My 580 hose thoughts

I must admit this is my first post here. Just started to read this forum last week and already have my direction planned out for working on my Hydrostatic Drive on my 70’s 580B. During the reading I noticed a section on replacing hoses. I thought I’d enter my 2 cents, since I just am finishing up taking a year rebuilding all of the cylinders and replacing about 90% of the hoses. I went to a local shop and got a ‘guestimate’ for some of the hoses on the backhoe. The previous owner had an assortment of diameter hoses on it, and because they were all about to die anyway, I took the whole pile to the shop. Asked them to replace w/ 12’s (3/4”) hoses. The guess was for around $270. Being on a ‘save as you go – go as you saved’ program; I said go. The bill came back at $480 and they had re-made all of the hoses to the original miss-matched sizes. AARRRGGHHH … they came home with me, but I needed a better way for the future –otherwise the hoses were going to cost me a LOT more than the machine did years ago! The next best was ordereing them all out of Northern Hydraulics (now called Northern Tool --- northerntool.com) They had generic lengths in 2 wire 3500lb hoses with male NPT ( National Pipe Thread ) thread on each. So I measured out the rest of the hoses (all but the level-jacks) and ordered them. Nice reasonable pricing and hoses seemed great. In another message in this forum I read where someone suggested buying your hoses from Surplus Center (surpluscenter.com). I had bought form them in the past for some other stuff in the past; so I checked them out. It looks like they have about the same hoses as Northern had so I just compared prices. On a 60” ½” (8) 2-wire 3500lb hose there was only a $1 difference. I figure in the future –depending on what I’m looking for- I will check them out as well. Sometimes there are other things you want to get as well, and this might sway the decision for me next time. Fittings. AARRGGHH All ends need to be JIC, O-ring, or an occasional NPT (if adding lines together for length). They will all need to be female NPT on one side –whatever the size (8’s, 12’s, etc) and either Male or Female on the other end. Some will need to be swivels and some may not need to be. If in question –swivel. You should always try to have a swivel at least on one end of a hose unit. It will be easier than holding the hose and spinning the valve or cylinder to assemble it. :=) Local fittings can cost a fortune. I have one person I go back to for a fast and simple adaptor, but otherwise I’m on the Internet for them. You can pay $4-6 for an adaptor you can get for $2 on the net. Turned out to be same type of adapter in quality, so why not? When you are buying a lot of adaptors it does add up FAST. My brother-in law always wanted me to try Mechanic Bliss in Worcester Massachusetts. Figured why not, I had saved enough –I hoped- and went in. Gave the guy a list and he went searching. Came back with a few, and said that the others were not there, and they would need to order them for me. Unfortunately I was talking too much and didn’t check them all with him. Since the card with the fittings was pretty clear, I had no worries. A neighbor that had grown-up with me had come in and was getting as love-joy joint for a logsplitter… we talked as well. Since it was saved ‘stash’ money I paid cash (about $68 for the 40% order) and went home. They next day I opened the box to find all of the fittings correct on one side.. the implement side, but not the other side. They were all NPT males instead of females. AARRGGHHH !!… So I took them back the next day to see if I could get the right one’s or my money back. Well.. the guy came out of the office and sternly informed me that they do not take returnes on anything that has been bought with cash. They would if I had bought them with a credit card (obviously because they know I could cancel the payment on them). AAARRRGGGHHHH !!! I will never step foot in there again! Have nice box of fittings I need to sell on Ebay someday now. The next turn found me a provider for life. I went to Discounthydraulichoses.com. Sort of a simple name. Could have been a scam –or one of those junk providers- but I figured not. Ordered all of my adaptors from them. Nice interface to figure out what you needed –with pictures and graphs- etc. Prices were VERY reasonable compared to ANYTHING local as well. Fittings were all the same as I get from my local hydraulic guy (NOT Mechanics Bliss). I paid under $2 dollars for some that I was paying more than $4 locally. WOW. I had always delayed buying from them because I figured it would take forever to get. Well on the 3rd day they were on the porch. I put off more days getting the ambition to drive to a local place before. When I asked for catalogs and stuff… It came !! Separate shipment no less. WOW.. Turns out they are a family owned business, just with a fancy web-business-name on the web. Now I don’t have any association with any of these places. I can’t even claim that my method of economically replacing my 580’s hoses was any better than anyone else’s method’s or thoughts. I just thought I’d bring them out to you all as I try to pay back for all the advice I have been spying on here. I love my 580B and hope to have it all done soon…. After I work on the tranny fluids and brakes now.. paint later.