Hydraulic hose crimper

[Steve from Socal]

I am considering a hydraulic hose crimper for my service truck, I understand that each manufacture of hose/fittings is unique. Can a Parker crimper work on a Gates fitting or hose in the field? The truck could be sent out to a farm or factory to do repairs. There are no real common or recurring hoses in particular. I am looking for a system with a great deal of flexibility.

Steve

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

I'm not sure of any particular crossovers - I can tell you is that if you want to stand behind the fab / repair of hose you need to stick to one brand of supplies. If a customer tries to push you to put your stocked fittings on some other brand of hose or any mix / match that you can't verify is a good, then be prepared for the failure the might follow. Ie: Tell them there's no warranty on that repair and it's strictly their problem if it fails. Period.
Your hose / fitting supplier can tell what brands / series can be mixxed / matched. Most of the hydrualic suppliers with provide you the tools - if not free, then on a $1 "rental" just to make the corporate people happy. I have all Parker stuff - big bench mount air powered crimper, and the smaller hand pump "Karry Krimp" or whatever they call it.

 

[mark40sw]

I worked at a factory that we made our own hydraulic hoses. I remember it was a Parker press set-up. Hose & fittings came from Grainger/McMaster. We didn't pay any particular attention to brands of fittings/hoses. Just used indusry standard sizes for hose size. Properly preparing & press/die set-up was most important to result in crimp that was properly done.

Don't remember any problems with quality of fittings used. Hoses went bad for other reasons.

Here is the press we used
http://www.hoseandfittingsetc.com/product-overview/equipment-and-tools/parkrimp-2/
Almost choking on what they cost
http://www.mrostop.com/catalog/product/view/id/11540

 

[chris142]

and don't let your customers supply the hose. I get guys that try to cut costs and buy the wrong hose and expect me to crimp it. heater hose will not replace AC hose. I see that one several times a year.

 

[V70R]

I worked at a factory that we made our own hydraulic hoses. I remember it was a Parker press set-up. Hose & fittings came from Grainger/McMaster. We didn't pay any particular attention to brands of fittings/hoses. Just used indusry standard sizes for hose size. Properly preparing & press/die set-up was most important to result in crimp that was properly done.

Don't remember any problems with quality of fittings used. Hoses went bad for other reasons.

Here is the press we used
http://www.hoseandfittingsetc.com/product-overview/equipment-and-tools/parkrimp-2/
Almost choking on what they cost
http://www.mrostop.com/catalog/product/view/id/11540

Yikes, for the price of these machines I now have more appreciation for the prices we pay for replacement hydraulic lines.

 

[dlewis]

What ever you decide on use their fittings and hose,mixing brands won't work the o.d. of hoses is different manufacturer to manufacturer,series to series.

 

[KinzeMech]

I've seen mixes between gates, parker, and eaton, and never seen one of them cause trouble. It's a tough sell when a customer has 30 feet of hose, it was broke 6 inches from the end, and you tell him you can't shorten the hose, he has to instead buy 30 feet of new hose.

That doesn't mean a failure can't happen, but I think the "incompatibility" may be a more marketing driven concept, than a performance and specification driven one.

Despite that, I'm still paranoid, and will not mix brands unless I know it's in an application where a hose failure will not be dangerous.

 

[bobcatdan]

I have heard of guys who crimp brand x with crimper y, but I would never do that. For some silly reason we have weatherhead at one store and gates at the other. The gates crimper at the other shop is nice, the one in my service truck is a pain in the ***. Gates has crimp setting that have to be set for every style and the one in the service truck is always out of calibration. It is still usable but more time consuming because you can over or under crimp with it. The weatherhead in my shop is very easy to use, nothing the set. Personally if I was looking to get into the hose making business and I did look, I would go parker. Look into the hose doctor program. Also depending on the parker store you deal with, they will work deals if you buy so much stock, they will basically give you a crimper.

 

[Steve from Socal]

I was not really considering the regular use of mix and match parts or trying to use one brand of hose and another brand fittings. More of a what IF; a customer has another brand hose and fittings that he would like me to crimp? Again I don't expect this to happen often but, it may come up.

On the Parker system how much inventory do you have to buy to get the crimper? I have plenty of other things to buy and spending a ton of money on stuff that will sit for months to years is not in the cards right now. I am looking at ebay and a crimper can be had for under 1500 with a selection of dies.

Steve

 

[mtnkrake]

Using another companys fittings or hose is kind of a shot in the dark when crimping. On our machine you set the exact pressure for the specific die and the machine automatically stops. so if you were using someone elses fittings you would have to eyeball how hard to crimp it. We do the eyeball thing with the light duty brass air hose crimps but I w0ouldn't want to do it with something thats super high pressure.

 

[Strouty]

We got a local distributor giving away the crimper with $1500 purchase of supplies. It was all parker stuff and they gave us dies to use as well. We were rebuilding a winch and a ramp truck so we were spending a couple grand on supplies anyways.

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

I was not really considering the regular use of mix and match parts or trying to use one brand of hose and another brand fittings. More of a what IF; a customer has another brand hose and fittings that he would like me to crimp? Again I don't expect this to happen often but, it may come up.

