Like many others, I noticed my filter minder was approaching the red when my truck was completely stock and nearly brand new. I went with an aftermarket filter along with the other mods listed. The filter literature stated that they don't bother with filter minders because they claim their unit flows so much air it is not necessary. I went along with this for a year or so, but I am a curious guy.
As I see it, to get a realistic reading with most of the aftermarket units, you would have to install the minder downstream from the filter element, so I just pulled my stock rubber elbow, drilled a 3/4" hole and installed the minder there. I have not run the truck since doing this.......any thoughts?

 

AFE includes a port and hose for the filter minder on the PG7 set up. Dont know about the others. I'd think if one were diligent about cleaning it, you shouldnt have any problems running without one. Basically, its just an "idiot light" for maintenance.

Back in 2003 a couple of even more inquisitive gentlemen (I think one of them went by Alaska Ram or something along those lines) on here conducted some very long and elaborate testing of after market air filter systems. If you do a search for AFE from back in the March to June time frame of 2003, you should be able to find that thread. It ended up being fairly long (@20 pages). But there is a LOT of information regarding flow rates, and filtration.

 

I don't see why that setup would not work. Just make sure you clean out all of the shavings from drilling. Im sure you already took care of that although