painting the hemtt - question about flex agents

[dma251]

I am going to be sandblasting the crane and framerails on Monday! As soon as that is done I plan on driving it home and painting it with Gillespie Redox primer and 383 green.

My question is about flex additives. The crane obviously has a lot of hydraulic hoses on it, and some of them are new. I would like to add a flex additive so that I don't get the typical cracked and flaking paint on the hoses as soon as they start moving with the cranes operation.

What experience/advice do you all have about these additives? Do they cause gloss in the paint? If so, do you then have to add a flattener to it? What ratios do you guys use? What are the negatives to flex agent?

Thanks guys ! Pics coming soon!

 

[gimpyrobb]

I have heard that paint on the hoses is not good for them. Any objection to not painting them? Most "from the factory trucks don't have paint on the hoses.

 

[Alredneck]

i would second GImmpy, paint gets on the house when the trucks go up to maintnance, or to and from deployment, then " Joe " he doesnt care what gets painted as long as he gets off on time to pickup a sixer and his date!

 

[dma251]

I really appreciate the advice but I have to tell you guys, every military truck I've seen has had paint on the hoses including most of mine. I used to work around marine engines and they also have all the hoses painted with the same thick paint. Even a lot of commercial truck engines seem to have a lot of their hoses painted from the factory.

Right or wrong, the problem I am faced with is many of my hoses have already been painted, and that paint is now flaking off and so I am going to break off the major loose stuff but i have to cover it again or it will look terrible. See the picture below.

 

[cranetruck]

I understand that's not your question, but I avoid painting rubber hoses, wire harnesses etc, simply don't like to deal with the paint when working on them, fittings and so on. Black goes well with camo paint anyway, you wouldn't want to paint the tires, right?

 

[dma251]

soooo..... Any thoughts on this flex additive anyone?

 

[cranetruck]

How are you going to deal with the paint already on the hoses?
Paint makes it hard to locate defects also...

 

[Stretch44875]

Don't know anything about flex additive, but you could paint the hoses black. Then when you change a hose, it matches.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Albeit me to say anything but they make nice UV protective covers for hydraulic hoses. I'm hoping to be able to afford those as I replace the hoses on my crane.

 

[Jones]

Depending on the brand; CARC/Sherwin-Williams, Gillespie, etc., I'd check with the paint manufacturer's Commercial distributer or call the factory tech line. I don't know if any flex additives are formulated to work with the mil. spec. paints but the maker sure would.
A lot of flex additives are mixed in to keep the paint from cracking when the component is subjected to vibration, or expansion and contraction from extremes in temperature. A rubber hose may flex above and beyond the call fo duty for most coatings.
Even though it gets done on a regular basis, everything I read; from PS Magazine to TMs says not to paint rubber-- be it window mouldings to tires or hoses because the volitiles attack the various compounds.
If you get some answers, please share. I'll check with my buddy at Manitowoc/Grove and do the same.

P.S. When you get your crane sand-blasted, make sure you do a REAL good job of taping off the rams; then wipe them down with something to get ALL the grit off BEFORE you retract anything. I've seen that fine powder get past duct tape and I guarantee you don't want it getting into seals and slider bushings.