4 Wheeler engine blew

[Bigfoot]

My 450 Honda foreman finally bit the dust. It's been great I'm not knocking it. It had very close to 20,000 miles on it. I had the top half of the motor rebuilt a year and a half ago. What does everybody recomend I buy to replace it with. I haven't ruled out a side by side of some kind, but I think I like a 4 wheeler better.

 

[J&D Cattle]

That's a ton of miles, I'd say the Honda held up great. My Dad has a fairly new Honda Rubicon and loves it. I let my wife drive it when we ride with our kids and her as a novice can handle it well and it takes great care of her being so easy to drive. I've always been a Honda guy and still ride my 01 Rancher and our 84 200s 3-wheeler.

If I wasn't doing any actual trail riding and usually "worked" with it a side by side would be my bet. Drove lots of miles on a Gator and there sure nice. Uncle has a Mule with a cab and come hunting season it gets ridden a lot.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

we have had allmost every kind of four wheeler there is and honda is the very best we had a 2003 rancher 4x4 that 24000 miles when it was 6 years old and never had any engine work.what i have now is 3 2007 420 4x4 ranchers with electric shift and they all have from 7000 to 12000 miles and have needed nothing yet other than some work on the es that is the only thing i have ever had any trouble with any honda but i would not have any other brand.

 

[High Cotton]

Honda rincon or a Polaris Ranger. The Rincons ride better than just about any other Honda. Also the newer fuel injected bikes make more power and aren't cold natured for the most part. The rangers are getting an update for 2013. They will now have a detuned version of the engine in the RZR 900XP and I believe the same transmission and differentials. I have a RZR 900XP. It's mechanically leaps and bounds better than the RZR 800 and 800S. I'm hoping the same thing happens with the update on the rangers.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

i agree my 420s are fuel injected and have more power than a regular 500.

 

[tom4018]

We ran a 1995 Yamaha Moto Four 350 until the end of November, had very little trouble out of it and worked it hard. Bought a Yamaha Grizzly 550 then, got about 500 miles on it now. I like the power steering and fuel injection so far. I really wanted a side by side, drove my neighbors Ranger 400 some and like it, they had a new JD Gator at our field day yesterday and it is nice. Trouble is they all cost too much but would miss at least a ATV.

Bigfoot, I forgot where you are, but Abernathy's is about the best price around. Lots of people drive all the way there to get one, I got a local dealer down to within a few hundred of them so I bought local.

 

[Bigfoot]

I pull a little trailer with it quit a bit, and check cows. I rarely get over 10 or 12 mph. I would be more interested power to pull than anything else. I've been out of the loop for a while. I didn't know fuel injection was available. My carbed Hondas have always been dependable. Has the injection been around long enough to know if the kinks are worked out?


Also my 450 as dependable as it was ran really hot the last few years. I think it's what done it in. I had it looked at a few times. They always told me to go faster. I got mashed up in 2006 and can't bounce a lot. Do any of the Hondas have a cooling system?

 

[tom4018]

I pull a little trailer with it quit a bit, and check cows. I rarely get over 10 or 12 mph. I would be more interested power to pull than anything else. I've been out of the loop for a while. I didn't know fuel injection was available. My carbed Hondas have always been dependable. Has the injection been around long enough to know if the kinks are worked out?


Also my 450 as dependable as it was ran really hot the last few years. I think it's what done it in. I had it looked at a few times. They always told me to go faster. I got mashed up in 2006 and can't bounce a lot. Do any of the Hondas have a cooling system?

Honda has had fuel injection for a while, not all of them. The thning I like about fuel injection is the cold weather performance, no choke to deal with and not cold natured. Most all of them are liquid cooled now days.

 

[highgrit]

Stay away from Polaris, they are having wiring problems. Maybe the 2013 will be better. Kubota has a rtv 1140CPX with a 3 cyl. diesel that is great fuel.

 

[High Cotton]

^^^^ what he said. Pretty much all the Honda utility line is fuel injected now except for recon. Also bikes that are FI are water-cooled. Ride a rancher or foreman then get on a rincon. I'm not talkin about across the parking lot. Ride across real bumps and uneven terrain. You will see a big difference in how much more comfortable a bike with IRS can be. I had fourtrax 300 and a foreman 500 and a couple friends have Rincons. 420's are a little faster stock for stock but don't quite make the torque a 500 will. My 500 with pipe, jet kit, and 30in tires would out run a stock 420 on 26's. You can't run an oil cooled bike hot. It will kill them. Your probably needed to pull the front rack and plastic and wash the oil cooler out and or replace the cooling fan. The fans are bad about going out and causing them to run hot. Idling around will usually make fan run a good bit.


