question How effective was the sand-oil bath airfilter?

[rippo]

Hello All,

Most early british vehicles were fitted with the volkes bellows air cleaners. Sometime about 1941 (i think) this changed and the large oil bath air filter was fitted. Sorry i haven't got any pictures to hand, and the volkes bellows were replaced with these, or that my understanding of it. sorry i haven't got any pictures to hand of the oil bath, but i think its same one used on most wartime british? vehicles.

To me this seemed to make sence with the war in the dessert and problems with sand in the engine. I can remember a veteran telling my dad they changed the bedford engines on a weekly basis, due to the sand. So changing the filter from a cloth one to a oil bath seemed to make perfect sence. Not just for the desert but also to deal with the dust kicked up by a convoy in normal service. It cetainly seem's, to me, under all conditions you'll get a longer life from the engine with the oil bath fitted.

Now i've been taiking to someone this week who disagrees with this and says the bellows were more effective than the oil bath in the dessert, and even the long range dessert group kept the bellows filters, opposed to the oil bath. Which at first I thought unlikely, but thinking about it, there does seem to be, or was, a lot of volkes bellows filters fitted in australia. I think GOANNA has a couple!!!

So i've ended up confused, i don't have the kind of information to hand that could prove diffrently so thought i'd pick the brains of the forum.

[griff66]

good question, ferret has oil bath air cleaner in fighting compartment i know some people run them with no oil in , same as open carbs mod on motorbikes how- ever in a dusty environment i for one would keep topped up with oil.

[tim gray]

Another type of filter was also fitted in the african theater, made by volkes once again. I initially thought it was specific to theather but photos are around that show them in vehicles that were serving in france in 1940.

 

I have attached a pic that shows the top of it in the cab of my PU. The dry types are certainly very much simpler to clean out quickly. But when you are talking africa and dust it may be a moot point as to which type was best as the bloody stuff gets past just about everything......inclusive of seals fitted to humans.

 

The very best were the cyclone types but i am not sure if the oil bath type provides a similar function.

Regards

Tim

[rippo]

Hello tim,

From what i've been told, the filter fitted to yours is the early morris filter. I don't think it has anything to do with the desert. I think the morris's also went over to the oil bath filter about the same time as the bedfords. So that is the morris equivlent of the belows. I think one of glynn beresfords morris's has been converted to the sand filter from the type in yours.

Edited May 8, 2010 by rippo

[early british ww2]

Hello tim,

From what i've been told, the filter fitted to yours is the early morris filter. I don't think it has anything to do with the desert. I think the morris's also went over to the oil bath filter about the same time as the bedfords. So that is the morris equivlent of the belows. I think one of glynn beresfords morris's has been converted to the sand filter from the type in yours.

 

The filter in Tims' very nice pu is one version of the early war air filters and as far as I was aware they were not just restricted to use for the dusty climates - Most perople call them the "early Morris" filters but this again appears not to be strictly true as these large box type units were also fitted to other early war vehicles such as Guy Ants and they were also the standard filters used on the air intakes on the compressors on Compressor equipped 15cwt trucks by this I mean the large units with road breaking tools etc in the back of such as Morris cs8 and c4 compressor trucks and not the underfloor tyre inflators . The concertina type cloth air cleaners fitted to such as early aeroscreened Bedford MW'S were another type which were fitted to other early trucks and I again have seen these in Guy Ant pictures and AEC Matadors etc . Alex you are right that my 1940 Morris CS8 has the later type Oil bath air cleaner in it - for the minute anyway until I take delivery of one like that in tims picture . These box filters I have seen in Morris Commercial CS8 , M.C.C PU8'S , M.C.C. CDSW'S ETC , GUY ANT 15CWT . Cheers:coffee:

[Richard Farrant]

I have seen some of these Morris filters in recent years, for sale. A chap in Norway bought a large stock of MCC parts and in some photos was a pile of these.

[Ivor Ramsden]

I have seen some of these Morris filters in recent years, for sale. A chap in Norway bought a large stock of MCC parts and in some photos was a pile of these.

 

Does anybody know what happened to him? I've tried to contact him without success.

[ChasSomT.]

Aha! As griff 66 and Tim Gray said above, the Ferret had an oil bath filter, but the Fox, that 'partially (!) replaced ' it had a cyclone filter. I was in a TA Recce unit when CVR came in, and I thought that the oil bath filters were replaced due to cost. Tim, is it a FACT that cyclone filters ars more efficient? As I recall, the 'Swirl inducing' vanes on the Fox filters weren't substantial.

[early british ww2]

Does anybody know what happened to him? I've tried to contact him without success.

 

I have been led to believe that this chap may have sold off at least some if not all of his stock of these filters and parts early this year but do not have any contact details for him i'm afraid cheers:coffee: