After returning home from the dunes, just as we were entering the approach of the driveway, the pressure line from the hydraulic pump to the steering gear box blew. It could have been way worse, especially if it happened on the 405 interchange, but somehow dodged that bullet. The full canister of fluid dumped out. Fortunately, was able to pull the rest of the way in, due to it being a straight shot.
Both hoses in the photo below were rubbed by another hose, which caused the break in the lower hose, which is at the blue arrow. (This is not my photo, it's from another thread about a leaking hose, not a catastrophic failure like mine was.)
I was able to find a few threads on this, but most had the repair done in a shop and didn't mention the details about the hose.
Anyone know the following:
What size is the hose (I think it's 1/2" but not sure?)
What brand and type is the hose?
Does it go all the way to the front as one continuous hose, as opposed to being connected to metal for a portion of it?
What is the pressure of this line, any ideas?
Just as an "aside" from your problem and needing info on hoses. I had mentioned a few years ago that there are many hoses on our coach's that are "fretting" due to rubbing against others & metal frame etc etc. When Don and Tys visited us and we had his rig over my Pit he also found instances of this problem and ,like me, protected them with overlays of rubber sheeting and secured. many of the hyd' lines are too short, usually just a couple of inches so they can miss these contact points.
We had the high pressure hose to fans etc go while driving to Hilton head a couple of years ago due to this same issue. I am sure that Don would agree with me on this latent problem.
JohnH
Yes, thanks. After pouring over the forums about this issue, I see that it is something that should be a regular part of maintenance to check these lines for chafing and protect them as needed. Bummer I never noticed this topic before, but at least this may give someone else the knowledge to prevent this type of failure in the future.
I keep a good supply of used hoses of all diameters around to use as gusseting. Find one the right diameter, slit it, slip it over the hose and zip tie in place.
As a result of my poor pre-flight, we also had a hose failure last year on the way to Hilton Head Island. As I posted before, our hoses are single jacket so are susceptible to rubbing with eventual failure. Hoses and fittings come in several different styles. The fittings are not all the same size so you need a couple of crow's feet, probably 1" and 1 1/16" to R&R. Once you break the fitting loose, it's only finger tight the rest of the way. Double jacketed hydraulic hose is also available but is less flexible. Some of the fittings are user replaceable so you only need a resin disk and hand tools to repair or replace the hose. Some of the routings Foretravel did are not the best so check.
So, crawl under and make sure each hose does not touch another or part of the engine or frame. Isolate any offenders as described in above post.
Carry a couple gallons of oil as well as a cleaner to get rid of oil spray on the toad. This will take awhile. After the first gallon, fill the reservoir a little at a time.
John Deere outlets are huge and open 24/7 and have all imaginable fittings and hoses. Figure about $50-$60 per hose to replace. NAPA, truck stops are also good.
Pierce
I purchase Thomas & Betts aerospace grade cable ties for my uses from Amazon.
The specific ones I use have a metal "tongue" inserted into the "head" to lock the adjustment.
Much better quality and can be tightened harder and last longer
Thomas and Betts TR TY528MX CABLE TIE 50LB 14" UV BL (Pack of 100)
Various sizes are available
When replacing my radiator this spring, I also changed out a half dozen hydraulic hoses. I didn't need to worry about the particulars and just brought the old hose (complete with connections) to one of several outfits in our area that makes them to size. They aren't cheap, but you will have exactly what you need.
Sounds like a great proactive move to replace those while you had things torn apart. Did you go with single wall or something else on the new hoses?
When we had a hydraulic hose failure the replacement as well as the others got a protective radiator hose slid over them to protect from further scuffing. That five gallons of oil hitting the fan will certainly protect your toad from rusting no matter how had and often you wash it!
Not sure I would encapsulate the entire hydraulic hose with another, as there is some heat dissipation (a good thing) in the hose. But gusseting the hydraulic hose at potential chafe points is strongly recommended.
Particularly important for anything going from a "moving object" like the engine to a "fixed object" like the chassis.
The protective sleeve is just where the hoses were rubbing. Also did that on a brake pressure line that rubbed on the engine.
Thanks everyone for the help and ideas on how to prevent this issue in the future.
The smaller (offending 1/2" high pressure) line with the blue arrow in the photo above was able to just be cut behind the pinhole leak and the same fittings were able to be reused. There was enough slack in that line where an extra inch or so was able to be pulled.
Also replaced two other hoses that were pretty well scuffed and was able to reuse all of those fittings, as well. Used the old coolant hose that was replaced as sleeve sections for any contact points. Used almost ten feet of this hose sleeve on a bunch of potential rub points.
For the amount of fluid that was dumped, this turned out to be a relatively easy day of work. Just needed the larger hose, a 13-1/2' section of 5/8" SAE 100R5, about $200, a smaller 7' section of 3/16" SAE 100R5, about $50, about $50 in engine degreaser to clean everything up, and of course the five gallons of Rotella for about $120.
Could have been so much worse if this happened anywhere else. And it is amazing to see how fast that five-gallon canister of oil drained out of that tiny leak that was hard to even find with a pick. There must be some kind of pressure in those hydraulic lines.
The hydraulic hose shop you used was able to reuse some of the fittings? The hose mfgs say to replace the hoses after 10-15 years, how were they able to splice onto the hose right after the pinhole leak?
Only bought the hose from the shop, they didn't place the fittings. Was able to just cut the hose, while it was still in place, with a grinder (and a hose clamp to keep it straight) and place the fitting back on. It would have been way easier with a vise, but that's not so easy to do under the coach. The fittings (like in the photo above) are the high pressure type that just thread on and was easy to do with just regular tools. Luckily, the rest of that one hose looked fine.
It would have been a major job to pull the old hose and run a new one in its place, it runs the whole length of the coach, through the wire chase. I was reading some threads on other forums where someone had that line break and it had to be fully replaced. The cost for replacing it through the main wire chase was quoted at around $4000. The quote to just run the new hose along the underside of the coach was $1500. They just had it run under the coach.
I've run HDMI and coax inside split tubing all the way to the bedroom. Dropping the tin in the compartment and then fishing further back is a pain but just not that tough. So, 1/2" ID 4000 psi hydraulic hose cost $230 for 100 feet. How can it possibly cost $1500 run run it under the coach??? With all my contortions up in the front suspension and in the back, it still only took a couple of hours. $4000 worth??? jgb-jflex hydraulic hose, 1/2"x100' bulk length, 2-wire, 4000 psi | eBay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/jgb-jflex-hydraulic-hose-1-2-x100-bulk-length-2-wire-4000-psi/112543377488?_trkparms=aid%3D555019%26algo%3DPL.BANDIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D41451%26meid%3Da833da61598d46b896121aa379489793%26pid%3D100505%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26&_trksid=p2045573.c100505.m3226) Guess I would like to see the written estimate.
P
Not a good idea bad things can happen to stuff run under the coach and exposed. Don't ask me how I know that.
Roland
Yes, I'd like to see that also. Maybe some of the cost was for cleaning. I know I spent at least three hours just scraping , brushing, and scrubbing so that once everything was back together, there would be no question as to whether something was still leaking and where it was coming from.