I just bought an 04 rancher and i love it. It beat my friends foreman 450s on the road. Looking into getting the 424 for it. I didnt even realize the handle bar headlight. Cant believe honda wouldnt put one on it!!!! But anyway i love it. goes anywhere my friend foreman does so no complaints here.

 

thats a tough question. i had a rancher 2wd i sold to a friend last week. i loved it but wanted a 4wd. i mostly trail ride and ride hard. last saturday i purchased a new 450 foreman s . i had the 26 inch mud tires and itp mags installed. i went for my first trail ride this weekend. its a handful compared to the rancher..its heavier, the larger tires make it feel even heavier..it has a lot larger turning radius than the rancher and really wore me out in about half an hour of hard riding..the handle bars were snatched from my hands several times at high speeds on the trail..i think alot of it is because of the larger tires..hill climbing was awesome on the foreman..mud holes the same, you cant stop it! but it is heavier than the rancher and takes a lot more effort to ride. i am a 47 year old man who rides as hard as most teens i believe. i raced motocross for years. i am over six feet tall and around 185 pounds and as i said , it sure was a work out for me. just going to take some time to get used to i guess. everything else about it i love! all said and done though, if i could go back to my paid for rancher 2wd, thats where i would stay! also i already in 10 hours of riding time have the left front cv axle appears to be stripped out. it twisted the inner cv boot until the band broke. i replaced the band and rode about an hour today and it twisted it again.. now its time to see if the warranty will cover it or if i am going to be stuck with the repair..we will see.

 

Weird man, like i said, i had around 8200km on mine(approx.420 hrs.) and never had a problem. Warranty should cover the boot, your dealer should at least come good for it and help you out. You will be happy with the foreman. If I didn't get into the Rincon I would have got a 2004 foremanS 450, same as i had before. I even had a utility box on back rack, a ferring and windshield, heated handle bar grips and heated thumb warmer, K&N air filter, Kolpin gun boot, and oversized Kenda Bear Claws. No winch. Still got $4800 on trade in, even with a few kms on it. A guy who bought at the same dealer I did had an identical quad, same year, and he had over 800 hrs. and 9400kms. on it. The only thing he ever did was replace the tires and front wheel bearings. This quad will not let you down, trust me and more importantly, trust Honda.

 

not to get off subject but how dod the hand warmers work for you? where they hard to install?

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]I still think the Rancher 350 would be the perfect all around quad if only it had softer
suspension. I have 3000 miles on my 01, no problems. Also have Praire 650, the power
is nice, but not realy needed. If the rancher came out with a plusher ride I would
consider trading my 650 in on another one. It`s hard to beat the way the smaller
quads handle. Not to mention being able to move them around by hand when needed.
Not a real big deal, but the Rancher gets twice the gas mileage as my 650.

HAPPY TRAILS!

 

nothing much exept the forman is a little bit bigger but the rancher with a lift 4x4 and big tires they basically ARE ABOUT THE SAME BUTT ID GO WITH THE FORMAN

 

 

Just curious. How do like your new Foreman? Mine is still back in the shop waitiing for a cv boot kit..Its been there over a week now..I had responded to the same email as you a couple of weeks ago when i first picked up my Foreman. I am running the 26 inch tires and Itp mud and snow version..as i said earlier , it sure is heavier to ride than the rancher , but I believe once I get used to it , it will be a great machine! I have added a full armor kit, winch set, and now have a K&N power kit with exhaust ordered for it..I have a couple of friends who own Foremans and went with the power kits..they say it really woke up their machines. Better response and power..I will let you know how it works out..See ya, and good riding to ya!

 

I love my foreman, I have been riding about 15 miles a week on it an it is running great. I purchased a ramsey 2500 winch with wireless remote and I will be installing it today.

Is the cost of adding new tires worth it??? My uncle is adding ITP mudlites to his foreman today as well and then we are going riding.

It seems that spending another 250 on tires is pretty costly when i've got 4 "new" tires. I'm just running the stock tires and I went through some pretty soupy conditions without a problem. I guess that's a testament to the foreman.

I 'll have to look into the under armor kit, is it just a bunch of flat bent metal that gets bolted on???? I could probably just mic the parts myself and draw them up. Spending 50 bucks on the winch mounting bracket is costly....... I could have designed that and have someone cut it out with a laser cutter and then bend it on a brake...... Oh well that is the price of convience......

Let me know how the power kit works... I would not want to go a lot louder, But more power never hurts.......

Hope you get your bike back soon..

Me

 

Myself, I wouldn't mess with the motor. I need it to be as reliable as possible rather than have a little more power. I am curious if the disc brakes off the new 475cc would fit on the 433cc?

It took me a little while to get used to my Foreman. I was riding a small Recon that would fit just about anywhere. It would wind through trees and rocks very easy. It also had a really small turning radius. The Foreman felt big and heavy at first and it had a larger turning radius. Eventually, I got used to it and now I don't even think about it.