The main thing about the hydraulics has already been mentioned. It's not that it is THAT hard to bend mild steel.........it's just a pain in the balls to do it by hand. First, the bender has to be mounted and mounted VERY well, with a LOT of room around it. How much room? Enough to swing a 15ft stick of tubing to bend a main hoop. So how big is your shop and where are you going to permanently mount this bender that has enough room to bend a main hoop. Secondly, on the hand side you also need a bit of room, because the handle you pull is pretty long. Point is you need a big open area for a manual bender
Can not disagree with you on the space part Monte. I forget my work shop is 30x46 and only has one car in it. Main hoops do take up plenty of real estate when bending them. For me I can't justify spending the $600-700 to convert my bender to Hydraulic when all my stuff is bent.
