This last weekend, riding to the top of a nearby 9000' mountain on a road covered by many feet of snow, my RancherAT was faster than my pals Rubicon. To make the day even more delicious, I had the pleasure of using my winch to get him unstuck 2 times. The Rubi just dug into the snow, and high centered. Ranchers rock.

 

Ranchers do rock in the snow!
I have a little 2001 ES 4x4 Rancher that I put Rincon Radials on (had to buy 450 forman rear wheels)
And its light weight with that tire combo makes it a snow eating monster.

 

I run a Maier (very slick!) plastic skid plate. It acts like a huge ski, so the frame never digs in or high centers. You just float along on top, and as long as you can get traction it works great. And, it doesn't hurt to be 100-200+ pounds lighter than those monster big bores. I also run Holeshot ATR's which are great snow tires.

Even though I live in So. Calif., we do have lots of snow in our mountains!

 

Where did you get your skid plate and how much was it?
The ATR's are awsome tires.
The Rincon Radials work so well in the snow with the rancher because they are super light so they dont rob power and when you air them down to 1-2 psi you get a huge footprint that helps you stay up on top better than other tires.
Big huge wide mud tires are terrible where we ride in the snow....they just dig too much and leave you sitting on your frame.

 

Rubicon dry weight - 600 lbs
Rancher AT - 559 lbs
Racher 350 4X4 ES - 539 lbs

Only 40 lbs between the Rubicon and the Rancher AT, what else do you think made such a difference?

We have a set of Maxxis Big Horns on our Rubicon and i think they are a lot better snow tire than the Goodyear Mud Runners we had.

 

My rim and tire combination (ITP Magnum rims and ATR tires......way lighter than stock) make my 4X4 come in right at 500 lbs. And, I refuse to load my machine down with a heavy winch, or anything else, so that keeps it light too. So, that makes me 100 pounds lighter than the (stock) Rubicon, and 200 pounds lighter than any lard a$$ Polaris,A Cat, or Bombardier.

Anyway, you can get a Maier skid plate direct by ordering off their web site. They are relatively cheap. You might think plastic is wimpy, but remember, they make guns out of plastic these days! Plastic is very slick, and it doesn't gaul and hang up on rocks, and it just glides along on the snow like a snowboard.

 

reconranger what size ATR's are you running?
Yeah Plastic works great for me........I put over 12,500 miles on 2 yamaha's that came with plastic stock skids....they work great.
I dont believe your ATR's and aftermarket wheels would be lighter then the rincon radials. The ATR's are a heavy tire compared to stockers.

 

I'd venture to guess that tires on each machine made more of a difference then the bike itself. Stock tires usually are not agressive and tend to float along snow pretty good. More agressive mud tires are great in the mud and shallow snow. What makes them a great mud tire, makes them a poor deep snow tire, in that the tread cleans out too well and they dig straight down. This is great in mud where you want to dig to a solid bottom, but not in snow that's deeper then what the bike can traverse without high centering.

 

I think you are probably right Action, my Rancher had stock tires, and my pals Rubicon had a slightly agressive aftermarket tire. In addition to the (unfortunately) only 40 lbs difference between the machines, I'm probably 80 lbs lighter the he.

I wish I could ride without heavy extras like a winch and box, but that winch, tools, extra clothes, food and beer (!) sure come in handy. Great idea on the plastic skid plate; I'll have to adopt that.

 

reconranger, thanks for the info on the skidplate. My original one on our Rubicon is trashed and needs to be replaced and I did want plastic. I think I will look into the Maier skidplate. I like to idea of the ATV slidding on the plastic rather than dragging on metal or aluminum.