Hydraulic hose and tube sizing?

freedomlives · Sep 17, 2019

My ISEKI has a FEL made in house by the Polish company that imported it. Earlier, I started getting a leak from one of the hoses going to one cylinder after moving a lot of bales. I eventually got a replacement hose for it. Now, last week, i was pulling/pushing some big roots out of the ground, and two hoses suddenly both started squirting.

I have a feeling that just using hoses isn't so optimal a solution, but also most of the hoses are 8mm, whereas the OD of the original hydraulic system tube is 10mm. It's also possible that the hoses are surplus. The control valves definitely didn't look new when I got it.

In a way getting a bunch of replacement hoses made would be easier, but is my gut feeling that using tubing as much as possible would be best in terms of reliability?

I suppose it should have 10mm tubing and hoses everywhere as well.

ptsg · Sep 17, 2019

Hydraulic tubing makes gives a cleaner look to the whole loader. Hoses are expensive and having the tubing will save a couple meters of hoses. On the other hand, the compression fittings for the tubing will get expensive really fast but it's very rare that you need to replace the tubing. Unless it's rusted too far or it gets pinched due to some mishap.

I'm in the middle of building my own loader. I priced the compression fittings for the tubing and just for the Tee's, it was a 15€ a piece and I needed 4 of them. So I just bought tubing with 2 mm wall as it's easier to weld and make my own weld on fittings on the lathe. Then I stick welded everything in place.

RNeumann · Sep 17, 2019

Hydraulic hoses are used all the time. No reason to abandon them. The tractor looks clean, but dated. Hoses fail at an increased rate with age. It’s common to keep a few extra hoses floating around Incase of a failure.

Making up steel lines won’t change much. You are still replacing all your lines.......but the flexible lines will just be shorter.

freedomlives · Sep 17, 2019

The tractor is old-- I think 1996. The FEL is new, as in "was welded together in 2017/18", but I've got a feeling that not only the valves, but also the hoses could be surplus from something else, or maybe old stock with hoses, or just that they're 8mm, perhaps because the company mostly imports smaller Japanese tractors, and puts a bit smaller FELs on them.

Replacing lines is simple. I just take all of the existing ones to the company in town, and they make same length, thicker (when I got the replacement hose this summer, they didn't even ask, and just put a 10mm one).

freedomlives · Sep 17, 2019

ptsg said:
Hydraulic tubing makes gives a cleaner look to the whole loader. Hoses are expensive and having the tubing will save a couple meters of hoses. On the other hand, the compression fittings for the tubing will get expensive really fast but it's very rare that you need to replace the tubing. Unless it's rusted too far or it gets pinched due to some mishap.

I'm in the middle of building my own loader. I priced the compression fittings for the tubing and just for the Tee's, it was a 15€ a piece and I needed 4 of them. So I just bought tubing with 2 mm wall as it's easier to weld and make my own weld on fittings on the lathe. Then I stick welded everything in place.

You also made the threads on the fittings?

ptsg · Sep 17, 2019

freedomlives said:
You also made the threads on the fittings?

Yes I did. I used 3/8" BSPP on everything. So the tubing has two male fittings and a female fitting on one of the ends.

A couple of pictures. I painted the welded aread with zinc spray paint to prevent rust. I tested the loader today and surprisingly enough, I only had 2 tiny tiny holes. It's hard to weld those thin parts with an old rectifier welder.

freedomlives · Sep 18, 2019

That looks really beautiful!

LouNY · Sep 18, 2019

More impressive workmanship,
with all the fabrication that you do and the good lathe turning I am surprised that you don't have a TIG welder.
Stick welding those small threadolets you made is difficult, tig is nice on those.

ptsg · Sep 18, 2019

Thanks guys.

Yes, a TIG welder it's definitely on my wish list and would make wonders here but it's just so **** expensive. And I've heard that having a gas contract on this country it's slightly on the hard/complicated thing.

I'm hoping that whenever I can get more income by making costumer jobs, I could get one of those awesome machines. But that brings another point on whatever brand should I go with.