Steel hydraulic line?

[silagehauler]

CaseIH combine with 5200 hours. There is a gang of about 5 steel lines that run down the side of the machine. Theirs pass through plastic blocks to hold them. Ever place where the blocks are, the line is starting to rust badly. Had one start burst this summer, fixed it with a union. Would like to replace the lines during winter maintenance.

My question to the GJ nation, would any decent hydraulic shop be able to bend new lines? I could get new ones from Case, for an arm and a leg I'm sure.

 

[purplezr2]

What are the sizes, anything 1/2 and under you can make with a flare and tube bender.

 

[silagehauler]

1/2 to 1. Thought about making some, but I don't have the stuff to do the bigger lines.

 

[jsaw]

You can buy tubing benders that look like a spring that you slide over the line to make bends.

 

[JoeFin]

If your looking to replace all the lines on the undercarriage then the investment of a bender wouldn't break the bank

Swagelok 316ss Instrument grade would outlast the equipment and stand up to the highest pressures the hydraulic system could produce with ease.

http://www.swagelok.com/products/tubing-tube-accessories/tubing.aspx

but you'll need one of these to properly bend the tube

 

[djjsr]

I've never seen a hand bender that will do 1" steel and it certainly would not make sense to spend thousands of dollars on a machine.

Your local hydraulic shop should be able to handle it.

 

[Stuart in MN]

It may be worth checking on price from the Case dealer anyway, just to find out - you never know, they may not be all that expensive.

 

[dtt454]

i usually just replace them with hoses.

but i have had the local hyd hose vendor make them when needed.

 

[Deadhead]

I would either pay the money and replace it with an OEM steel line from Case or I would just replace it with a new flex hose and then secure it to the steel lines and add padding around it where needed.
Personally I would just go with a hose as its easier to work with and I feel it takes the shaking from the machine so much better.

For those of you who have never stood beside a combine when the rotor is running full speed and all the chains and belts are running, its a sight to behold, and kudos to the men that figured that stuff out. It can be real intimidating at first. Im a grown man and I still get nervous when I have to move them down the road or cross narrow bridges. I guess cause I know what they cost.

Oh and I would not try to bend tube to make my own. I have seen them blow out in the bends and flood the earth with hyd fluid.

BTW is that an older 2188?

 

[willymakeit]

I would either pay the money and replace it with an OEM steel line from Case or I would just replace it with a new flex hose and then secure it to the steel lines and add padding around it where needed.
Personally I would just go with a hose as its easier to work with and I feel it takes the shaking from the machine so much better.

For those of you who have never stood beside a combine when the rotor is running full speed and all the chains and belts are running, its a sight to behold, and kudos to the men that figured that stuff out. It can be real intimidating at first. Im a grown man and I still get nervous when I have to move them down the road or cross narrow bridges. I guess cause I know what they cost.


Oh and I would not try to bend tube to make my own. I have seen them blow out in the bends and flood the earth with hyd fluid.

BTW is that an older 2188?

I've worked on them in the field during wheat harvest. Hot,dirty, and you always checked for snakes the next morning. They would crawl up in them to get warm.
Was younger then,but wouldn't trade the memories for anything. Nothing like a small town bar during the harvest.

 

[KSB]

We had a contractor come in to our shop to replace a whole bunch on hydraulic lines on the outriggers for a food service truck. They were all bent on site, had to be steel lines due to location. I am sure you can find a shop around that offers this type of service.

Another alternative, just replace with hose although it may get tricky trying to properly secure them around that pulley and belt.

 

[bigfunwmu]

2 of those will be heavy wall 1" lines for they hydrostat, those won't bend easily by hand.

A bunch of shops don't have a bender unless they also do fab work. Bending lines is a pain in the backside unless you do it often enough to be good at it. Some of the specialty hose and line guys do, but plan on that being expensive as well. The tube itself is cheaper than hoses, but bending it correctly takes skill which takes $$.

