mulching machines have come with precleaners installed from the factory. I also had a precleaner on my old skid steer. I'm looking for others' experiences to compare with mine as to which models to purchase and what to avoid.

Sucked to be me about a month ago while I was mulching and noticed some black plastic run through the cutterhead on a back cut. I did not realize it at the time but it was the remnants of my Turbo III precleaner that came with the machine. It had fallen off after limb strikes a few times but I had always been lucky enough to catch its loss before I killed it. My luck ran out that fateful day..

I could not stomach nearly $500 for an identical replacement so I started comparing what was available on Ebay. I did not have anything the correct size in stock in my shop, only smaller units. I used to have an Enginaire Precleaner on my Posi-Trac and their lifetime replacement warranty was awesome. Great service from those people. So after comparison shopping on what was available and for pricing, I purchased another Enginaire sized for my 8.3 Cummins at less than $200 for a new unit. After the first week of operations, I was really disappointed with the precleaner's performance. Normally, I could go for 2-3 weeks in dusty conditions with the Turbo III before the air filter was dirty enough to mess with. This time, after only 2 dusty days, my restriction guage was halfway to the red so I pulled the air filter and cleaned it. It was the dirtiest and fullest air cleaner to ever come off of that machine. The Enginaire precleaner was hands down a miserable loser in comparison to the Turbo III. This happened twice to get to the "need to clean" stage in under a week in less than miserably dusty conditions. I got back online and spent the cash for a new Turbo III and installed a leash on the thing so I won't ever lose it completely again. I should have / could have put a leash on it after the first escape attempt and saved some coin.

I'm looking for input from others with their experiences on different precleaners and what works best. I've found that a good precleaner saves me a ton of time and I worry less about my air filter maintenance. I'm considering changing out the unit on the Barko with the Cummins 9.0 now. That one would sometimes choke the filter to alarm status as much as twice a day in really dry conditions - that Turbo III might stop that from happening so often being that the factory unit looks the same as the Enginaire. But maybe there is still something even better out there?

Some use exhaust to clean the pre cleaners. Have seem on ag tractors.

Welder Dave said:

Some use exhaust to clean the pre cleaners. Have seem on ag tractors.

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That's a venturi from the exhaust to remove anything the precleaner catches. It doesn't clean the intake air at all, only the precleaner itself.

I think it is to extend the service interval of the pre cleaner. Just something I've seen before.

The hose that goes to the exhaust is a suction hose. A low pressure condition is created by a venturi assembly in the muffler or exhaust outlet pipe to create a vacuum. This vacuum pulls out any dirt particles that have been ejected by the centrifugal spinners in the precleaner assembly. The screen on the precleaner prevents any particles being too large to be stuck in the vacuum tube. I have one of these assemblies on my dozer. It seems to work well but I have not messed with that machine in some time.

hvy 1ton said:

That's a venturi from the exhaust to remove anything the precleaner catches. It doesn't clean the intake air at all, only the precleaner itself.

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You can't use these on forestry mulchers. Any vegetation that comes out the exhaust will be burning which could more grief than dirty aircleaner filters.

There is a precleaner which looks simmilar to a turbo2 but is all metal with replaceable bearings in the spinner. Made in Argentina but can't remember what make they are. I had one on on a Posi and another on a Rayco.

Fabricate a super heavy duty cage that tree branches cannot rip off for whichever one you like best ?

Tinkerer said:

Fabricate a super heavy duty cage that tree branches cannot rip off for whichever one you like best ?

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Sort of the plan if I feel like taking the time to do this and block more of my very limited rear view. The Turbo III is so large that I was really hoping an alternative model would have better performance so that I could have better visibility out the rear. The leash was quick and easy. A cage will be hours or a day to fab up properly. For 3 drops in 2k hours, it's hard to justify a cage at this time.

I was looking for more performance information to compare to what I have learned and willing to share my experience with others. Right now, nothing beats that Turbo III from my limited experience. I figure someone else out there must have a lot more experience than I do and be willing to share with the rest of the class.

Tones said:

You can't use these on forestry mulchers. Any vegetation that comes out the exhaust will be burning which could more grief than dirty aircleaner filters.

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That could be interesting to watch in dark conditions - a bunch of micro Chinese lanterns taking flight in the night! It's bad enough when I work a county or two over where much of the ground surface is covered in flint rock. It's a real spark show when it gets dark. Surprisingly, I've never touched off any fires yet from my operations. Those rocky areas are no fun for the teeth.

Could you pipe it somewhere so it doesn't obscure your view.
Could you use a Turbo III flex-n-Line ?
Their website says it can be mounted under a hood (if there is room).