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Five Year Hose Replacement

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Peterk

Well Known Member
Just curious. As my 12 comes upon its 5 year mark I have to consider how to deal with the Rotax recommendation to change all hoses. Obviously, this time frame has proven to be a point of failure in more than one case or Rotax would not suggest it. I'm sure there are hoses that last longer and those that do not.

All that said, has anyone changed all of theirs yet...or plan to soon? My understanding is that the recommendation includes carburetor rubber elements, fuel lines and coolant lines. I replaced the carburetor elements just recently because they did in fact fail...so it does happen. I have not replaced any others as of yet. My 12 is five years old this month with 600 plus hours.

Would be interested in what the factory did since they have 5 year old aircraft as well. Both the red one and the blue one on the east coast would quality. Did Van's change all of the hoses?

Not sure anyone wants to blow a radiator hose (or fuel hose) in flight. As I said, just curious. Thanks.
 
Hoses

I used A/C grade medium press hose instead of the Rotax ones. You will have to use the 1 molded collant hose from Rotax. No options on the radiator hose though.
 
When I was a teenager I had a FIAT in the days when they were few and far between. I had a hard time getting regional parts and replaced its molded radiator hose with a muti-ply hose that was flexible enough to make all those twists and turns. That might be an option on the ROTAX one if it's too expensive.
 
664781 said:
I used A/C grade medium press hose instead of the Rotax ones. You will have to use the 1 molded collant hose from Rotax. No options on the radiator hose though.
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What size hose did you use, metric or something close.
 
Hoses

I recall reading that the hoses are not Rotax hoses but ones fabricated by Van's and are not affected by the 5 year replacement. I don't know where I read it and I hope I am not making it up.

Rich
 
On my 912 powered Kitfox I did the 5 year replacement this last year. Like many I was suspect of the process since everything was working fine and showing no signs of leaking or problems.

Once I got all the lines off you could see the hoses breaking down and starting to get cracks in some of them. I was glad to have done it. But it was not very much fun. You can't really see the issues until you look inside. Mostly the coolant hoses looked the worst.

At the same time I had Tom From TSFlight lines make up new fuel lines FWF out of teflon hose and firesleve so those will now be lifetime hoses.

The carb rubber parts looked fine when removed, but I replaced them anyways.
 
A good read on this is on the Rotax-Owner forum in the blog section. I think it is page number 4 and it is a two part article.
 
Just wondering if this is also recommended for other engines such as Lycoming. A friend told me that the fuel lines will need replacing every five years.

Thoughts????
 
Peterk said:
lots of interesting thoughts and actions...wonder what Van's did with their two? Scott?
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N412RV got the prescribed parts changed at 5 years. It had to, it is an S-LSA so has to be maintained per Rotax's recommended maint. intervals.

Mitch manages the maint. on N912VA, so I don't know the specifics on that one but I think he made the part changes also.
 
Dave. Nice write-up on your hose replacement. I see no mention of a remotely mounted oil pressure sensor which requires an additional hose. Did these folks put anything together along these lines to go with their "kit?"
 
It had to, it is an S-LSA so has to be maintained per Rotax's recommended maint. intervals.

Thanks Scott. Wasn't aware S-LSA's were required to follow mfr "recommendations" - learn something new everyday. I am assuming no surprises found (as mentioned in earlier posts) or we would have heard about them.
 
Peterk said:
Dave. Nice write-up on your hose replacement. I see no mention of a remotely mounted oil pressure sensor which requires an additional hose. Did these folks put anything together along these lines to go with their "kit?"
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They were working on a thermostat for the oil, but I don't remember any work on an oil pressure sensor relocation kit. Steve pops in here now and then - I imagine he would be able to say for sure.
 
Steve (Aircraft Specialty) and I worked on the RV12/Rotax hoses together, as well as the brake hose package. Not having a RV12 in our stable, we relied on several builders to help with the routeings and mock ups.
We now have a oil thermostasis kit, as well as the remote oil pressure sender hose kit.
For you non-RV12 builders, we are working on alot of other packages, especially for RV7/9's and RV8's. WE have the RV10's pretty well covered as well. it takes alot of time to do these, so we may not announce something on either website.
Eventually we'l have packages for just about everything RV hose related.
Yep---i'm still working on the flow transducer hose package for IO320/IO360/IO540 installs. (Really want a mock up engine to set all this up on, but no takers Yet. Thought we had a Large engine supplier for a dummy engine, but guess not.)
On RV7's/RV9's, I'll be able to mock up alot of this stuff now that I'm building the fuselage for my 7. Bigger things are instore!
Tom
 
I too have the Lockwood oil sender re-location kit and it works flawlessly.

I truly appreciate all the experimenters who has tried different systems and those parts providers, TS Flightline and Steinair, in their development of what everyone will need in the future to successfully operate their plane. I am only a year and a half into my RV12 operation life and am continually pleased to the support available as I reach future maintanance milestones.

There are others, Vans of course the major support group, IMHO are to considered on a case by case basis by each owner. Great things in store I'm sure.
 
As Tom mentioned, we have developed drop in RV-12 replacement kits for the fuel hoses. We also have a remote oil pressure relocation kit and an oil thermostat kit.

All of these kits include our conductive teflon hoses which are incredibly high quality, are not life limited, and carry an industry exclusive 10 year warranty.

We also have a bunch of really neat kits coming out in the future. We also greatly appreciate the builders who work with us to prototype and refine these packages.

Have a great day and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Steve

P.S. Dave Gamble did some beta testing for us and has done some excellent writeups on his blog which are very entertaining and informative.
 
Last edited:
MMiller said:
Last week my engine turned 5-years old. I put together an RV-12 Rubber Replacement Spreadsheet, here is the link;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByPxADyU-DwPX2ZReUt6OURweE0/view?usp=sharing

Mike Miller
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Hey Mike, I love the spread sheet. It looks like an excel spreadsheet. Is it possible to send the spreadsheet to me as a file? Then, I could load it, and have the ability to add data, such as parts prices, sources, check off columns etc.

Let me know and I will get my email address to you.

Tom
 
Fuel pump vent?

Am I not thinking of the right vent-- wasn't the fuel pump vent replaced with metal tube as part of the "new fuel pump" SB?

Thanks-- great info here!
]
Wayne 120241/143WM-- also coming up on 5 years this October!
 
MMiller said:
Tom,

Yes this is an Excel file. You should be able to download it. After opening the link you should find a Google Drive tool bar at the top of the web page (below any browser tool bars.) In the middle of the Google Drive tool bar you should have three icons. The middle icon is an underlined down arrow, this is the download button. The tool bar will fade away when your mouse stops moving. If you are still having problems, send me a PM (e-mail type) and I will reply with a copy of the file.

Mike Miller
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Thanks Mike. We're traveling and I will download the file as soon as we get home.
 
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