Thinking back a bit, there was a outfit back in the 60s made this machine for cleaning paper air filters. Of course that was back in the days when a buck was a buck and a candy bar cost a nickle and people still fixed things rather than just replace them.
I remember dirst truck I ran with a paper filter thing hanging on the fender, that sucker was the size of a trash can and had this little dial indicator gizmo on it so the driver could tell when the filter was dirty. Whoever came up with that indicator should have been took out and horsewhipped. Onliest way a driver could see if that thing was red or green was if he stuck his face up against the windshield and craned his neck. Why they didn't put the thing on the dash is way beyond me.
Tell you something else any driver who can't tell when his air filter is dirty ain't a driver he's a steering wheel holder. Good lord when you're running 1 or 2 gears lower than what you should be toget up a hill first thing you know is the engine ain't workin proper.
I went to carrying a spare air filter in the sleepercab after first time I got caught out on a job in Nevada where the sand was blowing so bad I had a bandanna across my face so I could breathe comfortable. Dang fine sand dust gets into everything.
Now ike I was saying, I think it might have been in one of the PIE barns where I saw that cleaner machine. They had them a cabinet with what for all the world looked like the guts of a paintshaker like the hardware store has and a blower and a vacuum cleaner all hooked up. They put the filter in there and there was clamps that held 2 ends on the filter. When you hit the swiitch the filter went to shaking like a wet dog, and the blower blew air into the filter while the vacuumcleaner sucked on the whole box carrying off what came out of the filter itself. Fellow there showed me how it worked, and said they got about 3 times the life out of filters using it. Made sense figuring the territory PIE ran in.
I suppose a fellow could make up a plywood box and get himself some sort of vibrator to do the shaking, after all youwouldn't need to shake a tractor filter as much as a truck filter. I figure a sawzall hooked to a shaft just might handle the shaking part given the way a sawzall will rattle your cage if the blade gets hung up. Best not try using the sife's good vacuumcleaner though, them wimmen get right riled about that sort of thing.
