Size for hose to protect King remote lines

[CharlieS]

I pulled off my wheel spacers anticipating my new tires arriving, but some unfortunate circumstances caused a delay (death in the family at the one man shop doing my tires) have me running on a narrower track. This resulted in rubbing on the hoses for my kings remote reservoirs. I can throw the spidertrax back on, but I'd also like to protect the hoses. I figure I can split some heater hose and zip tie it on for an extra layer of protection. What size hose should I pick up to wrap them with?

 

[bloc]

IMO heater hose will get trashed super quick. Plus you seem to be rubbing on the spring..

It looks like your lines can be oriented differently to turn the hose down closer to the frame while keeping it out of the spring. King doesn't spend much time talking about how finicky it can be to not hit the frame, spring, or UCA.. and you'll still rub the tire unless you have comp adjusters.. but with things *just right* tire rub is kept to a minimum, and you won't hit anything else in normal driving.

To do this you have to loosen the fitting at the reservoir end, and as you may have read with my adventure I lost some oil when I did this and had to go through a lot of trouble to put it back.

I'd recommend finding a way to refill with nitrogen.. bleed them down, turn the hoses, then re-charge them.

All of that said I have mine oriented about as well as it can get, and I still got some tire rub. It eventually got down to the inner stainless layer and hasn't progressed past that. I'm not too worried given we are using such a low pressure compared to what these lines are rated for. I'll keep an eye on it.

It might be worth asking Filthy what they recommend to protect the line, but something like bailing wire wound around the line or metal sleeves are probably our best bet. Any kind of soft rubber or plastic I think will just look worse than even the lines already do.

 

[bloc]

Something just occurred to me.. if it’s temporary thick zip ties spaced closely could even work. They’d be much more resistant to abrasion than the rubber components of the hose. Just make sure the lock portion is on the other side so that doesn’t grab and pull it off.

 

[Nola622]

The zip tie armor idea sounds interesting. On my King hoses I wrapped the most vulnerable section in self fusing silicone tape. It doesn't provide much protection of course, but it lets me see if there is contact so I can move the hose a bit before the real blue line gets nicked. I have been able to rotate the reservoir and slightly change the position of the lines to keep em free from contact. I have 1" spacers up front fwiw.

 

[CharlieS]

Mine was perfect until I removed the 1.25" spacers. It didn't occur to me that that might be an issue.

I like these ideas, and will report back what I land on.

I'll see if I can clock it better, to minimize how far it protrudes. The problem is that if I go too far the other way, it rubs on coils.

I understand what you're saying, but I'm nervous to loosen fittings because I'm not setup to replace fluid or nitrogen.

I may see if the local big rig hydraulic hose shop has something that would work. Maybe something like this:

Kable Kontrol® Cyclone Hydraulic Hose Wrap Tubing | HDPE Spiral Wrap

Heavy-duty hydraulic hose spiral wrap is MSHA Certified and UV resistant. Protect against abrasion and crushing damage with spiral wrap hose protectors.

www.cabletiesandmore.com

Or this:
Amazon product ASIN B074N9DCJ4

 

[CharlieS]

Local hydraulic shop has it by the foot. Headed there to grab some later today.

 

[bloc]

Local hydraulic shop has it by the foot. Headed there to grab some later today.

Yeah, good idea. I’m interested in your feedback.

I’m attaching some pictures of my setup. In them you can see the hose isn’t trying to “coil” like yours is, this is 100% the twist in the line. It took me a fair bit of messing with it to get it this good. I’d bet if you check the back of the hose where it’s contacting the coil it looks similar..

Also you can see on the drivers side tire contact is minimal, but it is very very close to the coil. On the passenger side there is a fair amount of tire contact, but it is 1/8” from the coil approximately.

The stainless has been exposed for some time but the wear has seemed to stop there, which makes sense.

No wheel spacers in my case.

I did confirm they are high pressure hoses.. 3125psi. Yours are probably charged to 175. Safe to say you have to go really far into wearing them before we run into pressure control problems.

 

[bloc]

Note that the rust on the coil was from when there was slight contact, before the last time I adjusted the lines. That’s also when I added oil back to replace what was lost.

