How LO-geared is the Rubicon

if you are going to use it for mostly work i would go with the foreman 500, since you are going to be hauling big loads. i had a 03 rubicon and i had it set up for mud riding but i also did alot of work with it and the tranny went out. as many people on her already know i am not a fan of the honda auto trannys at all, they are just too risky. if something goes wrong, more than likley the whole thing is going to go out. to answer your question, i think they are geared good for pulling things, while doing hay we would sometimes use my rubicon to pull it. the trailer will hold about 70 bales that weigh around 50lbs each. in low first gear it would pull it fine in the hay feilds. i know you may be thinking that is alot of weight but it would pull it. the reason the tranny went out is because the oil pump failed, the newer rubicons have the updated oil pumps so you should be ok there. yes the rubicon has five low speeds and five high speeds.
-Aaron

jobadluck, if you want an all around performer I dont think you can do much better than the rubicon, true enough, i dont have that many miles on mine but I know people that do. I have had a 450 foreman and I loved the machine, but after climbing on one after owning the ruby, it felt way outdated. the rubicon is (in my opinion) a great trail rider and if I put the tranny in low auto when i decend very steep hills it creeps slower than the 450 in superlow 1st it seems like the steeper it is the more it slows, I love it. and if you wish to change gears then you can do that smoother than anything out there. for pure hard work day in and out to me a geared machine would be the proven performer but the rubicon does have a liquid cooled engine, better for hard slow pulling so its a personal choice. just remember when working the rubicon use low and it will perform a lot better. oh and nothing out there now is as low geared as the old suzukis you mentioned with the three speed sub tranny.

I'm not realy a mud driver. I'll pull an heavy trailer up a steep hill. But not the trottle all the way in to get her done. I'll need to go slowly because the trail is pretty rough, and while I'm going slowly, I need a good power response to get thought slippery area. I know that the Foreman is the way to go in that case, but I was wondering if the Rubicon will do that job as well.

I used to have an old kawa 5 speeds with chains on tire, but geared way to high. Everytime I slowed down climbing that steep hill with my trailer, I had a hard time starting back. Sometime we needed to be 2 quads to pull it, while my father's bombardier traxter 500 was doing to job alone, cause he was geared lot slower than me.

This is what I'm concerned with. That will be the main use of this quad. The foreman is probably the way to go, but I wanted to get your inputs because I like the idea of that tranny when I will be doing "tourist" driving.