Two questions, how reliable and has anybody had any probs with it(failure,not shifting properly etc.) It's a toss up between the standard and electric shift. Thanks for your help.

 

500 miles and no problems with my ES

 

Ok my 450 ES is one that was plagued with the battery drain problem(now fixed). Anyway my quads battery was dead as they can get and I have to say the electric shift actually worked flawless. I was skeptical when I bought it but no questions asked here the ES is worth it and has proven to me to be very reliable. 8500kms and no problems with the ES yet. The only problem I have had is my speedometer went to 99999 and the same with the hour meter. Well I thought there would be a simple procedure to correct it but was not pleased to find out I had to fork out $284 to fix it at my dealer so I called Honda and complained. There reply was that they did not have many bikes with this same problem. Has anyone else had this happen? I figured since it worked before I parked it and the battery was up to par that after letting it set for two months the battery was dead and speedometer did this. They did give me half price on the fix though. Just to let everyone know they said that it was the lithium battery in it and it was usually caused by 1. charging the battery while still on the bike which I never did. 2. Boosting your quad from another vehicle which I never did either because the pull cord is easy and never failed me. Anyway I am happy with my quad still and hope I answered your question. Sorry for the rambling.

The Beast Its Yellow but not mellow!

P.S. I forgot to tell you I have a 200lb superwinch, hand and thumb warmers a 100watt kenwood deck, 50watt alpine amp, 100watt 8inch sub so I draw alot of power.

 

Some of '98 models had a problem with the ES after it was first introduced. I never had any trouble with mine though. Honda improved on the design for the later models.

 

Greetings,

I too had the battery drain problem which was fixed (finally) under the recall. Other than that, I love it. I have had it work a bit erratically in near-zero weather, but it may have been related to the very dead battery (while waiting for the recall parts). Its simple and quick to use, very handy when doing field work (you can move it without getting on it), and I like having full floorboards.

On the downside, you can't carry anything in your left hand when riding. So if you're heading out to fix a fence or drop a tree, you have to strap everything to the racks or balance it in your lap. Not a big deal but something to consider.

 

I recently purchased a Honda Ranger ES, Love it.

Last week I was at a friend's birthday party where I was bragging on the Rancher and telling anyone who would listen how happy I was with the Honda product. To make a long story short, there was a guest at the party who happen to be a Honda service rep. What he told me was devastating. He described two problems with the Rancher ES.

First is a problem with the transmission. A part internal to the transmission breaks and the Rancher will not shift down, even with the manual arm in place it just will not shift down. This problem is so prevalent Honda has re-engineered the part. He did say most of the broken Ranchers he had seen were high miles, 3000 or so. He also mentioned he had not seen any return failures but other shops in the area had.

The second problem he did not give to many details on (which was a good thing, I was sick at this point) but deals with the LCD display. If the reverse, neutral or Oil light burns out you have to replace the whole display panel. He said Honda was replacing the display under "good will" if the Rancher was out of warranty. This is an very expensive part.

He did say the transmission was a Rancher ES problem only, the other ES models seem to be doing well. But the LCD display can be an issue on all ES models.

Has anyone else heard or experienced these problems. I have had mine 4 months and have put about 300 miles on it with no problems.

The Rancher is an excellent Quad. It will run circles around the 300. ATV Connection has a great review that pretty much says it all.

Had I known about the transmission problem I might have gotten the manual shift. Its a tough call though the factor floor boards and the LCD disply are awesome.

 

I haven't hear of these problems. My Rancher is 5 months old with 500 miles, it will be 600 by the end of this holiday weekend.

The first problem that you mentioned about not downshifting disturbed me also, espcially since my warrenty is over in the next month.

 

Foxkill:
I have had a shift problem twice in the last 2 weekends. First time was after I washed it(LOTS of mud and debris) the durned thing would not up or down shift when I was running out on the trails. I had to shut it off,turn it on, start it and then continue. It would do it over again. I thought it may be a low battery so I ran without lights to allow it to charge better and it worked fine.
The next time I was out muddin with a friend...
Checkout> http://photos.yahoo.com/scotto_56374
And after getting really wet,(water right up to air intake) it would do the exact same thing. Since we were headed home , I took it to the dealer and they took apart the Electrical connections and regreased with dielectric grease. They said it was probably water in connections shorting it out.
I am going out this weekend , will post something if their fix doesn't work.
Other than that it has been really reliable ...I LIKE IT !!!!

 

I have both the Rancher and the Rubicon and no ES problems to date.

 

so what happens if 2 years from now when I have3,000 mls on my rancher the tranny goes out because of that weak part and the lights go out on the lcd?
is honda gonna help us?