FYI the cylinder regulator hose and gauge was a couple hundred bucks.. I plan to do my own rebuilds eventually so figured having these tools wouldn’t be a bad idea.

 

[CharlieS]

Thank you!

 

[CharlieS]

For posterity, I measured the hose at 0.06175 so between 5/8 and 3/4". I'm going to grab a little of each and see which fits better.

 

[CharlieS]

I was thinking about this and wondering if fashioning some straps to pull the hose closer to the frame and prevent the hose from making contact with the tire might be an alternate idea (or additional idea). The reservoir and top of the strut don't move much relative to each other, so I don't think pulling the hoses toward the frame would cause any problems.

 

[bloc]

I was thinking about this and wondering if fashioning some straps to pull the hose closer to the frame and prevent the hose from making contact with the tire might be an alternate idea (or additional idea). The reservoir and top of the strut don't move much relative to each other, so I don't think pulling the hoses toward the frame would cause any problems.

I think it would be tough to accomplish that without pulling it further into the spring. But I’m away from my truck so can’t test the idea.

At issue is the hose coming off the reservoir radially. If it were tangential like on the king 2.5s with compression adjusters it can hug the frame much closer and stay away from the tire.

Somewhere on one of my to do lists is researching whether a 90 degree fitting is available that would emulate the setup and keep the hose from having to be pointed directly at the tire.

 

[CharlieS]

https://www.polyperformance.com/fox-king-90-degree-fitting-for-reservoir-hose

King 2.5 Shocks 90 Fitting Adapter For Shock Reservoir Hose

King 2.5 Shocks 90 Fitting Adapter For Shock Reservoir Hose from Pacific Customs Unlimited your best source for Street, Off Road, Sandrail, Dune Buggy, Manx, Rock Crawler, Volksrod, or Mud Buggy VW Parts.

www.pacificcustoms.com

 

[bloc]

The first part might get it done, but not the second.

Alternately a 90 degree male to female swivel hydraulic tapered fitting. I know swagelok makes one but I’m not sure exactly what format our fittings are.

Also, if I bleed off the nitrogen I may be able to add that fitting and the appropriate oil while keeping significant air out of the system.

You may have just given me another project..

 

[RET2]

Sounds simplistic but try some split loom that protects electrical wires. It's cheap and very easy to install/replace it's available everywhere.

 

[Moby]

Timely. I put 300 miles on 3/4" heater hose sleeve this weekend. So far there is just a little rub on the heater hose. I caught the lines rubbing very early so no real harm done to the hose itself. I slit the heater hose and zip tied it on. Not the best but I had a trip to do.

I like the hydraulic hose wrap. I'll look into that as a more permanent fix. I don't see a way to repostition the fittings without still getting some rubbing somewhere in the combination of wheel turn in, spring position and full travel. Either the tire or the spring will hit the hose. At least from what I can see. Better to find a good sleeve, get it as best as possible, check it periodically. At least for me. I'd prefer to find a completely different location for the reservoirs but I'm too lazy.

 

[CharlieS]

I'm going to give this hydraulic hose protector from a local hydraulic specialty shop a shot:

 

[chriscosta416]

Why not shorten the hose AND add the fitting? Since youll have to discharge and recharge the shock anyway might be good to get a slightly shorter hose

 

[CharlieS]

If you're going to do that, it might be possible to get a better protective sheath.

The guy at the hydraulic shop showed me three options for protective coverings - this plastic one, metal coil, and nylon sheath. The plastic one can be added any time, but the other two would need to be done before swaging.

I suspect you could also possibly use an aeroquip type braided line too. I think BP-51s might already be built with an external braided sheath on their line.

Like I said though, I didn't have any rubbing with spidertrax spacers installed, and expect that once I put my ET40 rims on, I will probably be fine too.

Thanks,
Charlie

 

[chriscosta416]

Don't go with a metal sheath, plastic or nylon will be better, if debris gets in you want it to rub against the plastic or nylon so it eats that covering instead of the hose itself. IMO better to just leave the hose exposed and redirect it

*in my opinion of course