I have a 2011 Polaris and have had zero trouble. I ride it hard. I wouldn't be scared to buy another.

My 500 right after I bought it new.

How it looked most of the time I had it.

The RZR.

 

[highgrit]

High Cotton, do a google search on Polaris Ranger reviews. You guys need to be carefull, atv can kill you or worse yet
mame you up for life.

 

[jedstivers]

Honda Big Red is what I like. All it does is work
Going to get a 420 also for the farm but I won't be on it. It's for whoever needs to get somewhere on the farm on a 4 wheeler.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I pull a little trailer with it quit a bit, and check cows. I rarely get over 10 or 12 mph. I would be more interested power to pull than anything else. I've been out of the loop for a while. I didn't know fuel injection was available. My carbed Hondas have always been dependable. Has the injection been around long enough to know if the kinks are worked out?


Also my 450 as dependable as it was ran really hot the last few years. I think it's what done it in. I had it looked at a few times. They always told me to go faster. I got mashed up in 2006 and can't bounce a lot. Do any of the Hondas have a cooling system?

Yes the fuel injection has been around plenty long like i said i have 3 2007 420 fuel injected ranchers all with between 7000 and 12000 miles and they have been trouble free.

 

[Bigfoot]

I feel like a fool. Did my 2001 Honda foreman have a cooling system I was not maintaining? I didn't even know it had one. I thought it was air cured.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

It had an oil cooler on it that looks like a small radiator. This is what the fan was blowing across when it kicked on. One trick you can use on these atv’s to make them run cooler at low speeds is to wire up you a toggle switch to the fan, so you can keep the fan on at all times at low speeds, such as when you are spraying or bush hogging with one.

 

[Bigfoot]

I looked way up under the front end. Sure nuff there was a small radiator, about half the size of a lunch box. It looked surprisingly clean considering how dirty the whole thing is. Was there some maintenance for it that I should have been doing? It had been running hot for a while. A true Atv
mechanic checked it out for me a couple times. He said I put around to much. That made sense to
me because before i was hurt it only did it while i was in the woods looking for a cow The fan would sometimes kick on. I know it was functional.

 

[High Cotton]

That's the oil cooler. I washed mine out on a regular basis. I just ran a water from the hose without a nozzle through it about once every two weeks.

 

[John SD]

I bought my first Honda last fall. 2012 Rancher 420 liquid cooled 4x4, basic foot shift machine.

I've always been an old school Polaris air cooled 2 stroke chain drive owner. The Rancher is nice but has a rougher ride than my Polaris. I don't drive as fast anymore. Never had trouble with the Honda overheating and I do a lot putting around.

I do miss the Polaris ride and especially the automatic. Getting used to the shifter though. My Rancher is the basic model. For $1500 more I could have the top of the line automatic Rancher with automatic trans, PS, and IRS.

I did have trouble to the point the Honda would not start this summer. It was a fouled/bad spark plug. Perhaps largely caused by the putting around. It did seem to run better after I took it out on the road and blew the cobs out of it. Until one day it just wouldn't start. The gas I was using was from last Nov. I used it up by Aug 1.

The atv shop guys said the stale gas might have had something to do with it. I'm hauling gas in a 5 gal can now to keep it fresher. Not keeping gas on the place anymore because I fill my vehilces on the road.

Neighbor has identical 2008 Rancher except his has the handlebar electric shifter. Has had some minor issues with that.

I don't really see the point of handlbar shift. I'm hanging on with my hand. My foot is not doing anything else anyway.

I bought the basic model with foot shift because I figured Honda has been building them the same way for 30 yrs and they are bulletproof.

 

[tripleBfarms]

It had an oil cooler on it that looks like a small radiator. This is what the fan was blowing across when it kicked on. One trick you can use on these atv’s to make them run cooler at low speeds is to wire up you a toggle switch to the fan, so you can keep the fan on at all times at low speeds, such as when you are spraying or bush hogging with one.

Good Idea

 

[Bigfoot]

I've been riding my sons 90cc to check cattle. I look like a circus bear on a tricycle. I gotta get something soon. It'll be two weeks or longer before I have time. Getting a Honda though.