[Mrgoodwrench35]

Hello everyone! Long time rider and have always been a fan of Honda's. I recently upgraded the wife from her 'learner' 250 Ozark to a 2017 Rancher 420 4x. She sat on and rode lots of different machines from every dealer in our area and chose the Honda. I was proud. Got a decent deal I think. 5500 COTD. She's barely through the break in period per service manual but loves it so far.

I've owned Honda's in the past but never fuel injected and I remember the ranchers being smaller? I got on here to see what I could learn from fellow Honda fans.

We live in a small farm community north of Kansas City Mo. Most of our riding is done here on the farm but we do get out several times a year to local riding parks. I mainly ride a Brute Force and play in the mud on occasion. The wife looks forward to doing the same.

Thank you guys in advance for answering my stupid questions.

 

[shadetree]

welcome to the forums, can't beat a Honda !. my '89 trx350D foreman still runs today, well..it was..until the 10 year old battery gave up the ghost !.

 

[Goober]

Welcome nice ride that new Rancher. Yep 2000 was first year? They got the 420 what 10 years ago? Lotsa refinement = complexity. Will look forward to your evaluations on it

 

[SamUK]

Welcome to the forum. The Rancher is a nice ATV, very crisp power delivery compared to the older Ranchers.

 

[Jeepwm69]

Welcome to the forum.

I got the wife a 420 too. She wanted an automatic so I found a beat up, dead, abused 2009 420 DCT with IRS.

Rebuilt it, put a 500 top end on it (bolts on) and put a 20%ish gear reduction on it (the automatic 420's are geared too high) and she loves it.

 

[Mrgoodwrench35]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Glad to see there are so many Honda fans. I can't really say I'm brand loyal, but my first ATV ever was an ATC 350 and I loved it. Owned lots of their products over the years and they were all reliable beyond expectation. I hope to see the same out of the rancher.

So you can just put a 500 top end on the 420? Any issues with the injection/computer? I'm definitely interested in learning more about that.

The wife learned on a manual foot shift and has some experience with clutches so she preferred the manual over automatic. She says my auto Brute is just lazy. :grin

 

[Jeepwm69]

I wish mine had stuck with the foot shift. MUCH less to go wrong, and a lot easier to work on.

Yeah, a 2012-up 500 Foreman top end will bolt on to a 420. I added a programmer to mine to up the fuel a little but I've seen people do it without the programmer and the machine ran fine.

Not a big bump in power so not worth doing on a new machine. I used her 420 cylinder on a rebuild for another Rancher and put a 500 top end on hers while I had it torn down.

You only need a cylinder, piston and rings, and gasket set.

Exhaust on the 2012-2013 Foreman and 2007-2013 Ranchers are the same so the stock exhaust is plenty to handle the bigger CC cylinder.

 

[Mrgoodwrench35]

Great info Jeepwm69, thank you. Hopefully I wont be tearing into the 420 anytime soon, but if something does go wrong, i'd go that route to rebuild for sure. I'm hoping for the wife to outgrow the rancher in the next year or so and trade it up for something bigger.

I went with Honda overall for their longevity, yet I hear of a lot of people talking about rebuilding 420 upper ends. Should I be concerned?