What is the expected life of the stuffing box hose?

Feb 10, 2004
3,917
Hunter 40.5 Warwick, RI
Another thread about stuffing boxes vs the PSS system got me thinking about how long the OEM stuffing box hose should last and when it should be replaced.
And how can you tell if it is at end-of-life?
Mine is 20 years old right now. It is not soft and visually looks OK but still I wonder.
 

Dave Groshong

SBO Staff
Staff member
Jan 25, 2007
1,864
Catalina 22 Seattle
Great question Rich! I would think they would last dang near forever, but I bet MaineSail knows the answer.
 
Apr 5, 2009
2,774
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
My thinking is I would only do it at a time when I needed to pull the shaft for some other reason. The boat must be out of the water and the shaft must be removed to get to the gland hose.
I replaced mine at 25 years. I didn't think it was soft but did it because I needed to pull the shaft to replace the Cutlass bearing. I decided that given the shaft was out I pulled the packing and had it cleaned at a radiator shop and replaced the hose. Once I had the hose in hand I realized just how soft my original hose was. The proper hose had a 3/8" wall thickness and was really stiff.
 
Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Changed mine at about 17 years.. it had gone a little soft.. had to change shaft anyway so while it was out we did the hose.. and found it was in fact time to do it..
 
Oct 9, 2008
1,739
Bristol 29.9 Dana Point
Mine was replaced at 30 years, along with the stuffing box, cutlass, coupler, and shaft trued and faced.
The cutlass had failing miserably under way, -luckily and coincidentally almost within coasting distance to the yard-, so I had all the other stuff done while he was in there. Cracks in the hose and rusted clamps were indicators of driveline age, so when the cutlass went we just hauled the boat then and there for the work. In hindsight, should have done it sooner for safety.
 
Jan 7, 2011
4,723
Oday 322 East Chicago, IN
I replaced mine at ~29 years. I have owned the boat for 5 years, and don’t know if was ever replaced by a PO.

I also needed to replace my old bronze shaft, so did the coupling, stuffing box hose and cutlass bearing all at the same time.

My hose was showing signs of old age...softness and bulging at the hose clamps.

Greg
 
Nov 22, 2011
1,192
Ericson 26-2 San Pedro, CA
I'm getting ready to do mine this summer. No signs of failure yet, but it is possibly 33 years old!
 

NYSail

.
Jan 6, 2006
3,048
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
Old boat I actually changed twice. First time when I bought boat and had to change cutlass... so replaced entire stuffing box coupling etc. second time was 8 years later when I brought shaft and prop to be checked and tuned.... said why not. Cost only a few dollars.
 
May 24, 2004
7,129
CC 30 South Florida
I guess to get a fix on the approximate useful life of the stuffing box hose we would need to hear from those that have had failures. I have seen some as old as 35 years. I guess waiting until the shaft has to be removed for whatever other reason is a good plan.
 
Dec 1, 1999
2,391
Hunter 28.5 Chesapeake Bay
I don't think there is a useful mean-time-to failure for any hose on a boat. For example, friend of mine had a 1986 Pearson II with the same Yanmar 2GM20f engine as in my 1986 Hunter 28.5. We had similar usage patterns. Yet one day his boat nearly sank in the slip due to multiple pin-hole leaks at the bottom of the stuffing box hose. The leaks could not be seen by visual inspection unless you used a mirror under the gland. Fortunately, my friend was able to get an emergency haul-out to get the hose replaced. What I took away from this incident was the need to frequently inspect all hoses with your eyes and hands. Stuff happens, particularly with stuffing boxes....
 
Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
I have no history on mine. Not even sure it's the right material. It may be as cheap as the nylon stuffing box. After reading Main's article it leads me to want to replace it. He says the accepted life expectancy is 7-10 years. I'll bet many will say there's is older but do you want to chance a rupture?
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/stuffing_box

Guess which is the correct one -

 

capta

.
Jun 4, 2009
4,766
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
I think that's a really hard question for someone to answer unless they've owned their boat since new. I can't remember seeing, "stuffing box hose new in 20XX" on an ad for a boat for sale.
It's probably like reefing, if you are thinking about it, perhaps you should have done it already? lol