As a matter of fact yes it is a good comparison. First. There is no quad that is 24 years old. And I have yet to see any type of automatic transmission go this long with out being replaced. Second there is very few quads that can truly say they have 12,000 miles without any maintenance.

As for the perfect ATV there is none. Disc brake wear faster then drum. Never had any water in mine. The 4X4 switch mechanism fails. I just love it when you slide the rear wheels out and the 4X4 engages jerking the handle bars out of your hands. That's real safe. IRS that will add another 100 plus pounds. And those belt drives are far from reliable.

Also, lern to spel. i hat ti wen peapl does not no how.

 

Hosoulman:You know ,I think your wright that ho of yours is the best in every way including reliability.Now go and ride the dam thing and quit telling us how prfect it is.

 

U GYZ R 2 EZ. You all love it when a jerk gets on here and argues about this childish (mines better than yours) stuff. Look how many flame wars 24 has stared. Its just human nature to want to argue.Hoifcer you love arguing with that fool.You guys should be able and intelligent enough to realize when your chains being pulled.Dont you realize thats what he's doing.Why not just ignore this idiot "HOsoulman" and he will go away.

 

I would think that the Rubicon in D2 would save on gas since it keeps the rpm's lower. Did anyone ever try it on a long trailride?

 

Here is how I feel it works,we play around with our ruby's"fathers and mine" because I find the ruby very hard to judge by sounds.I high d1 it feels much faster and funner because of the sound and it can break the wheels lo0se even in the upper speeds,then you put in drive 2 in sounds like a dog,no power can't speen the wheels but this is not how it is ,when put them side by side one in d1 and one d2,there is no diff..."have not seen where d2 can be usefull yet,but will do more test soon to see if there is a benefit with d2"besides the sound.Now in high the esp is not as fast as in the auto mode but in low it can be faster in esp then auto mode,up steep hills high seems to bog down at times so I am thinking low range auto or esp"auto being easier"is the ticket for any kind of power robbing terrain,up the hills"snow packed have not been able to try the sand pits yet as we have 4 feet of snow still"but from what gather low range auto will be the way to go.It is monster when climbing in low.

 

I, too, thought riding in D2 would save gas on long rides, but it didn't seem to materialize. I tried it at Hatfield/McCoy last year, as well as Haspin this year. I also noticed in D2 the tranny will not gear down as quickly on a step hill. Also, D2 does not have the same amount of engine braking as D1, or Low. I mostly ride in D1, and use Low on extreme hills (up, or down).

 

HOSoulman, you, sir, are a bu**-head! I've ridden in a lot of places, in every kind of nasty terrain except for heavy rocks. Tranny has never let me down, and I have pulled my share of Polaris, Suzuki's, Yamaha's, and even other Hondas out. I have towed a tandem axle flatbed trailer around my property.
Too bad you don't really know what you're talking about. My Rubicon just continues to keep going down that trail! Funny how you talk about the Hondamatic's reliability, while mentioning that you are forced to carry spare parts for yours. It's also interesting how you're slamming the Ruby because it doesn't have true-4-wheel drive, yet neither does the Sportsman (until rear-wheel slippage is detected). Why, that would mean that the Honda's actually could have at least 1, if not two, more wheels under power while riding than the Sportsman, till wheelspin is detected!

 

I noticed lower rpms in D2 and less engine braking. I hate that on steep down hills. I almost always use D1.Sometimes I use low in deep snow. I use low when towing also. So far I've pulled a Mazda truck out of icy ditch. I pulled a Chevy C10 to pop start it and towed a chevy 1500 extended cab 1/4 mile to garage so we could change it's fuel pump. This thing can PULL!!!