diesel4life

You guys are awfully hung up on associating grease buddies with "no or poor maintenance practices". As I said before, nothing can eliminate the need for periodic maintenance. You cant install a component and expect to wash your hands of any preventative maintenance, it just doesnt work like that. Also, not sure who you got your info from but having put my hands on them several times for brake inspection and maintenance your comment on the inner bearing not getting grease is misinformative. Never have I seen that problem and I've pulled them apart many times. Not so much on my trailer but on a close friend who owns an oil field service company that I help out with in the spring when he's really busy. I was over there just last week so I could put my truck on his lift to investigate some lift pump issues and he had a trailer in the other bay working on some lights and annual brake/ hub inspection and it reminded me of this thread. I asked him how long he's been running them and he pointed at the trailer next to my truck and said that was his oldest trailer and he had them installed the same year he bought the trailer which was 05. He just replaced the drum/hub assembly last year because the drums were worn out. That's 9 solid years of running an average of 10-15 thousand miles a year at high GVW on secondary and rough dirt roads and poor lease roads. He's got 2 other flat deck trailers and 2 dump trailers and no bearing failures on any of them either (only not as much time on them) That's proof enough for me.

"Snow was clean back then" LOL, ya got me there. Your absolutely right, filtration isn't as important on a sled as other applications. I wonder what they run on new machines these days?

I wouldn't put one on any of my engines...oiled foam filter yes but no K&N for me. About the only thing I see them being good for is high performance engines used in competition where the engine is torn down frequently and maximum CFM is a priority over filtration. Going by the efficiency numbers they report themselves, I wouldn't run one on anything I cared about.

The difference is foam vs pleated. K&N uses a pleated material with a much more porous design that allows them to claim more air flow than any other design (material) on the market. This may be true but they have nowhere near the filtering capabilities of a foam filter. Not only that, but many dirt bike and ATV's run 2 stage filters much like off road engines that utilize a primary/secondary dry element. Two is better than one. That being said, companies like Fleetgaurd and Donaldson have made significant improvements in dry element filtration. Protecting a turbocharged engine under sustained heavy engine loads flowing up to 1300 CFM at 99.8% efficiency in dusty environments like a field during planting season or a construction site is a testament to the technology of dry elements. Ive pulled the element out of the 5088 on my families farm and the exterior was packed with fine dirt sediment and yet the intake piping was clean as a whistle. I think if oiled filtration was superior we would see it in applications like this.

The stator clutches can seize hard to the point there is no stall in the TC and as soon as a gear engages the engine dies, or, they can partially fail and pull rpms under the set point and try to drive thru the brakes. I would put the truck in neutral and drop it into drive and immediately let off the brake. May even have to give it a little throttle to overcome the dragging TC. The Fuel system on the VP44 trucks can not compensate fast enough to stay running when put under a load at idle and will easily stall. If the truck takes off and drives fine I'd say you have a failed torque convertor. If the engine runs fine and there are no codes that point to something else it is almost definitely trans related. There is nothing on the engine side that will cut the fuel simply by putting it in gear.

Thats probably one of the bigger issues with any oiled element is the end user. Too many people fall for the marketing and end up taking a crash course in filter maintenance. I wouldn't want to learn the right and wrong ways on an 8k dollar engine. I grew up on dirt bikes and ATVs where they have ran oiled elements forever and they seem to work quite well, but they are almost always a 2 stage foam element and I believe they trade a little bit of flow for better filtration than K&N's materials.

There is some rather compelling evidence on the Fleetgaurd and K&N link I posted earlier...takes a few minutes to read through but it is hard to dispute. Like how K&N's published efficiency ratings are 99% initial and 99.48% overall and passes 10 times and 2 times more dirt compared to Fleetguards 99.9% efficiency ratings. Unfortunately people like the guy Tom is talking with think because K&N claim to be the best and they have a million mile warranty, they must be the best on the market.

They were bent pretty good so we had to remove both before reinstalling the new ones. We tried supporting the door and replacing one at a time but quickly realized we were just fighting ourselves. What we did to save all the work of disconnecting the electrical (power doors, locks, windows, stereo) was roll the window down and hang it from our overhead crane with just enough tension to support the door. You could do this with a chain fall or come a long from the rafters of your garage too. Then removed both hinges and bolted the new ones in. We also marked the straight edges of the hinges that weren't bent with a fine paint marker so we could put the new ones back in the same. Luckily nothing else was bent so it was all pretty straight forward.

This just happened to one of the work trucks. Had to replace both hinges to get everything lined back up.

I've read in many reports where the added cost of a gallon of ULSD compared to a gallon of LSD is 10 cents a gallon. The big cost was the transition in updating the equipment which was billions of dollars but 10 - 12 cents a gallon difference is the number I've seen in a few places like NACS and EIA. I believe you are right when you talk about demand, aside from the marginal increase here much of the world is dependent on diesel fuel like we are to gas and it probably pays better to export then it does to keep it here, which keeps the demand and therefore the prices where they are. What technology did they recently bring to your area? Would be interested to hear about it.

My set up is a little different. I've got my Raptor motor mounted on an earlier version of the AD100.

