I know what you mean remoser , I have burned 4-5 big piles of leaves in the last couple of weeks and have also mulched 3 times when it has been too windy to burn. The first thing I do when I'm done mulching leaves is blow the tractor off and then check the filters and yes the pre-filter really gets dirty....but checking the paper filter it looked clean. After cleaning the foam filter I give it several shots of K&N air filter spray oil , not sure it will help but it sure won't hurt. It says it will keep the real fine dust from entering.

having the same dust problem here due to lack of rain, blew out the filters after round one with the leaves, 5 hours on new filters and they were nasty. bought myself some disposable dust masks to wear next time.

What we oughta have is disposable masks for the machines. Make'm to fit over the air filter. Like that thing SWMBO puts on her head for the shower.

Ted

The cat's meow for this environment would be a "Cyclonic precipitator" pre-cleaner. In these "dust and particle droppers", the incoming air is accelerated, and then forced to change direction abruptly (usually in a somewhat curved or circular pattern), at that point the size of the chamber enlarges having the net effect of slowing the air molecules while the heavier solid particle continue moving (due to their greater inertia). The solids then strike the surface of the collection chamber where they fall to the bottom to await a clean-out. The clean-out consists of unlatching a few buckles (usually) and tapping the bowl upside down into a suitable container (or on the lawn in the case of what ours would be catching). Lots of off road equipment already have these and they are a real asset.

Mownie my '55 Chevy 265 came stock with an air cleaner that worked just like that. You didn't just dump it out though, you poured then wiped out the oil in the bottom, which captured the particles. Pour a little more oil in and put it back on. Didn't need a shower cap for that oil bath air cleaner. :^) Some people today wouldn't think that oil belonged there.

Ted

Not sure where you guys are but here in Washington state we've been getting a lot of light rain and some pretty gusty winds yesterday. I mowed today even though it didn't really need it because I wanted to mulch all the wet leaves left in the yard from the winds. Wish I could trade a little of your dryer weather for some of our wet weather.

xpostech, not exactly what I was referring to. I'm familiar with your oil bath air cleaner. I had 3 vehicles from years ago that had them (OEM factory). The cyclonic pre-filter that I am talking about is completly dry. I just went looking for an example to post here (no luck yet) and ran across an article where Freightliner Trucks is offering a new version of this device that collects the precipitated material in a tube like column and expels the contents automatically when it reaches a set level.

mownie- this is not unlike the Dyson vaccum cleaners, actually.

Incidentally, my 73 VW has an oil bath air filter- the housing is packed with horsehair, and oil soaked.

This thread has me wanting to look at my air filter this weekend when I take my lawn tractor out for some leaf mulching. I suspect the pre-filter should be pretty well dirty.

True about the Dyson similarities. In fact, I would say Dyson has taken it to a very high level of efficiency. The cyclonic pre-cleaners I have seen and serviced were a product of Donaldson (the air filter firm).