Look at the interior of the hoses  - they deteriorate from the inside going
out.
You don't say what year hoses or rad you're working with, but basically
those are extremely well made hoses - last just about forever.
The hoses that suffer the most are the ones at the top of engines, where the
coolant coming out is hottest , or where engine heat is greatest.
I wouldn't'' dream of replacing vanagon radiator front hoses unless there
was an obvious reason too.  Not sure what the price in the aftermarket is on
those these days, but they can be very spendy hoses anyway.  I have *never*
seen one fail in any way that I can think of, in hundreds of vanagons worked
on or owned.
Or another way to think about it is : "that's not the weak area." 
Scott
www.turbovans.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
neil N
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 10:41 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Best way to inspect coolant hoses?

Hi all.

This in regards to my engine conversion process.

I'm busy pulling parts. Even took off the dash! (kinda makes me wonder
why I bothered modifying the air dist. box on my air cooled
westy......  ;^)

Whats the best way to visually inspect coolant hoses to get a general
idea of condition. i.e. the 2 hoses coming from the rad?

They don't feel "crunchy" when squeezed. Rubber looks ok but they had
what look like the original clamps. (the kind you squeeze)  These
clamps are prevelant throughout the van. Makes me wonder if these are
mostly the original hoses.

I know there's no guarantees in life, but what's the best way to tell
if these hoses are worth reusing?

Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Neil.

--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia -
"Jaco"  (Bustorius) http://web.mac.com/tubaneil

Engine swap beginings: http://musomuso.googlepages.com/home