Hi i am new here i was wondering what machine you would recamend i will be doing some snow plowing and just chores around the house with it and some trail riding nothing to extreame tho. I need something that will last a few years. I like the looks of the honda rancher 400 at. let me no your opions please. Thanks

 

Just read a shootout in Dirtwheels where they compared the Rancher AT to the Eiger, and they liked the Eiger. The one thing I didn't agree with about the shootout was the Eiger was a manual shift, where I think they should've compared two auto's. They claim the Eiger motor smokes the Rancher eventhough the Rancher has more displacement. I don't have much experience with either machine (Rancher 400 AT), but my dad just choose a 4wd Eiger automatic over everything else in the class. I love Honda's because of their reputation for reliability, but some of the other makers are gaining ground. From what I've read and what little bit I've seen of my dad's machine, my vote would probably have to go with the Eiger, especially considering it was a lot less money than the Rancher, but is still a quality machine with a lot of features. Good luck.

 

get a racher

 

sry its rancher

 

The type of trailriding you want to do and your budget will determine this. If you ride fast trails or mud, I would have to recommend the Eiger. It supposedly has a lot of power for a 400 air/oil-cooled engine. It's also pre-wired for a winch. It is a lot less than the Rancher as well. As I'm sure the Eiger's a pretty reliable quad, you know Honda is at the top of heap when it comes to that. For chores and plowing, with mild trail-riding, I would say the Honda if you can spare the extra $$. It'll probably last longer. Best tranny in the business and the engine's bulletproof.

 

nascar,

Do a search to see all of the previous post to see what people had to say.

I like my AT. It is not the most powerful quad ever built but it has enough to get you down the trail at a good clip. I looked at the eiger also. I was close to buying it for the money difference but I had always wanted another Honda and I loved the digital display compared to the eiger's speedo. Plus, I know this sounds stupid, that eiger is ugly.
The AT is as stable on hills as you can get, The 4 wheel drive is the best you can get without having a difff. lock system. Auto tranny is smooth, plus if you want, shifting through the gears is only a push of the thumb away. EBS is Amazing. It will crawl down the steepest hill doing 3 mph, never touching the brakes. I have pulled carts around the yard, logs through the yard and it has done it all. Can it pull what a 450ES can. NO. But it wasn't built for that either.
Hope this helps. Good Luck on your decision.

 

Crawl under both and check the frame construction, that's what made my mind up between the eiger and honda.

Spud
04 At

 

Spud,

Did you get your quad back?

 

So far I love my AT. I only have 100 miles on it but it has done evrything that I wanted it to do. The only problem that I have had with it is the alignment. The dealership finally got it staright after 4 times other then that great quad.

 

I need another mid-size 4X4, but can't as yet bring myself to embrace an automatic (even a Honda). So, I have been looking at the MANUAL shift Suzukis (man are they ugly!). I would dearly love to see a manual shift Rancher 400 (anybody from Honda out there?). The Rancher AT got dissed in the shootout because of no low end power. The fault has to lie with the ineficiency of the automatic transmission! In the shootouts, the 350 Rancher beats everybody because it is fastest off the line. The 400 has 70 more cc's, and it is slower? Has to be that transmission.

I do mostly very technical (rock crawling) riding on the utes, so I will probably just get another foot shift Rancher 350, and save myself a bunch of money.