"Cheap" way would be to replace the straight runs with tube, and the bendy portions with hoses for the larger sizes.

Make very sure your lines are clean inside when you hook them up too. It doesn't take much debris leftover from cutting hoses to shell out hydros. We see a lot of units that died right after a proactive owner replaced a bunch of hoses without cleaning them out very well after cutting.

Good luck!

 

[mebuildit]

For larger tubing 1/2 and above I use this: Parker makes it, kinda pricey but well worth the money.
I also have a 37 degree flaring tool as well that will do 1" tubing

 

[becker_atc]

The hydraulic shop that dad (we farm with old equipment) uses could build them . Also maybecheck with abiline machine they may have good ones in the salvage inventory and check with C-IH they may not be out of line on price.

Generally on stuff like that though we go with hoses. Think it may be cheaper than getting a line made and some of our stuff oem parts dont exist anymore (IH 815 combine...it is the last series before IH released the new rotary machines in the 70's)

 

[sberry]

Pipe it. Some pieces I repair, add a section of pipe between ends and weld them on. We used to braze them, on occasion torch steel weld but now generally wire weld. Size a piece of pipe ****** with a drill bit , cut out bad spot, slip fit and weld in, even braze,, more so back in the day but it works.

 

[sberry]

There are a couple reasons we do this kind of repair, one being the stuff costs a lot, put in to old machines and second as well as saving the parts cost can complete a repair with little or no wait. We reproduced a part the other day someone actually makes for 50$ and I still had to install it, I fabbed one in an hour and charged the customer 60 and was done, no shipping wait etc.

 

[sberry]

They get a wear hole and I don't want to blow mig fire inside take a nail and weld the head on over the hole, grind off. I have made all kinds of patches for those.

I thought I had a couple pics but here was one they must have had a factory wrench to install. I finally drilled a nut smooth inside, cut in half and welded to the factory nut so it protruded and we could wrench it on.

 

[May Pop]

If it is steel tubing use an electrical bender. A little practice and it will turn out nice. I have bent most any type of tube around. I have also modified benders to accept a slightly larger piece of tube. Water and gas pipe are bent in the next size up bender 3/4 pipe bent in a 1" bender.

 

[sberry]

There are some fabricated lines in this addition I think. In pic 2 welded a pipe ****** to an old piece of tubing we replaced because the other end was damaged. Instead of adapters and t's hard to find simply T in and weld it to the other line. All done prior to paint.

 

[bigguns69]

In the 20 plus years as an OEM construction and ag equipment project engineer I never use steel lines in the development phase of the project due to cost and time.

Steel lines are used in the production phase of machine development because of volume cost savings but primarily for longer term reliability of steel lines and cleaner layout for the end result.

Most hydraulic hose shops aren't capable of making steel lines. If they are, they most likely are building volume production for the OEM and will either need the actual line or a detail drawing to build from and probably not interested in your couple of lines.

Steel lines are seemless and of high strength/high ductility steel with corrosion properties that pipe won't have. A steel line will outlive a hose minus vibration or point corrosion issues.

Your best bet is to buy new steel lines, go to a junk yard and buy used lines, or replace with hose.

 

[silagehauler]

I would either pay the money and replace it with an OEM steel line from Case or I would just replace it with a new flex hose and then secure it to the steel lines and add padding around it where needed.
Personally I would just go with a hose as its easier to work with and I feel it takes the shaking from the machine so much better.

For those of you who have never stood beside a combine when the rotor is running full speed and all the chains and belts are running, its a sight to behold, and kudos to the men that figured that stuff out. It can be real intimidating at first. Im a grown man and I still get nervous when I have to move them down the road or cross narrow bridges. I guess cause I know what they cost.

Oh and I would not try to bend tube to make my own. I have seen them blow out in the bends and flood the earth with hyd fluid.

BTW is that an older 2188?

Close, it is a 99 model 2388.