Will a Ford 4000 pull a box blade?

[kmacht]

I have a 63 Ford 4000 with a superior front end loader mounted. I am slowly converting some woods by the house into pasture for the horses. Once I get all of the stumps/rocks removed I am going to need to grade the area. To level it out I need to move about 2' of material from the high side of a 100' square area to the low side. A box blade sounds ideal for what I want to do but I am concerned that my tractor may not pull it. Everything I read talks about people needing to put their tractors in 4wd mode to get it to pull the blade. I have AG tires with chains but have had them spin just going up hills it a light load of firewood in the bucket. I would hate to go spend all the money on a box blade just to find that I can't pull it. Anyone else successfully use a box blade on a vintage ford tractor?

Keith

 

[oldnslo]

Do you have fluid in the tires or wheel weights? The loader on the front is taking weight (traction) away from the rear tires. Our neighbor had a 4000 Ford the the used on his farm so yes the tractor is capable if weighted properly.

 

[gb6049]

Use my '67 model 2000 with a 5' grader blade to move gravel around my driveway. I tried to use it to do some grading on my yard to put in a deck and found the problem in compacted soil is the the blade would bite into the soil and the hydraulics does not have enough downward force.

 

[stingray1]

My 3000 does fine with a 5ft box blade

 

[japody]

My 4000 doesn't even breathe hard pulling a 6' box blade.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Do you have fluid in the tires or wheel weights? The loader on the front is taking weight (traction) away from the rear tires. Our neighbor had a 4000 Ford the the used on his farm so yes the tractor is capable if weighted properly.

^^^ THIS
I have a 2wd Ford 3910, not much different of a tractor than your 4000. Wheel weights and fluid in the tires will help alot but you still won't have the traction you would if you take the loader off to do your heavier box blade work.
With no fluid in my rear tires I have 200 lbs of weights on each side and run a low air pressure, it does ok for traction with the loader on.

 

[MitchellB]

My United Box Blade is the attachment I use most often with my old 1958 861D Ford. A couple years before this picture was taken, I leveled about 10 dump truck loads of dirt to fill in where an old church once stood with that box blade and a little 8N Ford tractor that I had then, which is allot smaller than a Ford 4000. The little 8N did not have wheel weights either and only 1 tire was filled as I had just repaired a flat and replaced the inner tube in one rear tire and never filled it back up.

 

[ovrszd]

Yes, it will handle it fine.

It will also add ballast weight for doing loader tasks.

 

[kmacht]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm pretty sure the tires are filled on the tractor but have never had to add air or change a tube yet. I found a good deal on a used 5' box blade local to me so I'm going to give it a shot. If it doesn't work I can always sell it for about what I'll have into it.

Keith

 

[Kirk-NJ]

Even my 640 with less HP than your 4000 has no trouble pulling a 5' box loaded with dirt or gravel. Scarifiers will help in new ground.

Kirk