Replacement hydraulic hoses

[SHALER]

For the past 10-15 years I have had a few hydraulic hoses blow out, needed a few "custom applications" (i.e. extra long hoses for bale thrower on baler), or simply replacement hoses for the hydraulic cylinder bought at the farm sale for $10 with hoses completely shot. Due to apparent ignorance, I have patronized equipment dealers and places like NAPA for my hydraulic hoses. News flash- Getting a hose made up is not cheap! Recently I became aware that pre-made hoses with male only ends in "common" lengths (like 5-6-7 feet) can be purchased at your local chain farm supply store (Rural King, Tractor Supply, so forth). It just never occurred to me to look there. If you need such a hose, these places are about 1/4 to 1/3 the price of a dealer or NAPA. If you need a special end crimped on your hose like a swivel or some such, the farm supply chain store ones wont work. So my post has two purposes: 1) To notify anyone that just needs a standard hose to look at the ones in the farm supply store and save a good chunk of change. The second point is to say these hoses are printed "Made in China" and like I said, are much much cheaper than having one made up (and less time consuming as well). Has anyone found out that these farm supply hoses are of inferior quality and stay clear of them? I just have to question why they are so much lower priced than custom made ones.... and it could certainly be because they are a big money maker for NAPA or the equipment dealer.

 

[DeltaSteve]

I use premade hoses from Tractor supply.They hold up as well as hoses from other scources.So,If I dont need a 'special' hose made up,the premade hose works just fine.No complaints.

 

[sms]

If you need a swivel end you can just buy an adapter. Still cheaper. You can get premade hoses from Baum Hydraulics or Surplus Supply or Agri-supply also.

 

[paul]

They hold up pretty good.

There is typically a rack of adaptors and swivels on the same display area as the pre made hoses, so if you need a special end you can adapt the hose to that. Often the one adaptor I need is sold out and not restocked for a month, but is what it is.

Paul

 

[MSM]

Surplus Center. Premade hoses and 3-4 pages of fittings and adapters

 

[rustred]

you would need to check the pressure rating on them to make sure you are talking apples to apples. could be only a single braid hose. most common is double braid and high pressure is 4 braid.

 

[jaoneill]

(quoted from post at 12:02:43 12/07/20) Surplus Center. Premade hoses and 3-4 pages of fittings and adapters

X2 - Been buying their hoses for years; they are cheap enough that we keep a few each of the more common lengths we might need in 3/8 and 1/2 on the shelf.

 

[DRussell]

The Tractor Supply stores all have 3500 PSI rated hose. I've used a bunch of it. Seems to hold up as well as custom made hoses.

 

[JK-NY]

Surplus Center has about the best prices for hoses and fittings if you can wait for the shipping.
I have also had good luck with hoses from TSC .

 

[onefarmer]

I've been using hose from TSC and Family Farm & Home for years. They do wear out but never had a real problem. Any custom hose if not to unusual I go to my local machine shop. If more involved there's a Parker Hydraulic store in Lansing. They can make almost anything there.

 

[MJMJ]

I've made more than one Sunday afternoon trip to Tractor Supply for an emergency hose replacement. Never had an issue with any of them.

 

[moresmoke]

There are also a couple online outlets that custom make hoses. Discount hydraulic hose is one of them. They will custom make hoses. More expensive than the farm supply, but less than the parts house. They also have about every imaginable hose end available. Takes more time but saves some $$.

 

[Hayfarmer]

I agree on premade hoses. Our local farm store has some and TSC as mentioned. When I got my DUAL loader a few years ago sore of the hoses were looking bad but still functioned. I measured them up and ordered some from Surplus Center. Ordered others for cylinders along with adapters and I keep a set on hand. I also ordered some straight and some 90% swivels from them as they are a lot cheaper than farm store.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

There is typically a rack of adaptors and swivels on the same display area as the pre made hoses, so if you need a special end you can adapt the hose to that.

At least with Tractor Supply, they never have an adapter that goes from anything you have to anything you need.

