Howdy folks, I thought I'd jump on here and spread the R-Hop love far and wide.
You all know how and why they work, no edumucation needed there. You also all know that R-Hop kits from various retailers *cough* scalpers *cough* are $$$ for a few pieces of silicone or EDPM rubber.
On a recent backpacking trip, I looked down at a small MSR water filter of mine and had a revelation. The water filter has a input and output hoses made of a soft, flexible tubing. It was a cold morning, a little above freezing, and the tubes were still flexible. When I got home I cut an inch off, made an R-hop patch, and popped it into my field gun. Sure enough, it worked. A few minutes on the phone with MSR customer support gave me exactly the information I needed. Off to McMaster-Carr.
THE STRAIGHT DOPE
The "IR" (all-season) R-Hop tubing is made from 5/16" OD, 3/16" ID High Temperature Semisoft Silicone tubing ordered from McMaster-Carr. The item # is 51135K17. It's available in four colors for your...coloring pleasure: Opaque Black, Opaque Red, Semi-Clear Blue, and Semi-Clear White. I use Semi-Clear Blue, personally. My next order will be Opaque Red, just to be different. This stuff is teh sex in all seasons. I've used it with great success (for most glorious Kazakhstan!) in -12 °C (~10 °F) weather here in Utah. All of my AEGs use this tubing.
Link
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The older R-Hop material is made from EDPM tubing from Autozone or O'Riley's Autoparts. For the sake of convenience, it's also available from McMaster-Carr too. Again, it's got a 5/16" OD, 3/16" ID, and has a part # of 9776T4. It's 60 cents a foot too. This stuff isn't as flexible in the winter and IMHO it's pointless to use now that the silicone tubing is available. On the other hand, I could see it's use in something like an LMG that's going to have thousands of rounds being pumped through it. Of course I dunno if I've ever heard of anyone wearing out an R-Hop anyway, silicone or otherwise.
Link
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Go forth, multiply, and spread the love!
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PS: Silicone R-Hop tubing is (at this point in time) 90 cents a foot from McMaster-Carr. An HS5 "Z-Hop" kit is 25 bucks from ASGI or 23 from HS5. The "Z-Hop" kit comes with ~1.5" of tubing. Rounding up for waste, that's 23 bucks for two inches. It would cost you $276-$300 to buy a foot of the stuff from ASGI or HS5. ALL ABOARD THE NOPE TRAIN TO FUCKTHATVILLE. CHOO CHOO! :bird:
You all know how and why they work, no edumucation needed there. You also all know that R-Hop kits from various retailers *cough* scalpers *cough* are $$$ for a few pieces of silicone or EDPM rubber.
On a recent backpacking trip, I looked down at a small MSR water filter of mine and had a revelation. The water filter has a input and output hoses made of a soft, flexible tubing. It was a cold morning, a little above freezing, and the tubes were still flexible. When I got home I cut an inch off, made an R-hop patch, and popped it into my field gun. Sure enough, it worked. A few minutes on the phone with MSR customer support gave me exactly the information I needed. Off to McMaster-Carr.
THE STRAIGHT DOPE
The "IR" (all-season) R-Hop tubing is made from 5/16" OD, 3/16" ID High Temperature Semisoft Silicone tubing ordered from McMaster-Carr. The item # is 51135K17. It's available in four colors for your...coloring pleasure: Opaque Black, Opaque Red, Semi-Clear Blue, and Semi-Clear White. I use Semi-Clear Blue, personally. My next order will be Opaque Red, just to be different. This stuff is teh sex in all seasons. I've used it with great success (for most glorious Kazakhstan!) in -12 °C (~10 °F) weather here in Utah. All of my AEGs use this tubing.
Link
The older R-Hop material is made from EDPM tubing from Autozone or O'Riley's Autoparts. For the sake of convenience, it's also available from McMaster-Carr too. Again, it's got a 5/16" OD, 3/16" ID, and has a part # of 9776T4. It's 60 cents a foot too. This stuff isn't as flexible in the winter and IMHO it's pointless to use now that the silicone tubing is available. On the other hand, I could see it's use in something like an LMG that's going to have thousands of rounds being pumped through it. Of course I dunno if I've ever heard of anyone wearing out an R-Hop anyway, silicone or otherwise.
Link
Go forth, multiply, and spread the love!
PS: Silicone R-Hop tubing is (at this point in time) 90 cents a foot from McMaster-Carr. An HS5 "Z-Hop" kit is 25 bucks from ASGI or 23 from HS5. The "Z-Hop" kit comes with ~1.5" of tubing. Rounding up for waste, that's 23 bucks for two inches. It would cost you $276-$300 to buy a foot of the stuff from ASGI or HS5. ALL ABOARD THE NOPE TRAIN TO FUCKTHATVILLE. CHOO CHOO! :bird:
