I am a no-frills guy by default and believe, as did international harvester, that Simplicity breeds Reliability but the Recon and the Rancher in the family are ES by choice. The reason being that large/oversized hunting boots make it easier for the boys to shift. Other than a dead battery we have not had a problem.

 

If it only has 8 hours on it and is in good shape and is priced right, don't be afraid of it. The angle sensor is around $45 + labor. So if you save $1,000 bucks for buying an "unused" used machine, you can change that sensor several times.

By the way if others ride your machine that are novices, then the ES shift makes it easier.

 

Just for the record....ESP pushbutton shifting on the automatic transmission Rincon, Rubicon, and new dual-clutch trans Rancher AT, has no relationship at all to the ES pushbutton shifting optinon that can be found on the manual transmission models....Rancher, Recon, and Foreman 500!

My take on ES is that they are going to charge you an extra $200 or so for it, and it may give you problems in the future, so that doesn't sound at all like a good deal to me.....

 

After a call to my local dealer I determined:

Angle Sensor most likely will fail: $50 part, 1 hour to install while drinking a beer. If you take it to my dealer: $50 part + 1 hour labor.

I think its a NON-ISSUE to have the convenience of ES. It's convenient, easier, you know your gear and I like it a lot. I have an '07 Bayou 250 foot shift and I much prefer to ride the Recon ES.

 

If you are going to keep the machine long term, buy yourself a factory service manual and just do stuff like that yourself.

I'd also highly recommend taking all the electrical connectors apart and packing them with some dialectric grease.