[jsantin]

I recently bought the 2006 stock 350 Rancher from a good friend that hadn't have it out of the garage in 7+ years. It has about 500 miles on it. I changed the gas, oil and new battery and it fired right up. Sometimes the carb leaks and I think the float sticks a bit. My wife is tired of smelling gas in the garage LOL Do I need a new carb?

Also, I'm looking at getting new tires and getting overwhelmed with all I read. I'm a duck hunter spend all my time in muddy rice and corn fields. 90% of my riding is a slow speeds. Thinkin of going with Zillas or something similar. I'd prefer to go slightly larger. What are your suggesitons? Front and back same size? Narrower front and thicker in the back? I'm not too mechanically proficient but have a friend that could help with a gear reduction if needed.

I'm also looking at adding a small winch. Any suggestions, size or type?

Thank you in advance for the help.
John

 

[Goober]

No you don’t need a new carb but you probably need to rebuild it. The float needle tip is a viton rubber compound that will deform after several years.

Do you have a service manual? Download the e version from the link in my signature block there’s also a couple parts links there.

My recommendation is to always buy OEM Honda parts for your quad.

Warn winch no question 2500

There’s some mudders here I don’t like going larger tires, but you’ll get good opinions here. Also check mudthrowers.com

 

[Jeepwm69]

Welcome to the board.

Where are you located? I use my bikes for duck hunting quite a bit as well. I have moved to Mud Bugs on all of my bikes. Same manufacturer as the Zilla, but have more of a paddle tread that really helps in the soupy stuff we hunt in. You can pull 26's fine and for ducks I'd run 12 wides on the rear and 10 wides up front.

I would suggest reading Retro's Creamsickle rebuild thread. He has some good info on 350 Ranchers in it, including the leaky carbs that seem to plague that model.

I would suggest first trying to polish the seat with a qtip at low speed in a drill and some polishing compound. If that doesn't work, I've had success with using a small polishing stone from a dremel and turning it by hand to clean up the seat area. I would try the qtip first because if you mess it up, it's new carb ($150+) time.

For winches either look for a used Warn (new ones are rediculously expensive for a winch that size) or look at Superwinch. I've put several Superwinch LT3000's on mine and my buddies' bikes and so far, so good. We park in the water and hunt off of the wheelers too so the winches get wet a lot, and zero problems from the LT's. Lately I've been buying cheap Warns used when they pop up to use on the Honda 300's projects I have coming up.