Heads up on road grime damage to radiators

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Wouldn't a window screen mesh work or help.

..... But Bill beat me to it ?????............ It's pretty fine but I think enough Air would still get thru to make it work ....... Mike

[Peter Aawen]

I believe that just about ANY screen fine enough to stop debris small enough to build up & cause that sort of damage from it getting trapped in there almost certainly WILL create air-flow issues & therefore over-heating issues over time!!

I'm sorta surprised that those KOTT mesh inserts don't create that sort of issue anyway, but I'm pretty sure that most people ryding in Arizona or Aust style summer heat would experience overheating problems with even just a little bit of rubbish caught on them, let alone any finer mesh & the trash that'd collect over time/ryding!!

I think the 'fix' would be more likely found in a way to blast any collection of grit out of the wearing/collecting surfaces regularly rather than in restricting the airflow even more with a finer grille!!

[PrairieSpyder]

I believe that just about ANY screen fine enough to stop debris small enough to build up & cause that sort of damage from it getting trapped in there almost certainly WILL create air-flow issues & therefore over-heating issues over time!!

I'm sorta surprised that those KOTT mesh inserts don't create that sort of issue anyway, but I'm pretty sure that most people ryding in Arizona or Aust style summer heat would experience overheating problems with even just a little bit of rubbish caught on them, let alone any finer mesh & the trash that'd collect over time/ryding!!

I think the 'fix' would be more likely found in a way to blast any collection of grit out of the wearing/collecting surfaces regularly rather than in restricting the airflow even more with a finer grille!!

You may be right, but they'd have to make them easier to remove so you could blow them out with an air compressor.

[SpyderAnn01]

I believe that just about ANY screen fine enough to stop debris small enough to build up & cause that sort of damage from it getting trapped in there almost certainly WILL create air-flow issues & therefore over-heating issues over time!!

I'm sorta surprised that those KOTT mesh inserts don't create that sort of issue anyway, but I'm pretty sure that most people ryding in Arizona or Aust style summer heat would experience overheating problems with even just a little bit of rubbish caught on them, let alone any finer mesh & the trash that'd collect over time/ryding!!

I think the 'fix' would be more likely found in a way to blast any collection of grit out of the wearing/collecting surfaces regularly rather than in restricting the airflow even more with a finer grille!!

I live in Las Vegas where temperatures are in the 100s for months on end. I have never had overheating issues here, but I did have them in Alaska and Canada. We don't have the bugs here and it doesn't rain often do not a big issue. I even had the KOTT grills until one fell off last year. The culprit for me was dirt and rain

[Peter Aawen]

I live in Las Vegas where temperatures are in the 100s for months on end. I have never had overheating issues here, but I did have them in Alaska and Canada. We don't have the bugs here and it doesn't rain often do not a big issue. I even had the KOTT grills until one fell off last year. The culprit for me was dirt and rain

That's interesting & valuable feedback Ann, thanks!

Here in Aus, putting just about anything over the front air inlet areas of any vehicle radiator will cause some cooling degradation, either straight away for those motors/cooling systems with little surplus cooling capacity, or eventually for everything else - and while it's usually the finer screens that reduce air flow rapidly, even the expanded metal mesh stuff with 1/2" wide gaps catches enough bugs & grass seeds etc over time to be an issue!! Altho in the case of many turbo-ed engines (gas or diesel powered) that sized mesh can mean instant overheating just by disrupting the necessary volume of air flow!!

However, from your info, it sounds like the low level of our Spyder Radiators & the build-up of dirt & slush from the Alaskan & Canadian roads is more of an issue than just restricting the air flow, & that adds to JC's warning about the eventual damage that stuff WILL cause - so washing it out regularly seems to be the only remedy atm, at least unless BRP provides a retro-active fix for a 'not so great' design!