Hi,

We are picking up a new 07 Manual shift Rancher pretty soon then heading out on a long trip. We will be changing all the fluids right after.

Does anyone know the type of oil used in the front and rear differential and also the amounts needed?

Do these ATV's share engine and transmission oil or are they seperated and what are the amounts needed and the recommended weight?

I'm not sure how detailed the owners manual is and we would like to buy all the fluids prior to picking it up.


Forums are usually better than dealers for correct and experienced info so I am posting this here.

 

Break it in hard, to seat the rings: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Use a petroleum oil during break-in (like Honda GN4), then you can switch to a synthetic after that if you wish. My favorite oil is Maxima Extra ester synthetic. It takes ~3 quarts. Some good basic oil info: http://forums.atvconnection.co...tid/21/threadid/520475

In the northern US I would probably run 5W30 in winter and 10W40 in summer. I live in the very hot arid southwest however, so I run 10W40 in winter and 15W50 in summer.

Front and rear drives take an 80W90 "hypoid" GL5 gear oil. Quantity is just a few ounces.

Do not neglect your first valve adjustment at 20 hours!

 

Thanks for the info. I thought they would at least have seperated the combustion and tranny oils ala my CRF450R. Oh well just have to do shorter intervals to be safe. Can you access the oil filter and drain plug openly or do you need to revoe panels?

Can the positiveness of the front diff. be altered with heavier oils? Doesn't seem like it, but has anyone played with that?

I have R/C trucks and you can change the way the diff works by changing weight of the oil?


Also a friend of mine wants to get his wife the shaft drive, auto clutch 250EX. I see you have 2. How are they for a <150lb person? How are they over loose rock and the occasional rocky mountain trails with stream crossings since it is a 2 wheel drive machine?

 

The Honda TRX450R is the only quad on the planet that has seperated engine and tranny oils, just like the CRF450/250/150 Hondas are the only dirt bikes. All the rest share the engine/tranny oil, so the oil has to do double duty...all the more reason one needs to run a high quality oil!

The drain plug is easy to get to, but you have to remove a side pannel to refill and check the oil levels, and get to the oil filter. No big deal there, in fact those side pannels help keep this enigne very very clean!

The front differential is an excellent gret handling torque sensing design (~70/30% bias), and for me I would never exchange it for having to fight with lockers! It is purely mechanical, so messing with the oil viscosity won't make a difference.

On to the 250EX. These are great little machines. Good handling and dead solid reliable. They are based on the Recon utility quad, so they have fairly high ground clearance (good in the rocks) and are shaft drive (they stand up to water crossings better than a chain). The downside is that they have tight limited suspension travel (ala a utility), which can get old on a rough all day ride!

My boys ride their 250s along with me absolutely everywhere I go on the 4wd Ranchers (except maybe snow)! Their smaller size and lighter weight actually gives them an advantage in a lot of situations. If they happen to get hung up on a rock, it's no big deal lifting an agile little 350 pound 2wd sport bike over...vs 600 pound and up utilities........

 

I just picked my 420 up last week and took it last weekend to a riding park in Tennessee. I started out easy with it and gradually got harder on it to break it in. I read that break-in guide thats posted above and tried similar methods. You'll be impressed with the performance of your new rancher, only thing that let me down was the tire size cause I like to go in mud holes and it was hard to get out of some of the deep ones with the stock 24's. Thats why I went ahead and got a good winch put on it. I plan on getting all my fluids changed and a valve adjustment in a week or two, not sure if I'm gonna do the work myself or I may just have the dealership do it since I work all the time and I can drop the bike off during the week and they'll do it all for under $200. I'm getting bigger tires here in a few weeks also cause theres no way I can do the riding I like to do on these stocks. 26's will lift the bike up a little more and get me the traction I need.

Does anybody know if they make better/comfortable seats for the new 420 ranchers??