On the Parker system how much inventory do you have to buy to get the crimper? I have plenty of other things to buy and spending a ton of money on stuff that will sit for months to years is not in the cards right now. I am looking at ebay and a crimper can be had for under 1500 with a selection of dies.

Steve

In round number I'd say we're a "small" operation with only JIC fittings covered well from 4 to 16 in 2 wire and 4 wire hose along with a scattering of specific NPT and some odd metri fittings and a hand full of adapters -- only stuff to support the equipment we sell. So for that, Id guess around $5K in hose and fittings -- when it started, it was probably more like 2k.
That gets the $1 dollar crimper rental and a visit from our suppliers sales guy at least once a month. He even throws incoming stock into the organizer bins when he brings stuff.

 

[Danglerb]

My friend is a Goodridge distributor, you don't want to even think about what that costs to setup. Seems to me a lot of the swage or crimp stuff has very little margin for error, and the companies have zero incentive for working with other brands.

 

[Steve from Socal]

On the advice and suggestion of several folks here I called the Parker Store and the buy in is 2500.00. I am going to be talking with them and some people around here for what exactly I should stock. I am very glad we have this forum and the great people who participate. I had visions of having 1000's feet of hose I would never use and drawers of fittings for the space shuttle!

Steve

 

[PlumbingMonkey]

Hi All,

Thought I'd give some personal and professional advice.... I've been in the hydraulic industry for 25 years and in the high performance racing industry for about 6 years. There are a lot of crimpers out there but there is a major difference between two types... one is variable stop and the other is called positive stop. I'll try to outline the differences-

Positive stop, these are the least expensive and 'force' you to use a particular brand of hose.... at least if you want to be covered legally. If you crimp a hose and fitting combination that is not by the same manufacturer (or recommended by the manufacturer) on a machine that is not made by that manufacturer such as parker, areoquip, gates, weatherhead and goodridge then you are not covered by the manufacturers warranty, nor do you have legal recourse if you have a problem... each manufacuturer has a crimp spec that varies and is specific to their brand. So, for example, you should not crimp goodridge hose on an aeroquip positive stop machine (ET1000) because it may not give the correct crimp diameter and the general rule is +/- .006 of an inch. Crimping parker hose and fittings in a parker carrycrimp with the correct dies and pusher plates should cover you if there is a problem... I am pretty sure Parker is that way, I know Aeroquip is, or was, as we used to carry that brand before we switched to a Goodridge. So, if you are looking to save a little bit up front, but be locked in to one particular manufacturer - a positive stop crimper is probably right for you.

Variable stop crimpers have a caliper dial (or digital setting) that allows you to vary the length on the crimp stroke and allows you to hit any crimper specification you may be going for... Variable crimp crimpers are becoming less popular by the manufacturers of the machines because they cannot be repurposed, however, from a consumer point of view, a variable crimper will allow you to use anyones hose and fittings in their machine... but be aware that you should still maintain the same manufacturer for the hose and fittings, as the bite teeth or fitting collar thickness may vary from manufacturer which would require a different crimp dimension to be met. The other nice thing on a variable crimper is that you can do other things with it - I've had other people crimp wire rope and garden hose with theirs... a variable crimper is much more versitile and does not lock you in to one particular brand or style... in fact, you would be able to crimp hydraulic hoses with the right die set with a variable crimper - which you may use for your own personal use or start a side business with.

Some manufacturers will provide proper tooling suggestions for positive stop crimpers that will give you legal recourse if you have a problem, please make sure that your recommendations come directly from a source that have time and pressure tested the results to keep yourself safe from harm or death, and yes, this is a very real scenario. An improperly crimped brake hose, or fuel hose can give tragic results. If you are not sure, ALWAYS do the right thing and make sure, or don't do it.

If it were me, I'd recommend the FT1380 crimper from Aeroquip with the proper dies to crimp what you need. We are not a Aeroquip house anymore, but I LOVE that crimper and it is the best in the industry as far as ease of use, dependability and gives the abiltiy to expand to other projects when needed.

Watch Ebay for an FT1380 crimper or it's predicessor the FT1330 crimper but those are getting a little antiquated since it's going on about 20 year since last produced... We've replace the packing in about 4 of them in the last 5 years which is a pretty good track record.

Hope that helps, be safe and healthy-

Tony
Plumbing Monkey

One of the best deals on the FT1380 crimper is on www.Aeroquip.cc and PM is now a Goodridge Race house at www.PlumbingMonkey.com If you have any questions or concerns please message me through this site or contact me through www.PlumbingMonkey.com

 

[Karsa]

Search some advice about hydraulic hose crimper and find this post in our forum.
Thanks Tony, I learn a lot from you.
Recently, I ready to buy a hydraulic hose crimper from a brand named HYDROCRIMP https://www.hydrocrimp.com/, the crimpers look good, this hose crimping machine really attract me, I am thinking about to choose this brand or a local brand like Parker or Gates.
sorry, didn’t realize this was such an old post.