Ford 4000 adding a loader?

So I am looking at purchasing this Ford 4000 SU and would love to hear your thoughts. We move small round bales about once or twice a week (800-900 lb) and would use for planting food plots, (about 6 acres, some 30" row planting) disc-ing, plowing, and eventually would like to put on a loader to move bales, and haul wood, move snow, etc. I really like the low center of gravity, and we do use in some pretty tight places, the under exhaust would be a benefit, and the rear hyd as we use a cider press for making cider every fall. Your thoughts.........

Also do all SU's have a place where a loader with a front pump can be utilized? Terry

Here is another one I am considering, 4000 with 16.9x30 rears on it, can the exhaust be re routed? Would this do better with a small loader?

Just dont really want the cab, I take it I would have to find rear fenders?

you'd be better served to just find a loader tractor..

Only problem is I cant afford a loader until next spring. So for now the tractor, make sense?

The SU has a light front end
for a loader. You can find
fenders I believe on this site.
You can reroute the exhaust
with changing the exhaust
manifold. I had horizontal
exhaust on my 5000 and changed
it to vertical exhaust. Don't
remember where I got the
vertical exhaust but I got it
new and it wasn't hard to find.
I would go with the 4000 with
the cab and remove the cab.
Just my opinion. You can put a
front mount hydraulic pump on
it but you need a hydraulic
reservoir or you can use the
tractor hydraulics. The loader
will be slower than a front
mount hydraulic pump. I have a
loader on my 5000 and use the
tractor hydraulics. It is a
little slow but I am not in a
hurry.

4000 SUs are outstanding tractors except
for loader work. They have that weak
sister 3000 style front axle that just
isn't built heavy enough for a loader.
I strongly suggest you get an All
Purpose 4000. Those are Much better
suited for a loader.

The one wiyh a cab is 10 times better for a loader than the one without a cab. Heavier all the way around with double the traction that you need with a loader. You would need a remote hydrolic valve for 2 cylinders on either tractor. Make sure for a loader you have a 7:50x16" front tire, better yet is the 7:50x18 that is avaiblr but mostly on the 5000 but fits. Some had a 6:00x16" front tire and that rim is too narrow to use a bigger tire and that 6:00 is no good for a loader. Jogn Deere combine rear wheels are a perfect fit for the front of that tractor in both 16" & 18" tire sizes. I did not notice if a steel grill or plastic but the steel is earlier 65-68 while the plastic is 68up. I had a 65 and a 68 both 4000 and sub model for that tracror is 4100. The full row crop version is sub model 4200 and you do not want that version. Don't think the SU had a sub model other than the SU. And I had a loader on the 65 using built in hydrolics and never had a speed problem. Dunham made a good loader for the one with the cab.

Do NOT put a loader on that tractor. The cab will require the loader to sit way foreward,makeing it more unstable,and would rob traction from all the wt far forward. Buy a 3point bale spear. One with a scissor lift would go about 5ft high.

Terry,you would be way better off to wait and find a tractor with the loader already mounted.A bigger one would be better still. By the time you buy the tractor,then find and buy the right loader,pay have it mounted,you will have way more money spent than if you would have just bought a tractor with loader mounted.

You have some good advice here. Wait until you find right with loader already mounted. You will be ahead in the long run.

Where are you located?
Figure your up north somewhere since both tractors have gas engines.

The SU is a 70 or later model, good tractor but as said it's swept back axle design isn't the best for loader work.
A front mounted hyd pump can be installed but that design hasn't been made in several years, one would need to locate a complete loader with the pump and ALL of the brackets and components necessary to attach it to that tractor.
The 4000AP is a earlier 65-68 model with the smaller lower hp engine but otherwise a nice looking tractor.
I wouldn't mind having that cab to put on my 4500 for winter hay feeding.
Horizontal exhaust can be installed by simply swapping exhaust manifolds and acquiring the proper piping and muffler.

