Just trying to see what the exact reason is behind the cooling fan on the Ranchers with the electronic shift. The guys at honda say it's to cool the shift module. To me it seems like and added feature to cool the oil. My friend has a rancher manual shift and his doesn't come with it, all the brackets and connectors are there to install one. He was wondering if it would help keep the oil cooler if he installed one

 

I have a 2000 rancher 4x4 manual shift, it has a fan, which cools the oil cooler.

 

The fan is there to cool the oil,Ours only comes on when riding slow trails on hot days,it is an ES but I think they should all have them better check into it !

 

If the guy from Honda told you it's for cooling the shift motor I would not listen to another word he say's he obviously does not know a thing about his products. As mentioned above the fan is controlled by a temp. sensor it will flow air through the oil radiator to cool the oil and also flow air around the cylinder head at the same time
I think the 2 wheel drive manual shift models come with out! the fan

 

My friends rancher is a 01 model 4X2 and it doesn't have the fan. He called the Honda dealer where he bought it and they told him and showed him that it doesn't come with the 4X2 manual shift models. He's trying to find out if it would be benifical to get one for his. I think it would as it can't hurt anything just aid in cooling.

 

I think the resonning behind it is the 4x2 does not work as hard as the 4x4 putting power to all 4 wheels.The oil cooler will still do it's job even without fan assist.