What Honda has done with the 420 is raise the bar on what a reasonably priced entry level machine will have to be! The other manufacturers will have to step up to the plate and respond, and all the competition will just improve the entire industry!

 

ATV Action, March issue, pg. 43:

"You can have a great time riding the Honda Foreman 500EX 4X4, but this four wheeler is not a party animal like some quads. We had Honda's new Rancher 420 out with the 500 for some of our testing and it's more spunky and more fun. The 500 is more like a good, dependable horse. What we have here is a four wheeler bread as much for utlitly as sport......"

 

Cheers for all your help!! I have put a deposit down on a 420fm in red but looks like its not going to be released untill mid march here! Will let you know my thoughts when it turns up!!

 

HI guys just been reading this interesting debate we currently run a 2004 old model 500 foreman hydrostatic we do about 6-700 hours a year feeding the stock and other farm jobs we always run on goodyear EMT'S which are $200 each but we used to suffer heaps of punctures as we are on flinty ground. So with that problem behind us next is the fuel consumption our 5oo uses about 5-6gallons a week but at $9 a gallon its not cheap. We have trialled the new arctic cat diesel which i would have tomorrow if i can keep a lighter quad for rounding up stock. So my next quandry is do i wait for a new 500 foreman which hopefully will be EFI ?? Is the rincon any good considering i tow about 1 ton every day. Or do i try the new 420 one thing i havent seen is do they plan to have the hydrostatic option on either the 420 or rincon as we cant do without it as we jump on and off the quad a lot to open and close about 30-40 gates every day.
thanks
JMc

 

So you are saying that you absolutely have to have an automatic???? There is already a Rancher 400AT with "hydrostatic" automatic transmission, but it has a reputation for not having much low end grunt and I don't see it as much of a work quad.

I don't think any of the Ranchers are suitably for anything more than "light" work, so if you need a quad for "heavier" work I highly suggest the Foreman 500. The 500 and the Ranchers all have proven manual transmissions, but they also have "autoclutches", which means you have to shift but you don't have to manupulate a left hand clutch. Perhaps one of these with an ES option would suit your purposes????