Interesting. I ordered a few hoses for my jeep and ended up with 2 lower hoses from 2 different manufactures. I noticed the Goodyear hose was about twice as thick as the Gates hose. It also appears to have more internal re enforcement. I will be going with goodyear hoses from now on. (check out the difference in the attached pic.

 

I have Gates hoses on mine. But after seeing that pic, I think I agree with you. Goodyear wouldn't put that much rubber in it without a reason.

Thanks for posting.

 

Gates is one of the better brands actually. Most HD, commercial, bus etc. almost exclusively use gates rubber products. Just because you have a bit of additional rubber does not make it better. Goodyear, at least hose, is owned by continental. SO, not sure how that affects things. I would run gates belts and hoses over GY, Dayco, etc.

 

Some of the lower hoses are meant to be ran with an internal spring in them so they don't suck closed.

 

Sorry but this is not true. The spring was used to make it easier to install and nothing more.

 

Since lower radiator hose collapse is a fairly common problem without the spring inside, I'd say that spring does a pretty awesome job at preventing collapse as well regardless of what its primary intended purpose may or may not be.

 

That's interesting. That's the first time I've ever heard that. Can you cite a source for that info?


EDIT: Here's an interesting article that supports your idea.

And here's a thread where post #11 seems to refute it.


Maybe we'll never know!

 

Love it when people flap about stuff they know nothing about. Or repeat fallacies. The spring in a hose has two purposes prevent suction collapse and prevent kink close at bends.

 

If the hose collapses, it means there is an obstruction in the cooling system that is preventing the full flow. A spring in the hose is not going to help in that situation.

 

I don't think you'll need the spring in the GY hose. That's a pretty darn thick rubber. If there is enough suction to close that shut, your cooling system needs some serious attention....

 

I understood the lower hose spring was there for production purposes only. They use a machine to add coolant by pulling a vacuum on the system to draw coolant throughout. This from Cruiser54