Wish diesel fuel would follow suit. Still have yet to see it fall below $3.30 locally.

Just came across this. Hit me up if you decide to rebuild your trans, I can put you in touch with Dean and he can give you some ideas on rebuilds. My trans is going on 6 years now, still rock solid.

What are your typical silicon levels in you UOA?

My latest Raptor motor is approaching 2 years old and has been problem free up until the last month or so. Every so often the pump will not turn on with the key. I have to tap it a few times and then it will take right off and run fine until I shut it off again, and then its a crap shoot whether or not it will turn on with the key or not. I've not had a lot of time to dig into it but I have checked the connections and even swapped the fuse and relay and everything looks OK. It almost seems like its a problem in the motor, because as soon as I tap on the end of it it takes right off but the strange part is it doesn't give me problems again as long as it is running. Ive only had to call their customer service twice, but both times they've been friendly and helpful. Replaced the one pump no questions asked and didn't even ask for the old one back.

Which part of the country are you in? What are you using for an anti gel? Even in Ohio where its not known to get extremely cold we saw several days last year of temps similar to yours and colder and never had any gel issues. I only added an antigel on the days where it was forecasted to be -15 or colder and no problems. I'm wondering if it's a fuel issue more so than your set up. If I lived in an arctic climate I'd look at something like these. Not sure how good an inline heater would work as the filter is the first place to gel. http://utahbiodieselsupply.com/fuelfilterheater.php

Here's another link from Cummins stating the difference between 99% efficiency and 99.9% efficiency. As stated in the link a filter claiming 99% efficiency like K&N's initial ratings pass 10 times more dirt than a filter with 99.9% efficiency. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=w9qmVKmgFcT-yQT_u4GgAw&url=http://www.munizhnos.com.ar/folletos/filtros/folleto_Air_Filtration_Technology.pdf&ved=0CC4QFjAH&usg=AFQjCNGq76bELA_tkTxQZ2W5z7XcIXDlWA&sig2=ysP373yMaP_i4DfMBeVtEA K&N's published numbers. http://www.knfilters.com/dynocharts/E-0776.pdf Even at their claimed 99.48% overall efficiency they are still passing at best 2 times more dirt than OEM filtration.

The air filtration industry is a rather misleading one. There are very few independent tests out there which really only leaves the manufacturers claims to go by and they can be quite misleading. "Best flow AND efficiency" is rather contradictory but most all of them claim it. If the fella on the other forum thinks an aftermarket company can offer better filtration than a company like Cummins/Fleetgaurd, there's probably not much help for him. Its easy to find a filter with better flow characteristics but the filter efficiency will be compromised. And who cares about better than OEM CFM numbers anyway unless your dealing with a modified engine, which is highly unlikely in an RV, or the vast majority of diesel powered rigs on the road for that matter. Here is one of the better dry vs oiled element tests that I have come across. The tests were very short (500 miles) and in a very damp humid climate so while the differences may not seem like much, the results will be multiplied many times over the period of a normal service interval and even more so in a dry dusty climate. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=j9GmVITpJMn5yQS9oIKYAw&url=http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest1.htm&ved=0CDQQFjAJ&usg=AFQjCNFSNIdknsdjf2ZXJ7_U4V37VLLBLg&sig2=2Gat4FTeDJtuuuBpK-tzBw

I am just wondering how much clearance you have at full lock so that I can get an idea of whether or not my 34s will rub. I also ran 285/75/16s on a stock front end, but my 17s have a slightly different offset than the OEM 16s. Right now I am running +2 and a half inch coil springs but want to drop the front end as much as possible without rubbing. My only options are a +2" coil spring or the plow springs, but not knowing how much lift they will give me makes it hard to drop the cash on a set and go through all the work just to find out I don't have enough clearance.

No problem, I won't be ordering until after the new year any way. My tires are 34" so if your not experiencing any rubbing I should be OK as I'll only be a half inch taller from the hub out, but would like to be sure if at all possible. Have a happy new year!

Couple of Questions for you. First, what size tires do you run and second, would you please do me a big favor and measure how much clearance you have between the tire and closest contact point at full lock? I am ready to buy a set but not sure that I will clear my 285/75/17s. I would be most grateful!

Does your truck start on its own? Does it maintain a charge while its running?

I don't know for sure, there seems to be some different info out there. I can check with a mechanic who is well versed on this, I do know the 98.5-00 gets charging and tach info from the crank sensor and the 01-02 uses the cam sensor for the same info, but the 98.5-00 engine also has a cam sensor that is used for diagnostoc purposes, so Im not sure if the newer ecm could obtain the info from there or not. Unless someone here can definitively explain the difference, I will make a phone call tomorrow and find out the scoop.

Well, not according to these guys. I've never had to deal with an ECM so I don't know, but I was planning on calling a friend who has a lot more knowledge in this area unless someone here can clarify it http://www.innovei-ecmrepair.com/product/2002-dodge-ram-ecm/

I think the ECM would be OK but will have to dig into that more to be sure. But need to know for sure what year engine you have. Take a peak at the data plate on the gear case cover like I mentioned above so we can figure out what you've got.