Sometimes maintaining control over how your hydraulic hoses 'land' during installation can be a PiA.
Hydraulic hoses need to be curved smoothly without twists, curls, and kinks. Sometimes the inadvertent twist will turn into a kink when pressurized or moved as with a loader. Backhoes can be susceptible but loaders are where I see most problems.
Ideally, one end of your new hose has a swivel. Make up the hard-end first then stretch to the other connection. What I've found is that by holding a firm back-up on the machine side I can then turn the hose swivel to tighten in the orientation I want it to.
Once the swivel starts to contact the mating surface you'll probably see the hose itself start to turn. What I've had to do more than once is manually twist the hose 'backwards' or 'counterclockwise' just before I feel the swivel starting to make contact. Then, as the swivel tightens down it will tend to draw the hose into the 'correct' or smooth orientation you desire. I've had to do this as many as three or four times per hose to finally get the dang hose positioned as I like.
Be cautious manipulating hoses---you can manually kink one. Not to worry, just don't get too rough with a hose. You shouldn't have to. Just twist it, don't bend it.
Old fittings on the machine end that are rusty or pitted a bit just off the cone of the contact point are the most problem as they tend to 'grab' the swivel connection and twist the hose during makeup.
I have cleaned the oldest connections by twisting a greasy pipecleaner down into the fitting then buffing with fine sandpaper. Pulling out the greasy fuzzy pipecleaner tends to pull the fine metal dust away from the mouth of the fitting.
The same process should work if you're turning a swivel on the machine-end. Don't have one of those so haven't myself done that. You just have to keep trying repeatedly tightening-loosening until you finally get the hose to 'land' like you wish.
For what it's worth, assuming the space available and fitment allows such, I've begun having all my replacement hoses made using swivels on both ends. Seems to make life easier for just a few bucks more, especially on longer hoses. If doing this confirm first that the hose ends with [new] swivels can pass through any openings or slots, as in backhoe boom.
As for flarenut-crowfoot wrenches, I think they're the handiest thing in the world for doing hydaulic hoses. They'll fit over the metal neck of the hose (as in a 90-deg) and let you get down on the bottom to hold backup--or the top nut to make it up. They 'wrap around' the nut on five of the six flats and won't let go and won't 'smear' or round-off the nut flat. You can get more force on the flarenut-crowfoot than you should probably apply to most hydraulic fittings. Sure is handy when trying to break loose a 30-year old fitting. Or in a cluster of fittings like where on a loader four or a half-dozen are all grouped tightly together.
The flarenut-crowfoot won't fit over the hose itself (at least that I've found) so on some hoses, depending how everything fits together, I've had a short
(1-inch) straight metal tube-type connection added as an 'extension' behind the nut. This too makes life easier as the wrench will slip right over the tube.
One thing in the discussion of flarenut-crowfoot wrenches: you're looking for the real thing that is thick bodied (compared to, for example, a standard open-end wrench) and has a slot cut out where one of the flats would be. The other type open-end wrench that fits a ratchet (that looks just like a short standard open-end with a square ratchet hole in it) may have a place but not in hydraulic hoses. I've tried these lesser wrenches and succeeded only in smearing, distorting, and somewhat ruining the fitting (like when a loose crescent slips). They just can't get a good hold like a true flarenut-crowfoot can.
Please post back your experiences so we may all learn.
