I am thinking of buying one of these with the ES for my wife. Is there anything that anyone would like to share? Any problems or praises for this machine?

 

I bought a 2003 4x4 ES Rancher in Feb. I haven't had any problems so far. Seems to be fairly strong. Enough power for what I am doing. Been a lot of miles on a lot of different 4 wheelers and have yet to feel fatigued or beat up to bad at the end of an all day outing. It goes plenty fast when I want it to and has crawled out of some nasty spots. I really am glad I got one. I looked at a lot of other 4 wheelers and have ridden a lot different ones over the years. ( Suzuki, Yamaha, Polaris, Kawasaki) Honda in my opinion is the best for reliability, performance, and overall rideability. Buy a Honda you won't be sorry.




Mobad

 

I also brought a 2003 Honda Rancher Es 350 4x4 in Feb. of this year. I love it. I been around ac,yam,and Hondas. I am glad I went with the Honda Rancher. I have put it in some ruff placese and only been let down one time, but that was my falut for doing it to start with. I ride alot. I have 565 miles on my rancher. It i great. The only trouble I had is a seal leak, thats it. No big problems yet. This is my first atv owned, and I got a fine ride.

 

Great fuel economy and very reliable.

 

We have 1100 miles on our 02 4x4 ES, zero problems and a great ATV. We bought this for our daughters (we have four) so they could get out with us when they can. They don't ride tons or have a lot of experience. They all drive manual shift vehicles so the ES is second nature for them.

Likes; It's in 4-wd all the time. It doesn't get hung up or get caught in a bad situation because the 4x4 just pulls them through. Good brakes. A park brake that holds indefinitely. Good engine braking, all four wheels. Simple. Dependable. Fun. Very capable. Will take them ANYWHERE they ever want to go, and back. Very inexpensive to maintain.

This has been a great ATV for us. I would recommend one any day for just about anyone. I really like the new 400 AT though and have considered trading up for one.

 

Have both a 2X4 and 4X4 and love them both. No problems of any kind. You do sometimes get a little feedback from the steering on the 4X4 on some surfaces (hardpack). I changed out the stock tires to Holeshot ATR's on 12X7" rims. It widens the bike several inches, and now it is super stable for fast corners and off camber stuff.

 

I bought my 03 Rancher last New Years Eve. This year I've driven the heck out of it in the desert and doing ranch chores. It's pulled me and 500+ pounds of mining gear and supplies in places you would not believe. I'd buy another in a heartbeat!

 

I had one also. Put 1300 miles on it before I sold it for a more powerful machine. A little too slow for me. I had 2 problmes with mine, first one of the front brake seals leaked real bad and ruined that whole side. Second is that the choke part on the carb get's packed with mud and will stop working. It happened twice to me and the carb needs to be removed and the choke removed and cleaned. Other than that' it was a great little bike. good luck

 

My stepfather has a Rancher and the first time I took it out it ran like crap anything over 50% throttle and it would bog down and hesitate. I told my stepfather there was no doubt somthing wrong with it. He took the Rancher in for service and they found a piece of plastic lodged in the throat of the carb! (Keep in mind the atv only had about 10miles total on it) they said they must have forgotten to check it when they assembled it. Hmmmmm

After they removed the plastic from the carb I took the Rancher out again and it ran excellent. About the same power as my old 97 Wolverine had when it was stock. Excellent machine. However if you like the rancher also look into the Yamaha Kodiak it is excellent as well.

 

These are some of the reasons they sold 60,000 Ranchers in 2002. They aren't the biggest or baddest. They are fun, dependable, and very capable.