Couple years ago I was looking at Hondas and the new auto transmission was all the rage. Hottest deal going and had to be reliable because it was a HONDA. Now I'm serious about getting one but after having looked thru several forums it certainly seems like I'm seeing alot of Rubicon transmission issues. I will get either a Foreman S/ES or a Rubi and wife needs a smaller auto so I was thinking about the Rancher AT. However, must say I've cooled off a bit and am rethinking the Kodiak route which is a machine I was impressed with before.

Is it just a fluke that I've seen a series of tranny issues with Honda's autos or have some things surfaced that are not typical of Honda's very reliable standard transmissions?

 

Fluke or not , a number of ES Honda's in my area have had problems sticking in gear. The manual tells how to fix the problem until it happens again.
We took apart the electrical connections and put some grease on them hoping to stop the sticking transmission.

I tell everyone if you want a quad to last forever buy a Honda. If it is fun your after and comfort but another brand.
In N.D. friends of mine have put thousands of miles on belt drive quads without issue. 22,000 to 38,000 miles from '00 to '04 model quads. I asked if the Honda models aren't dependable and is that why they don't own them. They all answered, no that is not the problem, the problem with Honda is the ride. They ride rough, and when you ride 1000 to 2000 mile a month chasing cattle around the prairie, you want a smooth riding quad.

I have owned Honda's in the past, but this is the present and I like the ride and durability of the Polaris and Kawasaki. The twin engines are great, the ride is unbelieveable.

good luck on your quad quest.............................handycap

 

I have a 2005 Honda Foreman 500 ES, and i could not ask for a better ride, i had a 300 fourtrax, and it was a little rough riding, but my opinion on the 2005 foreman 500 is that honda did a good job redoing the suspension, and the power is great, i've got mine up to 58 mph

 

I like manual shift, its time proven and generally more reliable then any of the autos, as a group autos have more trouble no matter how many bike are out there with 1000's of miles trouble free.

On a forman go with the S rather then the ES, less electronic gizmos to fail!!!

 

a foot shift has less to go wrong, so it should be the most reliable. it also offer's the least.

don't let that deter you though

there are thousands of Rubicons and Rubicon owners, someone is likely to have a problem. I haven't.

Everything last's a while when you ride in a field. I remember reading about someone with on a couple 50,000-mile Rubicons maintaining oil rigs in Texas. Ride is better on the new ones too.

 

My local dealer has had to replace at least 3 rincon trannies, and at least 2 rubicon trannies that i know of. 2 of the rincon owners were relations so i know that when they rode their quad hard the trannies blew. My cousin sold his and bought a brute force [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]. But then i know a 450 foreman es that has been beat as much as you can beat a quad, and it still keeps kickin. I dunno a lot of people own them so if you get one and its junk, hey, thats what warrntys are for[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I have a 2002 Rubicon and 99% of the time the trans is in automatic mode. I go to manual sometimes just to play around. I have never had any trouble with the transmission or anything associated with it. On the other hand I repair machines for extra money and most everything with a snowmobile type clutch needs new belts, weights, sheaves after awhile. A Polaris I just rebuilt at 2600 miles had the clutch completely worn out and to top it off the exaust cam lobe was worn right off the cam. I have never had any trouble like this on any of my Hondas, I have owned five of them.

 

I went back and read other posts from the authors of those posting trouble with their automatics. Most of them seem to be avid mudders which could contribute to their problems, though mudding seems to be a prevalent topic for a majority of forum posters. I suspect there are many more standard or ESP transmissions in service so I just thought it strange I noticed so many Rubicon transmission posts. I'm trying to keep an open mind, but the thought of having to haul it back to a dealer to repair for a $1000+ bill is not comforting.

 

Personally, I prefer to keep it simple and go with a good old manual foot shifter. I prefer to control the transmission, and not have the transmission control me.

There are plenty of posts about problems with ES, but that would be my second choice if I had no left foot..........

The Honda auto's seem like a needlessly complex solution to the problem of creating an automatic transmission, but on the other hand I can't say I like the rubber band drives either.

 

[quote]
Originally posted by: reconranger

There are plenty of posts about problems with ES, but that would be my second choice if I had no left foot..........

I agree about ESP posts, but the majority seem to be connectors or relatively simple electrictro/mechanical problems rather than internal transmission issues that normally can't be dealt with except by a dealer and the associated expense.