dark phoenix

Has anyone purchased a pair? I read that they can handle up to 175 degrees. And was wondering if they could be a decent replacement for our stock rubber hose.

Thanks for your time

ijneb

I doubt they'll work, as your engines operating temp is around 180, but im no expert.

dark phoenix

yeah I sort of guessed they might crack under our cars temp. But I was checking out alternatives for hoses.

PVerdieck

Well keep checking, because that's not one of them.

Any good auto parts place has a range of hoses like fuel line and heater core.

rynberg

Yikes!

scotty305

iTrader: (2)

Look in your yellow pages for places like Hose Mart or Hose Man. There are about two or three shops within 20 miles of my house that supply hoses of all kinds, silicone, heavy-duty rubber, etc...

Also, if there's anything in particular that you need, give Ray at Malloy Mazda a call, he was the cheapest option I found for a replacement Air Pump rubber hose. (888) 533-3400

Good luck,
-scott-

dark phoenix

thanks scott this is the info I was looking for

InsaneGideon

If you can make the trek from "Inner City West Coast" to Signal Hill, Ca., try Baker Precision, which is right across the street from Mazdatrix. They really know their stuff.


edit: Be careful which result you click on when you google "Hose Man".

scotty305

iTrader: (2)

Haha thanks InsaneGideon, just for kicks I checked out a couple of the 'other' hose men. Here's my favorite, from http://www.ubersite.com/m/24183 :

When my grandchildren ask me about my WWII days, I always tell them that war is something that shouldn't be sensastionalized with stories. The truth is I wouldn't dare tell anyone I know about my war efforts. I am not ashamed of my duties during the war, but they are not something I would gather the family around the fireplace to tell.

I was the hose man.

Now to the majority of you, this term would make little or no sense. So I will tell you a little about what a hose man was.

During WWII there were many models of the B-17 bomber produced. As a RAF soldier I was unqualified to fly and not accurate enough to man a gun turret, so during England's bombing raids on France and Germany I somehow got assigned to a temporary air-base on the coast. Among administration duties, I somehow also landed the position of hose man.

So many of these air raids were done with B-17E and later model bombers. The E model had the added feature of a ball turret behind the wings. Now to military advisors and planners, the ball turret must have been like a godsend. A ball turret is a metal chamber with plexiglass windows, and is armed with 2 .50 cal. Browning Machine guns. The bullets and oxygen, as well as heating is fed through the top of the turret, and the entire ball can spin 360 degrees around without tangling the bullet feeds. To me, as the hose man, the ball turret is the worst invention I can think of.

The problem was that the Germans would send up their Luftwaffe fighters to drop these bombers before they could cross the channel. Since the ball turret had the best view and the gunner had the best aim, this ball turret was always targeted first. So when the B-17 or the B-24 comes back in from its seven hour mission, it was my job to greet the aircraft with a large, high pressure steam hose. It was my job to clean the ball turret out.

Now this might seem bad, but it was actually worse than you can imagine. You see, a ball turret can only fit the very smallest of men. Not much bigger than a jockey, the ball turret gunner had to be. Maybe five foot six was the tallest gunner I had ever seen get into one. So the little gunner would go out a very short person, and come back liquid. The steam hose did a good job of diluting the blood and gore, and by the time I had finished with it there was only organs and bones left. The skin that was left would be red raw and burnt. The families weren't told this was how they looked when they died.

Most of the time these ball turret gunners would come back in good health. The way to tell was that if the ball turret was empty, the gunner was probably alive. You see, the gunner didn't climb into the ball from outside the plane. They would climb into it from the inside of the bomber when they were coming close to contact with the enemy, and then if the mission went well they would climb back into the bomber when they were back over the channel.

When they didn't come back in perfect health, they usually came back in really bad health, it was really hit or miss. The worst would come back shot up and electrocuted, as the German's bullets would tear through their heated flight suit's power supply and administer a very heavy shock. Not to mention the bullet wounds. If they couldn't crawl back into the actual body of the bomber, they would also get hypothermia, as the flight suit would be wrecked half the time and the plexiglass would be shot to pieces.

So instead of shooting ***** and Japs, I was stuck with what had to be one of the worst jobs of the war. Still, I preferred having to hose out the ball turret gunner than to being one.