I am looking to purchase a new Honda ATV. I am looking at either the Rubicon or Forman 500 manual shift & steering . I want to keep it as simply as possible so I can repair it myself after the warrenty runs out. Which are more trouble free the air or liquid cooled ?Is there a major power difference between the two types of engines ? Is there any major problems with the power steering & electronic shift? Any input would be appreciated Thanks.
First time buyer
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IMO Stay away from electric shift look around on the forums there are alot of problems with those models.Air cooled and manual are as basic and trouble free as a person can get! Hondas back in the day were bullet proof. They went to hell when they added the a/t es model line..Thats just my two cents tho..
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Their 400ex is pretty bulletproof. Welcome Welcome!
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Electric shift mainly their angle sensors and shifting mottors. im pretty sure.
:yeahbaby01:welcome to the forums...my son has an '02 rancher w/electric shift,he rolled it pretty hard back in the summer and the e/s wouldn't work...all we did was clear the error code and it has worked just fine since then,owned this quad since new and that is the only time we had any kind of trouble w/es or anything else for that matter...we ride alot,in mud,water up to the lights,snow,hot weather,rough terrain,everything...we believe strongly in di-electric grease in every electrical plug on the quads...no troubles yet!!!!
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them old hondas would run forever we bulit a 4wheeler out of a 85 250es motor of a 3wheeler ran like a champ until i broke the frame and your cant buy parts for anything older than 1985
The only problem I've found with my electric shift Recon is sometimes when I come to a stop and then shift,you push the shift up/down button and it won't do anything. I have to roll it forward or backward a bit and then the shift works. If I were buying again - I'd dodge the ES and go with manual shift. What's really the advantage of pushing a button rather than pushing a lever with your foot???
This past week I spent four days plowing snow with my 09 Rancher AT. I used the auto mode and it did very well but I did get a little tired of having to hit the button two or three times to shift into reverse. I found after a while that if I shifted a little slower from drive to neutral to reverse it worked much better and pushed the button firmly. The new five speed tranny is really nice for pushing snow, and riding I might add.
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