Radiator hose?

[jvencius]

At what point should I change the radiator hoses? When I hit 60K miles in about a month or so, I'll be doing a lot of maintenance to the truck and while everything is draining, I plan to install a 203* thermostat and a new T-stat housing. Since the radiator will be drained, I figure it'll be a fine time to change the hoses since winters up north here can't do them any good and they're over 4 years old now. Is that too soon to change them before they fail or should I wait before "fixing" a problem that doesn't exist (yet). When I do swap them out, do I re-use the stock clamps or is there a better clamp solution out there? If there is a better way of clamping the hose ends, please point me to a vendor so that I can get the parts in advance (BTW, powerstrokeshop.com is getting my order for the hoses, unless there is a dramatically better solution out there).

 

[BJS]

I can say that I replaced my hoses on my '95 last sept when the truck was 9 years old the hoses were the factory parts w/ aprox 150k on them. They were in good shape and still rigid. I replaced them only because I had to replace the waterpump.

For hose clamps if you're out to spend extra money there are bling stainless band clamps. myself I'm partial to the stainless wormgear (standard clamps) that my local napa stocks.

 

[BJS]

For novel intrest for cold weather impact on the rubber my truck came from Idaho by way of Utah.

 

[agomez]

160k on the clock before I replaced the hoses. Truck came from Nebraska so it saw a lot of hard winters. Make sure you replace with ome or equvilent...the hoses that came from the factory are high quality so be careful if you go with after market.