How good is the 2002 Honda Rancher 4x4 ES on the trails? How good does it go through mud? Whats The Top Speed on the Rancher? I will be doing alot of deep mud riding in the winter because I ride beside of rivers and in the summer its dry but in the winter it gets really deep with mud and water and is a mess, I was considering the 400ex but I don't don't think it has a chance in the mud that I ride in, I saw a guy on a 400ex when I was on my XR250R and he got "STUCK", I ride a 91 XR250R(4-stroke)so how much power will the rancher have at its 329cc's against the XR250R's 249cc's? I know I have posted about different quads lately but I want to get the right one? If I think of anymore questions I will post them in reply,Oh and I have ridden my uncle's 1992 Honda Fourtrax 300 4x4 and it had pretty good power so how is the Rancher compared to it? My uncle's 300 would always start no matter how hot or how cold it was(VERY RELIABLE)thats why I am really considering the rancher seeing as its just an updated version really, Thanks Matt

 

I own a 99' 300 4x4 and my wife has a 01' Rancher ES 4x4. All we do is trail ride. In comparison the Rancher has a lot more power than the 300 and the ride comfort is about the same. As far as reliability and starting they are definitely both good. In my opinion you can't go wrong with the Rancher. Good quading.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Thanks for the reply BamnBamn, I know that the Rancher comes with a Backup Recoil Starter incase the battery were to go dead for the electric starter and thats another thing that scared me about the 400ex,Electric starter but no backup nothing, I didn't think about that until my XR250R quit on me about a mile from my house 2 days ago and I had to leave it and have go get my dad and me and him had to push it all the way home,Uphills and rocks, Its burning a little oil and we think that the spark plug fouled, And if I was on the rancher and something happened and I couldn't get it started and I kept trying to start in and the battery went dead atleast I could try and pull start it, For those of you that have pulled start a Rancher,How hard is it to turn the engine over and does the recoil system start the engine good? Thanks Matt

 

The Rancher has a built in compression release pull starting is simple and easy.I will warn you it does not have a powerband even close to your XR or a 400ex. However I have a great time riding my Rancher 4x4 ES and it does pull my 225lbs pretty decently.
If I had it to do over I'd buy it again.hope this helps.

 

I have a Rancher and i find it to be just fine for crawling the trails. It has a ground clearance of 9.7 inches...that's 2 more than the 450 and almost 3 more than the old 300...the ride, although not the smoothest out there is certainly smooth enough...it's good in the mud, but of course not as good as true 4WD, but the slip diff does what i would consider a more than reasonable job...the top speed on the rancher is supposedly 51 mph....i haven't been on smooth enough ground to see if that's true or not!!...but if so, that's only 3mph slower than the 450....of course the 450 will have more low end grunt....i also used to have a honda 300 4x4, and you will find that there is considerble difference in the power...the 350 seems to have much more than the 50cc increase would imply...there are faster, more powerful, better mudders out there, but it appears that you will be doing the same type of riding i do, and believe me, i did a lot of legwork before i decided to buy the Rancher...and i am sure you would be pleased if you did also...one notable point, i'm pretty sure that the Rancher that will be coming out in July will have selectable 2WD/4WD...a nice feature...also, i didn't buy the ES version, as i have read about too many problems with the Electronic Shift...but that problem may be solved...good luck.

 

hi bought a rancher is feb of 01 and its great. my top speed without the jet kit is 53. with it its alot faster. as far as mudding. the rancher in 01 b4 the newer big bores came out was ranked 2nd best quyad in the mud except for the sportsman. i have ridden with 2 660 grizzlys and they are alot faater. but in the mud we are the same, and they have a locked diff. th epull starter is 1 pull and your ready to go

 

The Rancher and the 450 have the exact same top speed of 82 kph. (indicated) Not sure what that is exactly in mph, but it is around 50 for sure.

 

The honda rancher is a newer honda fourtrax they are awesome trail qauds we had one currently have a Suzuki king quad a Polaris trail boss 325 with a Polaris Indy 400 twin snowmobile engine a yamaha raptor 660 with a Yamaha vmax 600 twin snowmobile engine freaking wicked quads look up the Snowmobile powered quad the Polaris Scrambler with the Polaris xcr700 twin snowmobile engine it's just like our Yamaha raptor vmax 600 setup

 

You do realize that thread was from 19 years ago, I doubt any of those people even come here anymore. This site has apparently been around a long time.