Well, my first glitch happened tonight. Finishing plowing the 17" Noreaster we got, and my Rancher decided not to downshift.

Found it upshifted fine, but impossible to downshift. I was able to park it for the night and let it dry out in hopes it clears.

Has anyone had this occur? I did plow for about an hour, and the snow was heavy. But tried not to bang the snowbanks too forcefully.

It does make the standard clunk when the downshift button is pushed, but no gear change happens.

Any info is appreciated. And thanks in advance.

I had this happen once. My rancher would not downshift from third gear so after trying everything I pressed the red reverse button, pulled in the brake lever and it downshifted. Go figure? Has not happened since.

Sounds to me like you need to go in for the recall your shifter plate may have distorted from heavy load shifting.

Thanks to the posts. This evening when I got home from work, I was able to downshift the Rancher out of 5th into neutral with the standard rocking procedure.

Ran it for 30 or so minutes, plowing more snow, shifting into reverse and forward without any problems.

Did get my notice in the mail today that mine is on the recall for the shift plate as well. Kind of ironic, don't cha' think :)

Did find out from my dealer's service manager, that the shift plate appears to be failing when the emergency shift lever is used on a regular basis, as a foot shifter. Seems it can't take the abuse of being used in this manner. He did note that he has no kits yet in to do the recall work. Guess I'll just have to schedule an appointment.

Again, thanks for the ideas...