Question...

Can a silhouette 4 ship use a tractor beam against a silhouette 5 or larger vessel?

Thanks in advance!

Nothing states it can't.

I like to imagine a tractor beam as a immaterial cable binding the two objects together. If you try grip a larger vessel with a smaller vessels tractor beam you will end up getting pulled by the larger vessel depending on the relative momentum when you fire the tractor beam up.

In EU/Legends it is confirmed that ship size matters and it works basically as Bipolar sees it i.e. a smaller ship using a tractor beam on a larger ship will be pulled along with the larger ship. Source: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Tractor_beam/Legends

13 hours ago, ddbrown30 said:

In EU/Legends it is confirmed that ship size matters and it works basically as Bipolar sees it i.e. a smaller ship using a tractor beam on a larger ship will be pulled along with the larger ship. Source: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Tractor_beam/Legends

To follow this in the aftermath books a star destroyer is pulled down by a smaller ship.

29 minutes ago, MrTInce said:

To follow this in the aftermath books a star destroyer is pulled down by a smaller ship.

Not quite. The Ravager is dragged from orbit when it's engines are disabled while it is well inside Jakku's gravity well. The Concord did not pull the Ravager from orbit so much as it destabilized it and then the planets gravity did the heavy lifting (or rather pulling). The Ravager lacking it's engines couldn't do much else other then fall.

2 hours ago, BipolarJuice said:

Not quite. The Ravager is dragged from orbit when it's engines are disabled while it is well inside Jakku's gravity well. The Concord did not pull the Ravager from orbit so much as it destabilized it and then the planets gravity did the heavy lifting (or rather pulling). The Ravager lacking it's engines couldn't do much else other then fall.

True, but it does show a smaller ship affecting a larger one...

Rather than pulling it could slow it down or impose handling checks.

A smaller ship can certainly pull on a larger ship depending on the relative forces. We see this in real life with "Tug-Boats". If the larger ship is disabled and just floating out in space no problem.

Now if the larger ship is NOT disabled the question is really, who has the "larger" engines? Who can put out enough force to overcome the other ship's momentum + engines AND not tear itself apart?

Usually the larger ship will win because not only is it more massive, but the larger platform allows larger engines too...but not 'always'. I'll leave the rest up to you.