Hey all,

I am looking into buying a quad for my daughter and stumbled across an '03' Honda Rancher with electronic shift. I ride an AC, but have great respect for Hondas - especially Ranchers. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with these and if there's a back-up in case the electronics fail in the field.

The Rancher is an '03' with 325-miles, Mudlites, Rack bag, slight lift kit, pristine condition, (few nicks here and there) - guy want's $3400.00

Any info on these would be appreciated - thanks in advance

Mark

 

There are an unusually large number of posts here in the forum on problems with ES, so buyer beware!

On the other hand, there are many who will swear it is a great and reliable system.

For me, I just prefer things be simple (and therefore more reliable), so ES is something I just avoid. Honda provides a backup manual shifter in the tool kit. You can decide for yourself what that is telling us????

 

If it fails just use the manual shifter. It's really nice to have push button shifting. Especially if you ride doubles

 

yes, and also you can ride with sandals on!!!! (kinda comfy)

 

$3400 might be a little high. Around here they are running deals on 2005 manual shift 4x4 Ranchers for $3799. The ES option is about $200 give or take.

 

"There are an unusual number of post on here"? Give me a break. Just cause you dont like the ES Recon lets not exaggerate. We have three of them with ES. The oldest being a Forman 2002 model and have never had any problems with any of them.

And yes...there are a few people that had problems with the angle sensor but they are an easy fix. And there is a back up if there is ever any problems.

Ya know...Honda provides a tire pressure gauge with the machines also. Guess they expect flats.

 

If they expected flats...they would provide a spare tire and wheel wouldn't you think? As for the air guage....it reads the low pressures that the tires require much better than a regular tire guage.

 

Thanks all...I didn't even think there was a manual shift option - thanks for that info. I imagined an electronic failure in the middle of nowhere and having no way back. That eases my mind. If we decide on it, I'll haggle the price a bit. It is in beautiful shape, (which is rare around here). I'm going to bring my daughter down to see it this week and have her give it a little spin. It looks small enough to me, but I'm 6'4" 270 - everything looks smaller...I know she sits way too high on my 400 AC and despite the lift kit on the Rancher, it still seems lower than mine.

My buddy has an '03' manual Rancher and that quad is a beast - it impresses me far more than the Rincon. He did have an internal oil issue and Honda replaced the entire top side free of charge - that's pretty damned decent in my book. If she likes it, she owns it...Thanks again all - any more tips would be appreciated.

Mark

 

We have an 02 Rancher 4X4 ES, no troubles so far, but we only have 1300 miles on it. We bought it for our daughters who at the time ranged from 17 to 28. They all like it quite a bit.

The supplied shifter is an "emergency shifter". It is for "if" the ES fails. It does not make it a manual shift trans. It will allow you to shift to neutral so it will start and select a gear of two to make it back to camp.