SHTF "skill"..........Ability to RUN like HELL is coming.

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Sourdough

"Eleutheromaniac"
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Mar 17, 2018
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6,099
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In a cabin, on a mountain, in "Wilderness" Alaska.
Amazing footage. And to think that I live amongst the volcanoes in the ring of fire. The active ones are far away, but the ash fallout is a real threat.

From the videos, those little motor scooter were coming in handy for some.
 
The active ones aren't that far away AJ, Mt. Redoubt you see every time you go to Anchorage. Mt. Redoubt shuts down the Anchorage Airport every few years. I was stuck in Bethel, several times, for over a week, due to ANC being closed due to ash.
I have permanent air filters in all my vehicles due to the number of time that all the stores sold out of filters. Ash is a very real threat as we are downwind. I have removal equipment for snow ad ash.

That looks like a lahar in the OP. They are very dangerous and impossible to outrun. Your only hope is that it doesn't reach your location. Other videos might give a better indication.
 
Mt. Redoubt shuts down the Anchorage Airport every few years. I was stuck in Bethel, several times, for over a week, due to ANC being closed due to ash.

Winter of 89'-90' I spent a month backpacking all over both islands of New Zealand. Flight home, was a refueling stop in Hawaii. That brief fuel stop turned into eight days of "FREE" hotel and meals. The hell I had to endure for being an Alaskan, suffering in Hawaii, because of Mt Redoubt.
Yes.......I save all of my used vehicle air filters, for possible volcano service.
 
old info from when i lived in other place another time..when helens blew up they used panty hose over inlets.other wise it got in engine and scarred it internally to ruination.changed panty hose often.all fleet rigs had surplus of panty hose inside in get home/self rescue box in rear.
 
old info from when i lived in other place another time..when helens blew up they used panty hose over inlets.other wise it got in engine and scarred it internally to ruination.changed panty hose often.all fleet rigs had surplus of panty hose inside in get home/self rescue box in rear.

What I heard was the issue was ash would very quickly clog the normal air filters so the car couldn't get any air, so people where just taking out the air filters entirely and ruining their engines. The idea of a panty hose or sock or something over the inlet was so that you could still have some kind of filter, but something that was a lot easier to knock clear so you could keep running.

What I think you would really want would be something like they have on Baja racers where they have a centrifugal canister settles most of the dust out where it drops to the bottom and is automatically dumped by a soft rubber flapper'valve' before the now pr-cleaned air goes through a regular filter.

In any case, it the issue isn't that regular filters don't work. They actually filter air very very well, the problem is just that if the air is full of fine dust the filter gets clogged to the point where no air gets through it.
 
What I heard was the issue was ash would very quickly clog the normal air filters so the car couldn't get any air, so people where just taking out the air filters entirely and ruining their engines. The idea of a panty hose or sock or something over the inlet was so that you could still have some kind of filter, but something that was a lot easier to knock clear so you could keep running.

What I think you would really want would be something like they have on Baja racers where they have a centrifugal canister settles most of the dust out where it drops to the bottom and is automatically dumped by a soft rubber flapper'valve' before the now pr-cleaned air goes through a regular filter.

In any case, it the issue isn't that regular filters don't work. They actually filter air very very well, the problem is just that if the air is full of fine dust the filter gets clogged to the point where no air gets through it.

all i can tell you is what went on in the aftermath of eruption and what was adopted as SOP in the days afterward..i moved there after eruption but it was a fresh and real thing to deal with so it was discussed often procedures if eruption happened again. the timber cutters wore respirators and they told me when a tree fell it became night time after each tree and they couldnt cut until it cleared.this was a very large fleet of vehicles as well as personal rigs in area. obviously not all done this plus this was decades ago and lots of new things are out on market. my info is old as well now and not involved with these folks any longer so i dont know if SOP's have changed there..but i do know this..it now has a tiny fleet compared to back in the day.the panty hose was over end of air-intake in the grill.it captured ash before it went in and had to be changed or cleaned often. in a crisis work must go on and adaption is what was done back then.

if i lived in area of possible ash i think a redesign pre filter on front would be in order on my rig.something easy to change in and out and cheap too.
 
another thing was chainsaw chains..ash dulls them pretty fast. old cutter told me in 50's up till eruption he use to get into trees that had moss up sides and ash was trapped under it and it would just dull chain fast and he spent lots of time changed blades or sharpening them in field to continue work.

edit to add..i cant recall anything in memory about chainsaw filters and how much was told about ashes effect on them.most cutters are gone from back then now so no asking them as far as i know or have contacts with.
 
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The other thing for volcanos is to remember the ash may fall like snow....but weighs as much as concrete, so even if you've had three feet of snow on your roof every winter without shoveling it off, six inches of ash could be enough to get you into trouble so be prepared to keep your roof cleared regularly throughout the ashfall as the weight could add up a lot faster than you think if your mindset is still thinking in terms of snow.

all i can tell you is what went on in the aftermath of eruption and what was adopted as SOP in the days afterward

Sure. It makes sense, I'm sure it was a real thing. I'm just saying it wouldn't be because pantyhose is a better filter, its much much more open than a automative air filter, but placed on the intake it would be an easy to clean 'pre-filter' so your regular filter wouldn't get plugged up so fast.

People who have ever used a vaccum or shop vac to clean up spilled ash from a wood stove know just how fast that stuff will completely clog a filter to the point where no air gets through....and thats just wood ash. Volcanic ash is much worse.
 
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@Aerindel do you have a link or a picture to these dump things on racers i can see?
 
Here is an example made for heavy equipment:

https://www.bigmachineparts.com/pro...Bl_n5QITDZoGrTNjucte_AWf9QcCScsRoChZ4QAvD_BwE

G057511_grande.jpg


The air comes in the top and swirls in a spiral pattern through the canister which causes most of the dust to hit the sides and fall to the bottom. The triangular thing you see on the bottom left side is the dirt dump, its made of two soft rubber flaps that make a one way valve that lets the dirt that builds up in the bottom fall out as the vehicle shakes and the flaps vibrate open and closed.

Here is one installed in the back of a VW beetle used for Baja racing, which is the context I know them from:

891737.jpg
Screen Shot 2021-12-04 at 5.48.01 PM.png




Here is a link to one example of just the valve::

 
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You can still find volcanic ash in Washington. In the central and eastern side the ash was deep when St. Helens erupted in 1980 my brother had to shovel it off his roof. The ash is very fine and can get into your piston cylinder walls and destroy the motor. Went 3 wheeling months after the eruption and we had to cover the air filters and clean them often.
Pantyhose or knee highs worked pretty good to cover the filters.
 
If the ash gets inside your engine it will scour the rings and cylinder walls destroying the engine. Removing filters is a bad idea. If a jet flies through a cloud of ash the ash will collect on the fan blades and turn into glass. The planes don't fly very long after that. Pilots in Alaska are used to flying around eruptions.
 
That is one of the natural disasters we really don't have to worry about. Yellowstone is probably the closest to us. I hope you are all safe. I know you are as prepared as you can be.
 
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