My New Foreman 450 4x4 has a little problem. When chewing through about a 1' or 1.5' of snow in 4x4, the front end starts to bounce. It looks like the diff in the front is sending the power from one side to the other so fast that it causes the front end to bounce. It also knocks in the front end when it does this. Does anyone else have this problem? Would a gearless diff lock fix this problem?

 

I've got a 99 and have not had any problems like that. I don't get a lot of snow to run in (except while hunting), but when I have been out in snow everything runs smooth.

Don't know if there are any major differences between the 99 and 03, but I'd go back to the dealer about the problem. Something doesn't sound right.

 

Swampdonkeykiller, someone described the same thing to me a few days ago almost verbatim. They had an 03 too. I did not observe the machine and I don't have an answer for it. Just thought I'd let you know you're not the only one. Were the tires spinning for traction at the time? Did it help you get thru the snow? Seems like past years the complaint was the power didn't get transferred from wheel to wheel quick enough when the front wheels were losing traction.

 

Yep, mine did this too in about 10 inches of snow, I have a 2003. When I gave it a lot of gas in 4x4 mode, the front end seemed to almost skip and make a chattering noise. I thought this was kind of odd, none of my other ATV's ever did this. This only happened once. I tried to actually do it again, but I couldn't get it to do it, so I thought that it was a fluke. If I just gave it a normal amount of throttle, not trying to over-do it, it worked flawlessly. I will say this though, the newer front ends on the Foreman 450 is awesome. Both front tires turn when they need to, I've not yet lost traction (except for the one time mentioned above, even then I didn't lose traction, it just acted wierd), so it looks that Honda has done a great job, again. I also noticed that my fan came on, a lot, I mean a whole lot, during the first 100 miles. i just had my bike serviced (both front and rear diff fluid, spark plug, valves adjusted, oil and filter, air filter clean, basically the whole nine yards checked out) and I rode today for about 3 hours and the fan only came on 3 times! It also warms up faster and seems to run a little smoother, just thought I'd pass this on. Hopefully you wont have any problems with your front end. I've had mine in some pretty deep stuff since then and I've yet encounter any problems at all. Good luck, but I doubt you'll need any luck, these are pure utility bikes and are built to take whatever you hand it.

 

Mine as only done that once, it was when I was in 2 feet of snow and got stuck when I would try and get unstuck the front end would bounce. I have noticed on the two times I have gotten stuck once in mude and once in snow, both front tires spin.;

 

This occurs quite often with many 4x4 rigs. If you watched "TRUCKS" on TNN this weekend and seen the toptruck challenge - pulling the truck up the hill, alot of the tow rigs bounced just b4 they bogged down.

 

I have a 2003 Foreman 450 S and this happen to me also. I took it to my Honda dealer (who is really great) and he couldn't get it to make the same noise. He told me that there are little cluthes in the front-end that will skip and pop when the front-end bounces and grabs the ground like that. I thought that it sounded as if the gears in the front-differential were slipping and stripping. I have only heard if this sorta thing happening in the 2003 foremans maybe someone can provide me with a little more information about this strange popping noise because it is really bothering me. I hope that it is not hurting anything.

 

i recently bought an 03 Honda350 4x4, at the time there was about a foot and a half of snow on the ground, when i tried climbing a hill my front end started bouncing so bad i alomost bounced off the wheeler, i thought there was something wrong with it but i didnt get stuck it actually worked well at keeping me going, everyone keeps saying how bad the tsd is but it has worked well for me, if you get in a tight spot just tap your front brakes and all wheels will spin again

 

I have had this happen to my rubi, while I was framed out trying to climb out of a ditch or washout. I have seen quite a few fourwheelers do this and not all are honda's.

 

You should see the housing dance on my buddies 86 Fourtrax! It is a straight axle front end so when he is given'er through the nasty stuff the front and hops just like a fullsize truck. It looks wicked as hell and we laugh our asses off everytime it does it hahaha. It happens when there is a bit of traction but not a lot. The wheels spin so fast that they fetch up and then let go really fast. Normal with any 4X4 vehicle I have ever seen but it is worse with a solid axle.