Hydraulic hose replacement

[Magicman]

Paul Case was replacing leaky hydraulic hoses a couple of weeks ago.  I had no leaks, but one hose had lost it's rubber jacket and had rusty steel webbing showing so I decided that it had made it's last road trip.

Since all of us will eventually replace hydraulic hoses, I decided to make an example out of this bad boy.  Maybe it will help someone else showing how simple the replacement task was.


 
First, buy a fitting to connect the old hoes to the new one.


 
Then it is a matter of snaking the old hose out.


 
The new hose tagged along just fine and is now ready to be connected.


 
The old hose was not leaking, but looked well worn.   

[Jim_Rogers]

Good idea on the connector.
But how do you know how long to make the new hose?

Usually the hose shop wants to see the old one to match it up.

Jim Rogers

[beenthere]

MM
I didn't catch on (I'm slow) about what you were doing until the "snaking out" and "new hose tagged along" comments were included. Ah ha! Now I know MM isn't using that fitting to put a patch into the old hose...which is where I thought you were going.  So does pay to read the whole thing.  ;D

[hackberry jake]

Wow, I don't know if I have ever seen a hose look tha bad before blowing. Good call mm.

[westyswoods]

Now that is a purdy hose. What happened to, "if it aint broke don't fix it", this looks like a case of maybe fix it.

[paul case]

Jim,
The parts book or woodmizer customer gateway tells all the lengths of those hoses. However I would have had trouble matching the ends, but on my mill just about all the ends are the same so after I changed one I had the part # for the end and could go from there.

I bet MM ordered them from WM. ???

I did this on the last few hoses I changed without the nice fitting. I tied the hoses together with a wire so they would follow  and then duct taped them in a row. Worked ok, but one hose was actually run under the bottom bolts that holds the swing out bunk on. Once I pulled those 2 bolts out she slid right through. Someone else said they had to do that. 1 more thing I learned on the forum. PC

[Magicman]

Yup, I ordered that hose from WM, but the manual tells the length in inches for every hose.  Keeping a copy of that page handy is a good idea for an emergency replacement.

This hose had been replaced by the previous sawmill owner which is probably why the quality was poor.  The other hoses and jackets look good, which means that one of them will probably pop.

[paul case]

The ones I replaced all looked fine. Until you pushed the lever. Then the jacket would swell in one spot until it burst a pinhole and went to shooting. I changed 5 of the 8 hoses in the tube to find the leaker. I think all but 2 that I changed had a bubble that showed on one end or the other.

I think all the hoses on my mill were original, or original replacement since the crimps and kind of hose were all the same. PC

[Piston]

That's a good idea to snake the hose like that.  The confusion with hydraulic connections usually comes from so many different thread types.  Yours are JIC which are very common, but it's very easy to buy the wrong type.  Of course, ordering from WM solves that  ;D 
Then you figure out what type, and then you need to figure the size.  Hoses and fittings can get quite confusing on a good sized project. 

[drobertson]

What a great Idea Lynn!  you are the man! Many will benifit from this advice. 

[hamish]

Yup, I ordered that hose from WM,.................. This hose had been replaced by the previous sawmill owner which is probably why the quality was poor.  The other hoses and jackets look good, which means that one of them will probably pop.

So somehow does WM have better quality hoses?  Or am I just reading your post all wrong?

[Magicman]

Oh no, I did not mean to imply that only WM sold good hoses.  This hose had obviously been replaced by the previous sawmill owner, and the jacket was different from the other hoses and had rotted off.  Also, the ends were not painted yellow as would have come from the WM factory.  (All of the original WM hoses are color coded.)   As Piston mentioned above, fittings are different.  Since this hose was not leaking, I just ordered a replacement from WM.  Now that I know the hose ends and have my double male fitting, I can take that fitting along with the hose length to my local hydraulic shop and have a hose made.  All of the other hoses look good.  WM's price is very competitive, but you do have to pay shipping. 

My reason for posting this was simply to show how simple and easy the hose replacement is, especially when you have that little connector.

[drobertson]

It is not only shipping it is time lost, unless next day air, which equates to more shipping.  Our  auto parts hoses are just a bit better, and quicker for sure, and around ten buck less, avg, take away the shipping and downtime, and we are close to a few thousand boardfeet of lumber,  I like wmz, but the time and shipping is a killer.   Our town is full of mills, and the area supply houses support them completely,  supply and demand. shipping is a killer for most JIT outfits.

[Magicman]

Yup, I bit the shipping bullet on that one because I had no leak and was still sawing.  Now I have the correct connector pattern for future needs.

[Woodchuck53]

I'll bet the other (old) hose is in that shop some where just in case. Like my serpentine belt in the back of my car. Along with the spare ratchet and socket it has helped me once in all the years I have been driving south to work. I change it every 25,000 miles and then throw the other away.