Hyd question

[Ivan49]

I have a question about some hyd. lines. I was asked to weld up a piece of logging equit. and after looking it wasn't worth saving. The owner gave it to me but he wanted the swivel grapple on the boom. I got 5 3 spool valves and many feet of hyd hose from it. Here is my question. On the hoses they are all 1/2 but they have 3/8 fitting pressed on the ends. What would be the reason for doing this as it seems a 1/2 would have been better. All the valves had 3/4 ports reduced down. I asked him if he did this and he said that was the way it came when he bought it some they kept it that way. He bought this new back in the late 70's or early 80's. Another strange thing is that it had all pipe elbows on it with swivel fitting screwed into them.

 

[SSdoxie]

Just a guess only: 1/2" hose is very common so is possible at time these were made the cost per foot of 1/2" was less than using smaller hose. Reducing to 3/8" fittings was probably to help slow down the functions (built in restriction) to give smoother operation.