Once again, I heard part of something interesting on late-night radio.

One of the big problems of driving during or after volcanic ashfall is that the ash is sucked into the air intake of your car until the filter is packed, then the car overheats. Or it sucks it in and the filter doesn't catch all of it. Whichever or both, the ash is bad for your engine.

The radio guy was saying that someone around Mt. St. Helens (I think, since it was the anniversary of the Big Blast) came up with an idea to circumvent the problem of keeping a car running through ash fall.

It seems that this guy removed his car air filter (and maybe the dish thing that it sits in), and attached one end of that expandable aluminum hosing (used to duct hot, damp air to the outdoors from clothes dryers) to the air intake place (probably with one of those pipe clamps with a screw), then stretched the tubing out and put the other end into the car through a window. It was said that he was driving emergency people around.

I guess the idea was that the inside of the car is cleaner than the outside air.

I am assuming that he blocked the rest of the opening of the window with something like wood or sheet insulation and taped it into place.

Do you think this would really work? I know that most cars aren't air-tight, so the air being sucked out would be replaced, right?

Would there be much of an advantage to covering the end of the hose that is inside the car with some kind of filter material? If I were driving, I would be wearing a mask and goggles, because I know the inside of the car still wouldn't contain 'pure' air, just less chunky than what is outside.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated, as I live within 80 miles of a slumbering volcano, and the people downwind of Katla might also find it useful.

Also, this looks like a useful source of info in dealing with ash loads on roofs, in agriculture, etc: Volcanic Ash Mitigation

Sue