I have a 98 Recon and love it. I hunt and haul seed,feed and deer. It is light and handles well. I am not into speed, It is a utility vehicle for hunting. I am buying a disc to plant food plots. I am looking to buy a Rancher 2wd ES. My question is about the reliability (of the electric shift)while towing a disc to plant my food plots. does the oil cooler cool trans oil too? My Recon crankcase oil and trans oil are one in the same. This disc weighs 225 lb. and with disc down, I am worried I should get the manual shift Rancher. Although I like the gauges and foot rests with the ES model.
The question is will the ES model hold up to towing the disc?

 

If your going to be doing alot of low speed towing, you may want to look into a watercooled model. Air cooling is fine when you usually have some air moving across the motor, but i'd rather be with watercooling at low speeds. As for the ES, the only problem's of heard of with it is that sometimes under extreme mudding the sensers need to be cleaned every now and then.

 

The ES is great. Only problem i have had is the downshift button sticking a time or two......I have had mine upsidedown in a mudhole and in a creek. Es never missed a beat. Once you try it you will never go back.

 

Hi

I personally LOVE my ES system, on my Recon anyway, I would assume that the Rancher is the same. I haul a garden tractor trailer full of green firewood and have had no problems. I don't haul on flat easy ground either, these are the places that I can't get the truck into. 225 lbs is not exactly all that much weight and it's rolling to boot. Yes, watercooled cools far more efficiently than air, but I don't think it's that big of an issue in your application.
I think from what I can gather out of my manual is that the gears are the same in man vs. elec shift. It's the actuation of them that's different. I often find myself in cold, icy, muddy water that's approching seat depth and so far the ES has been great. It's nice being able to downshift when you've entered a puddle that ended up to be a LOT deeper then it was last week! : ) Damn snowmelt

 

For some reason, Honda does not include the Electric Fan Cooling kit on their TRX350TM (2WD, Manual Shift). The kit is available as an option but the price is more than the extra cost to get the ES version. The extra $200 for the ES version that you are considering is a bargin as not only is the cooling fan included but also the floor boards and speedometer/gauge combo.

 

I rode a rancher ES quite a bit in the scorching summer. The ES was great! i loved it and it showed no trouble at all. And as for over heating, like I said it was HOT and i thought for sure the fan would kick in so many times but it actually never needed to. At first i thought the fan fuse was blown or it was broken, but it was all fine. I was ridign with a foreman 450 and the fan was on almost all the time. So that goes to show ya.

I vote for ES

newf