“These are the times that try men's souls.” | So yes I bought two of the 2015' Rubicon Formans with the electric shift trans and independent suspension and power steering. We really thought we would get high miles on them. But only took them to around 5,500 mile on each of them. We were plagued with trans. shifting problems with one of the first two weeks of owning them. The dealer we bought them from never could or would fix it. Always had some excuse why it wouldn't work for us, but then worked in their shop. At one point the dealer told me we should be running a engine oil additive in it to help shifting. I asked if Honda sold this stuff, I was told no. I said well if I used it they would void my warranty on them. I got no reply from this dealer. At this point I was out of warranty on both machines. We used 100% Honda oil and filters.
I finally gave up and took them to a dealer over 150 miles away. That one bike was the bike from hell for them, they had it for two months. Numerous calls to Honda, they finally spilt the bike open and fixed a shift pin in it. At the time it was a $3.50 part. Got bike home and 30 days later it was failing again. Then at that time the other bike was doing the same thing. I finally gave up and traded them off on a 2019' Polaris Ranger 900 XPS the dealer that had been trying to fix these bikes for us sold Polaris as well. He treated us very well on the trade.
At no time did we ever ride these two bikes in manual trans mode, only in auto shift. When they ran they were great, but that time frame era we had shifting problems. Things I hated about them was still having to push in a button to shift into reverse, radiators were harder to clean if you ran in a lot of Cheat grass. That was really the only complaints I had on them. If buying Honda 4 wheelers I would stay away from the electric shift, go manual if you have hired men. No way will I ride a machine without electric power steering now and independent suspension on them in any bike.
So in 2018' I bought two Can Ams 450 Outlanders, one was a 2018' the other was a 2017' 450 that the bank repo'ed because the man died that bought it and no family to take it over. It only had 100 miles on it. So far up to date no problems with them, they are a cheaper built with more plastic. But easier to clean radiators out on, easier to clean overall vs. Hondas when riding Cheat grass and noxious weeds. Down side is the boot protectors on front axles tear off easier than the Hondas. We keep extra sets in shop, and also drilled some more holes in them and using zippy ties to help hold them on better. The oil filters are a pain to get out if you don't trim the plastic out a little from the floor board. I just used a die grinder with cutoff wheel to trim to help in getting filters out. Sure saved a lot of time vs. taking floor board off to get filter out. I don't like the right hand shifter for chasing cows, tough to use right hand for shifting and throttle in running cows. Same as the left hand button to use to put into reverse for Hondas, it was a pain in running cows. The hander shifter for the Can Am is kind of light built, I can see hired men or someone forcing them breaking them. You need to use gentleness when shifting them in my opinion. So far no problems with ours.
Hands down the most friendly bikes we've owned for running cows were the Artic Cats 400 Autos with the left hand shifters H L N R. The suspensions would wear a little more in them, but over all we have had pretty good life with them. After driving them with belts drives I wouldn't be scared of belts in Can Ams. Like others say change them at or around 5,000 miles you should be ok. I've still got a 05' and 07' 400 Autos still running. Those bikes weren't the best for riding the real steep mountains. But we got by ok.
One of the biggest complaints I have is they don't put pull recoil starters on bikes anymore, so really need to keep batteries and starters up on machines. I think Honda you can still buy recoils and put them after the fact. Can-Am doesn't offer them at least in those 450's we have. I don't know what Artic Cat is doing today on theirs. In any of the bikes we've owned, never had problems with the 4x4 in any of them. Artic Cats we replaced a lot of boots on the axle shafts from tearing.
I really wanted to try the Can Am Defender UTV but I couldn't get dealer to trade on those two Hondas. I was going to sell both of those Hondas private treaty and buy a Defender, but when they both failed the last time I had enough and was able to trade for the Ranger. They have their problems, but so far been ok on it. It is sure nice for fencing and being able to put doors on cab for winter.
Edited by Russ In Idaho 6/17/2020 02:05
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Russ in Idaho - how are the Rubicons holding up?
