I recently purchased a 2004 Rancher 4X4ES and after doing some searches on Ranchers, I see several have had issues with the electric shift. I need to hear from some trouble free electric shift owners. Testimonials please! I don't want to be afraid to put this thing in water.

 

We owned our 02 Rancher 4x4 ES for about 4 years without single hickup, great little ATV.

We sold it with about 500 miles on it.

I just edited this post.



I don't know why I thought it only had 500 miles on it.

We bought it new in April 2002 and sold it in Feb 2006 with 1707 miles on it.

 

I've worked on hundreds of 'em.... and I've come to few conclusions-----
Mostly, I never get a problem where a steady older guy is using them exclusively
They don't like to be beat through the gears
Customer last month brought his for a service -- 32,000 miles trouble free in the wet West of Ireland -- not one E|S problem in that time.
The newer ones are better than the older ones...say before 2005.
If you are going underwater then a LIGHT coat of dielectric grease on all connections could help -- and a good heavy spray of ignition sealer on all sealed connections.
Even if they do give trouble then the fix is usually cheapish - an angle sensor, clean connections, a good battery, a good rectifier/regulator.
Botom line - the ES is nicer to use day to day, particularly for work. But the footchange is almost never a problem, and unless the foot shift is broke in the tranny then it keeps going --------- where an ES problem will stop the bike.
Bottom bottom line -- after all these years in production Honda should be having next to zero problems at this stage with ES -- or are they making too much money on spares

 

If you plan on putting the machine in water, then like posted above, apply dielectric grease to all the electrical connections. This information is even passed on to customers at our local Honda dealer.
When I bought my used, mint, 07 Rubicon, the salesman told me that if I planned on going through deep water, grease all the connections.

But I don't travel through deep water so I don't feel the need to use the grease on mine.

 

I had a 2001 Foreman 450es and sold it to a friend 3 years ago and we both had no trouble with the ES shifter,the ATV has 3500 miles on it now, your just not going to hear about the thousands of people with no ATV troubles on this site much.
At most we had to give the ATV a shake once in awhile to get it in gear upon start up.

 

Ditto on the dialectric grease advice.

Many of them have tens of thousands of miles with either no problems at all, or just a simple angle sensor replacement.

 

2007 Rancher no ES issues

 

We bought ours for our daughters to ride so it was never really beat.

I did ask them to let up on the trotlle just a bit when they did shift, I felt it was better to take a little load of everything when shifting.

I rode it a few times and it was really a fun ATV, I'd take the ES over the foot shift every time.

 

We own a 2005 Rubicon with about 7600 miles and so far no problems with the transmission. We use it on a dairy farm daily and most of the time, we use the ES mode. I like to be in control. Every once in a while, I will go on a trip with it and it does see deep water on those trips. I have never got around to putting grease on the connections. I just never took the time.

 

Have a 2003 Rancher ES 4X4 with 800 miles on it and no shift issues. However I also have a 2002 Recon ES, which has a very similar system, that had a bad angle sensor. About $60 later, for the sensor, and I had a happy Recon again.

As mentioned above, the diaelectric grease in the connectors is the way to go.