I was thinking of purchasing a 04 or 05 Rancher AT. I'm wondering if what type of problems guys have run into with their Rancher's. Has reliability been good? How do you like the machine? Thanks.

 

hahaha problems... its a honda thats all u need to know

 

just rode my 05 in about 14" of snow and it just seems very guttless for a 400cc bike. ok if you just putter around but feels truly guttless in 4wd pushing thruogh new snow. just cant get wheel speed up to play in auto, better in es but still not the greatest. 2wd is better as far as power is conserned but wont move in that much snow. so far this is my only conplaint with it but is is a big one. hope a pipe will help.
tynes

 

We have 800 miles on our 04 400 a/t and haven't had any problems other than the dealer over-filled the crankcase and it all blew out the breather tube. They do lose a little power because of the auto trans, but will go anywhere that a bigger machine will. If you want a machine to burn off the rear tires and go 60mph, go buy a sport quad. If you want a machine that anyone in the family can ride comfortably and feel confident on, buy an a/t. JMHO

 

I've had my 05 rancher 350 2wheel drive for 5 months now and love it. However, pretty often when I take it for a ride and try to up-shift into 2nd,3rd and sometimes 4th, it won't up-shift. I have to keep pulling up on the foot shifter over and over to get it in gear, I mean the footshifter just won't budge. After I make it through all 5 gears it's ok after that the rest of the ride. I brought it to the Honda shop twice, it won't do it for them, so it wasn't fixed, so the problem is still there. Some people tell me this is common on Honda's till they warm up, others tell me they have never heard of that before and that I have a real problem. 1 month left on my warranty so I would like to get it fixed now. Hope this won't stop you from buying one because this seems like a really rare problem, but I wanted you to know.

 

ok rode the at in about 6" of packed down snow, slet, and frezzing rain and had a blast in es mode adn 2wd. 14" is just a little deep the bi1ch about huh
seth

 

Riding in snow is really misleading....your tires are spinning much more than you think and it feels like the machine doesn't have any power....Especially when the snow is over a half foot....but still fun to slide around in....

 

I've had my 05 Rancher 400AT for about a month now & put about 300 miles on it.

No problems in mud, snow (up to 8"), water or anywhere else for that matter.

I've been able to go anywhere my riding buddies on bigger machines have & kept up no problem.

Fun to ride & basically indestructable!

 

05rancherdude --

Sounds to me like your clutch pack is stuck together. Wanna fix it quick ?
Simply lift the shifter up ( it is in clutch mode there ) hold it up, grab the brakes hard and try to accelerate. If the unit tries to move while holding the lever up, the clutch pack is stuck together. To fix it, keep accelerating while holding up on the shift lever and holding the brakes, it will soon rev like it is in neutral. The problem is then fixed and smooth shifting will be obtained once again. If you ask I will explain why the clutch pack did this.

Hope this helps you, my friend.

----- Gimpster -----

 

Thank you so much Gimpster, I'll try that tomorrow. Is this something that I'll have to do everytime I have trouble or will this fix it for good? If it's not too much trouble, could you explain why it's doing this ? You've already helped me way more than the "Honda trained mechanic" at the dealership. I really appreciate this man.