My thoughts on exhaust routing, I've had both.
Vertical exhaust sticks up and partly blocks your view, will hit low hanging objects and possibly damage the exhaust, once low hanging limbs and brush clear the muffler they'll swing back and slap the crap out of the operator.
Horizontal exhaust offers clear view and the operator is first to deal with low limbs and ect. Low hanging exhaust can easily be destroyed by stumps, large rocks or other objects one might run over or straddle with the tractor. If the exhaust tip is angled down it can blow up large amounts of dust, pointed straight back it will heat up the left side lift arm to finger blistering temps (personal experience).
Your also dealing with the exhaust fumes anytime you working behind the tractor or hooking up a piece of equipment.

I now run vertical exhaust with the pipe cut to same height as the top of my head, most times the exhaust will blow up and over me, any thing low enough to hang onto the muffler will also hit me, so it needs to be trimmed to elevated.

Ditto. Times two....

find you a unit with loader already on it, will save a lot headaches and usually less dollars involved when done

A straight front axle is better for loader work than the swept-back axle on that tractor. A straight front axle moves the fulcrum between the rear axle and the loader bucket closer to the loader bucket. You loose a little bit of tight turning ability to gain more traction.

ALL great advice as usual, but just because a tractor has a loader on it, for example a Ford 3000, doesn't make it a good fit for me. Ive seen many tractors that have loaders on them and you are buying a huge headache, for the very reasons mentioned above. So it stands to reason, that since there are some good fits for the 4000 and loaders that work, next spring, I could possible go that direction. When a budget is involved, I'd rather buy the right tractor now and add a loader later, than buy a tractor with a loader on it and the front axle, steer box and other items are worn and costly.

I would not put a loader on this tractor unless I removed and sold the cab, which by the way, would be for sale if I go that route.

I would not put a loader on that tractor, we had a
ford 4600 with a loader, behind my farmall, the other
4600 they took the loader off. Those tractors are ok
with a loader, for light duty work, the front axel is a
little heavier than those swept back ones like on that
4000, I have a ford 4610 too, I wouldent even put a
loader on that one either.

So what size tractor would you put a loader on?

I have a Farm Hand 22 loader like in the photo, their great loaders for their size, light enough not to over load the tractor but strong enough to handle 4x5 and 5x5 round bales, a friend used one on a 990 David Brown to load logs with for several years.
Being quick-attach it's easy to take off when not needed to give the tractor a more compact profile.
I don't recommend someone try to doze and clear ground with it, but they are good old loaders.
Mounted mine on a stripped down Ford 4500 industrial just to move and stack round bales, keeps my 4000 freed up for other work.

So my goal is still to buy a 4000, and still add a loader next year. I can still move round bales now with 3 pt, but if we keep doing beef, then a loader will be nice. Its not like the bucket is going to get used every day and have a ton of use, Im talking occasional use, and for the most part it will be used for grading, tilling, plowing, and so on. It will be a wide range of use. I can see if you farmed full time and the loader was used everyday and saw alot of use.

Are you replying to my post? If so, I prefer a4wd
tractor with a loader, as said you can?t use them like
a bulldozer, ours was great for moving shavings to
the barn, moving hay, ect, not the tractors fault but
the owner wouldent by tire chains, so very hard to
plow snow, pushing back the manure pile in the
clay mud ect, using it to move round bales it probably
would work fine, ?we never did round bales,?except
in the mud we have here. my ford 1720 4wd could
push the manure pile back far better than the 4600,
I also think the 8x2 tranny, reverse high is a little to
fast. There better than no loader at all, I just like 4wd with a loader better, ours was not
a farm hand, it was a Dunham Lehr, unless there
the same thing.

I agree a 4wd would be better but I don't have one myself.
Of the two listed I'd rather have a loader on the straight axles 4000AP

Farm Hand bought Dunham Lehr and was later bought out themselves.

That?s interesting, thanks for the info, I did not know
that, about the loaders,, Dunham lehr was a good
built loader, we never had a problem with it, I
wanted that tractor bad, but the farm sold it and I
ended up buying the 4610, my little tractor has a
7108 loader on it, that?s also a nice built loader.