Ironman Snorkel

Hi Johno

The very first add on to my vehicle for the sake of my air cleaner was a Safari snorkel..

Most modern vehicles have their air intake under the front wheel arche, a perfect place for sucking in dust and water.

Regardless what you drive, a snorkel will be a very wise investment and keep your air cleaner in far better condition.




Cheers




Stephen

I also have a Safari snorkel on my 200 and also a scanguage and it tells me that the snorkel gives a large reduction in inlet air temperature which can only be a good thing as cooler air is more dense.

Alan

As said above, many modern vehicles source their air from inside the wheel arch, above the wheel arch liner.

Most of the time this is a good spot as it is relatively cool air (compared to the engine bay), gives a wading depth slightly higher than the wheel height and is cheap to install the plumbing at the factory.

The down side is that on dirt roads it sucks in the dust that is kicked and finds its way in there from the front wheel.

Probably the bigger issue is that if you have modified the front bumper and wheel arch liner (like ditched the bar and trimmed it back the liner when fitting a bull bar), then it can direct more dust in there and worse still, water when you hit a puddle or shallow water crossing a bit quick.

I know that the old R50 Pathfinder with an ARB Sarhara bar were bad for ingesting water if you hit a puddle a bit quickly. The replacement bar and trimmed wheel arch liner almost funneled water into the air cleaner. A few guys in the club I was part of took the tilt tray home (on different outings) after hitting a ford a bit too quickly. Snorkels were a popular addition after that.

So, Yes, snorkels are cheap insurance. I found my receipt yesterday, $405 for a Safari for a BT50 and fitted it myself. The last one on my Courier was $205, still a Safari, but old stock, which was fine because it was an old ute.

Hi Johno : when we were looking for a snorkel , the comment were that the cheap ones are hard plastic and can crack easy , I think ironman have come a long way in the time ...i do think they work from my experience !!
But make sure it is fitted properly & dosent leak water or dust where it mounts & attachments $$$$

Had my iornman snorkel for 5 years and had no problem with it... The air filter is a lot cleaner in the dusty conditions.

Safari gets the thumbs up for me both in quality and design.
I use a filter over the safari ram head in very dusty conditions, you cant do that with a iron man ram head, there's no neck.
As others have said, ensure it is installed correctly..........no leaks!!!!!

G'day Johnno; Ironman is great (tough) and less expensive, but when I tried to replace the "bird-strainer" (which broke when I went under a tree branch), Ironman never relied to my emails.
Dr Hook

Whatever you get, can I respectfully check it is sealed properly.
Try a plastic bag over the inlet at idle and see if the motor suffocates. You know then you can confidently cross deep water.

Their worth getting as mentioned above to reduce dust intake or in the case of a 2001 Disco I owned sand which it drew into the air box when on the beach. Also you can purchase an aftermarket pre filter for extended dusty conditions if you desire you can get one that fits onto the ram head or a sock type that is placed inside after removing the ram head to install it. Don't worry about rain no need to turn the snorkel head around like some do the snorkel head has flutes which are designed to draw away most of the water even in torrential downpours like we get in the tropics etc You may or may not notice a slight improvement in performance I did with my old GQ and the fuel consumption improved by 0.5 lph. Also be aware of branches etc getting caught up when in the bush.