Coolant hose change?

[DRBARBER001]

When do uall change your coolant hoses, by time or miles ?

[Hipshot]

On my cars and pickups I have allways changed the belts and hoses at 50,000 miles and kept the old ones as spares. I am new to motor homes and would also like to know when ya'll change them.

[Gary RVRoamer]

Mine are 7+ years old and still looking great. I have no plans to change them now.

[Wanabee FTer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer Mine are 7+ years old and still looking great. I have no plans to change them now.

Age and mileage may vary. A good way to tell is to grab a large diameter hose (when cool) and squeeze it. If it feels soft and squishy or hard and crunchy they are ready to replace.

[chasfm11]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wanabee FTer Age and mileage may vary. A good way to tell is to grab a large diameter hose (when cool) and squeeze it. If it feels soft and squishy or hard and crunchy they are ready to replace.

It is harder to squeeze the large MH hoses but I agree with this method. Call me foolish but I prefer to change the hoses around 5 years. If we used the vehicle more, I probably would have gone longer.

Since I do my own work, It cost me about $200 to change all of the hoses. Most of them I bought locally (and they were cheaper) but a couple of the large ones I ordered from Freightliner and they were more expensive. I did a coolant change at the same time.

By contrast, I paid a "professional" shop to change just my coolant and they charged me $450 and used 2 gallons of coolant (it was on the bill) in a 10 gallon system. I used 5 gallons of coolant and all distilled water, replaced all of the hoses and clamps and still didn't spend as much as the professionals charged. One of my main motivations was for doing it this way was to go to an extended life coolant. With new hoses, I can just test the coolant and add to it as needed.