You get your generic 1/2" NPT hose, and need to go to 1/2" ORB. Well, they don't have an adapter that does that. They have 1/2" NPT to 3/8" JIC and 1/4" JIC to 1/2" ORB. Who would ever need these adapters?

 

[jaoneill]

I have found that as time goes by TS has less & less of what a farmer might need. These days it's mostly stuff for backyard chicken type wanna be farmers.

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

TSC's are fine but made in C***a. They only carry NPT male ends as far as I can tell. I had a small line made up at my local auto parts, what I don't like is the bulky crimp fittings.

 

[Brendon-KS]

It is a simple fact that places like Tractor Supply, Orscheln's, Rural King, etc don't exist to provide a service. They, like most companies, exist to
make a profit. If they can provide a service at the same time then that is nice but first-and-foremost a profit must be made. A retail-sale business
model specifically catering to full-time farmers would struggle to be successful since there just aren't many of those folks out there any more - barely
over 1% of the US population. However, there are large numbers of hobby farmers and other rural folks who provide a sustainable customer base to keep
places like this profitable. So, naturally the stores will stock what their primary customer base wants to buy and thus makes them a profit. Tying up
working capital and wasting shelf space on slow-moving, specialty items that only a small percentage of the customer base might be interested in just
doesn't make good business sense. A lot of these stores started out catering to full-time farmers but that was many years ago when there was enough "big"
farmers around to make it work. Over time the number of full-time farmers has decreased but the number of small and hobby farmers has actually gone up.
These stores have just adjusted their business models to keep up with the times and remain profitable but it seems that they catch a lot of flak on these
forums for doing so. Holding tightly to an obsolete business model is a company signing their own death certificate - Sears is a classic example.

 

[DRussell]

A lot of this depends on the particular store. There are two of them less than 15 miles from me.

One is like you described, very few fittings and takes a long time to restock the ones they don't
have.

The other one has a very good selection of various fittings and restocks them quickly.

 

[SVcummins]

If you go on surplus center and order a catalog they have all kinds of adapters to go from hose to jic or o ring . Those cheap hoses are just fine and they don’t hurt near as bad when one gets pinched

 

[mtf]

Cheaper hoses are just that in my experience. They have less uv protection and the outer rubber starts to deteriorate.

I make my own hose assemblies with my parker crimper. I try to buy parker or weatherhead hose. Yes hydraulic hose has increased from what it used to be 10 years ago, but hasn't everything else?

 

[SVcummins]

A custom hose is 75$ at fiat cnh or 25$ at Bomgaars pretty tough not to buy the cheap one

 

[Traditional Farmer]

I've been buying and using hydraulic hoses from Surplus Center for a long time have never had any problem with them, seem the same to me as everyone else sells except they are a lot cheaper to buy. Plus they have the exact fittings I need most all the time.Just changed over the hoses on my JD 855 compact tractor loader from JD to JIC fittings and hoses saved a bundle not to have to buy from JD.I do buy the slightly more expensive 2 wire higher pressure hoses.

 

[SVcummins]

I’ve got a couple that are over 15 years old and still doing ok . I have some old hydraulic hoses that are over 50 years old and still going to but I still think the cheaply made ones are not bad they are stiffer but that’s never really been a problem

 

[caterpillar guy]

We've use them.Big thing is to make sure of the pressure you need. I have also had issues some times of I need a 8.5 foot hose and had to get a ten or use a 6and a 2 or they were sloppy long or way short. Most times the sloppy long can be dealt with though on other jobs the splice will not work at all. Like the boom on a telehandler will not accommodate a splice in a 25 foot hose and go around the pulley inside the boom.

 

[brooktre]

A few years (2017) ago I went through my 1958 loader and backhoe parts books and identified all of the special hydraulic fittings. I also figured out how I would replace some of the custom pieces (hard pipe with permanent hose attached). From that list I bought some fittings and adapters that I could use with a standard length hose to keep the machine going when a hose failed. It turned out that I needed 6 items and it only cost $30 with shipping from an online discount shop. I used one of the fittings since and then replaced that when a local store had them in stock. That first failure more than paid for the difference in price had I needed a custom made hose.