coolant hose leak

[AustroTom]

Hello All,
I'm new to this forum and am glad to have found you!

I have an '04 Newmar MountainAire DP on a Mountain Master tag chassis.
A few days ago I had an emrgency engine shutoff due to engine overheating. The mobile mechanic found the coolant hose going from the pump to the dash heater with a 2" long stress fracture.
Is that normal for a 7 year old rig, and how do you replace 45' of hose (the mechanic's suggestion), running along the underside of the coach without tearing the whole basement apart?

Thank you in advance for your replies and or tips,

Thomas

[bluepill]

Sadly, 7 years is not an unusual failure time for domestic hoses. No reason for it, since most Honda and Toyota hose goes 15 to 20 years without failure.

You do have the option of running the new hose in a more accessble area - such as along the inside of the frame rails - and just abandoning the old hose. This can save a lot of time/money.

[AustroTom]

That's just it. The current one DOES run within the "U" channel, but it keeps disappearing in the frame somewhere and then swoops out at some other end. And the rails in the basement have a hard plastic cover "conduit" where all the wires and hoses are hidden. So, pulling out he old one is the hard part. i just don't understand why they would use such a soft, cheap hose for this application to begin with.

[bluepill]

It's all about price. Good quality 5/8" silicone hose is $120 for 25 feet at Grainger. I think it's worth it, but the concept is lost to the bean counters at the factory.

My dream for a special hell for cost-cutting fanatics:

Perpetual failures of everything they ever price chopped.

My dream for bad engineers:

Eternally trying to replace the impossible-to-get-at parts that they designed.

As for politicians............................

Well, I don't want to get banned.

[AustroTom]

All it says on the side of the hose is " 5/8" standard heater hose, so I don't know the brand. Since the hose DID break right at a section that did NOT have a wire wrapper around I'm suspecting that's why it failed

Thomas

[Mr_D]

What coolant are you using? Some coolants have 2-ethyl hexanoic acid in them that attacks the hoses, causing them to fail although it's the silicon or silicone lined ones that it eats up.

Here's a thread that discusses it.

[MBnKen]

Tom, I hope you are able to get this fixed at a reasonable cost. Please update us when you are done.

Anyone??? - for the MM and K2 chassis, has anyone found a reasonable solution for replacing the entire length of hose given the problem accessing the channel? I am OK for now but wondering what happens when that time comes to replace the hose.

The other hose I am concerned about it the engine to Hydro Hot (Aqua Hot) loop that provides hot water while driving. I have heard that one also has split from time to time.
Thanks
Ken

[alan1]

Just had my Aqua-Hot hoses replaced at the factory. It was about a 12 hour job. Left the old hose in as they could not get it out do to it being spray foamed in. They were barely able to squeeze in the new hose.