Ford 4500 backhoe question

My 4500 does not have a backhoe.....yet.

Q). Are ALL of the backhoes on the 4500's removable, or are some permanently mounted?

Q). Whats on yours?

Thanks
sl

If it doesn"t have a 3 point then it should mount on the loader frame extension. Undo 2 bolts and 3 hoses and its off (if there is no auxilary throttle control).

JF in Ct,
Good to hear from you!
The tractor does have a 3 pt. It is currently attached to my Gannon scraper. It also has the frame that accepts a hoe. In fact It looks like the hoe off of my CASE would just about fit. I never tried.
I've looked at other hoes, I'm not sure if any of the 4500's have a "permanently" mounted hoe.

sl

Hi- am currently bidding on e-bay on a ford 4500 backhoe. Looking for weight, out to out width of rear tires, problems with the 3 cyl. diesel engine and any other comments---thanks

Hi Dpendzic,

The 4500 was quite the tractor in it's day. When I bought this one, it would have been better off with some bailing wire and twine. Quite sad shape. Today it's in very good shape. I didn't know what I had until I started looking at other tractors. I am quite happy with it. The 3 cyl diesel isn't as smooth as I'd like, but it takes all I demand of it. I think a weak area is the clutch. I put a new one in it a year and half ago. No problems yet. I do a lot of shifting, shuttle type work. The loader is GREAT ! very strong. I would like to have a backhoe on mine, but don't.
Where are you located?

sl

If it's a Ford hoe, it's removable. The whole point of the loader subframe is hoe support (and hydraulic oil storage). Unless someone welded the hoe to the hooks, they are all removable, and that's the only way to mount a Ford hoe on a 4500. You DO NOT mount a ford hoe to the 3-point. The 3-point can be there, but it's not involved in the mount.

That said, you may not have the top links you will need - my second, hoeless 4500 does not have them, as they are not built-into the subframe, but add-on - hopefully your backhoe will come with them, as tracking them down separately might be a pain (though fabricating them would not be too difficult, perhaps).

I have a 753 hoe on one, and a 3-point with box blade on the new one that has working steering. The hoe will probably move to the new one, but will also get a "parking spot" for times when less is more (hoe in the woods is a pain at times). Ultimate I hope to get one better combination out of the two machines, but we'll see what happens.

Weight is a little vague, as it depends on a bunch of things - are the tires loaded, etc.

Also, manuals seem to have a good handle on weight of the tractor (4510 lbs), and weight of the loaded tires in various sizes, but the only figure I've found for hoe weight is "effective counterweight" (ie, what the hoe is equivalent to for the purposes of picking up a load in the loader), not what it actually weighs (quite a bit less) and the loader weight is never specified (that I can find). Maximum weight is 12,600lbs

The guy who hauled mine with loader, 13 foot hoe and unloaded tires guessed 7-8000 pounds by the way the truck went over the hills. For 16.9-28 tires, loading to the 75% point is supposed to be 750 lbs per tire.

Width varies purely as a function of tire and rim setup (axle is not adjustable). The 24 inch wheel is "standard" and can be adjusted (by playing with rim position) from 76-56" center-to center. The optional 16.9-28 tires (which both of mine happen to have) are fixed at 64" center to center. About 6 feet out to out, perhaps a few inches more. Not close to the computer to measure.

I've personally had no problems with the 3-cyl diesel. A lot depends on what the previous owners did. I've heard one claim I haven't verified here that the injector pump seal may fail and pump diesel into the lube oil - if the oil level rises, I'll worry about it. If anyone wants to chime in and confirm or deny now, that would be fine too. If someone ether-happy has been at the engine, bad things can happen to the pistons. The only problem I've had in 10 years with mine is a bad cable connection on the starter, and the fact that my thermostart is missing most of itself, I gather. That would be nice to have working. The cable from the generator to the proofmeter (tachometer) is often broken, and is easy to disconnect, so hours are generally unknown, or not reliably known.

I'm personally less than happy with the power steering set-up, but have gotten some ideas on ways around it, which I temporarily bypassed by getting a newer 4500 in somewhat less thrashed shape than my first one.

The main weak point on the hoe is the swing chains - and buying those from New Holland will scorch your wallet. I repaired one with grade 8 bolts as pin replacements (search back in 2000 or 2001, I think). You could move the ends over to a stock chain from an industrial supply for a lot less than NH wants, or even fab your own end plates to do that. On the up side, many parts still available from NH, though they often seem pricey to me. I guess I'm cheap. There, I looked up the old post in the archives.

http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=ford&th=37434

If the rear wheels/tires are at 64 inches center to center, the width "out to out" will be very close to 81 inches! 64 inches plus width of one rear tire, or outer half of both tires (16.9 inches). That is 81 inches or 6 feet 9 inches!
HTH, Dave