Anyone tow a dual axle rig (3500 pounds or so) with a Ridgeline? Interested in general performance: acceleration, mpg, stopping, and pulling up a steep ramp. Don’t travel too far ( always under 100 miles) and no hills. TIA.
Anyone tow a dual axle rig (3500 pounds or so) with a Ridgeline? Interested in general performance: acceleration, mpg, stopping, and pulling up a steep ramp. Don’t travel too far ( always under 100 miles) and no hills. TIA.
John Clark — Findlay, Ohio
Have a dealer near by that you can test drive one for a few hours? It’s all I can offer as I don’t have one
v6 honda plenty of power, the transmission would be what worried me most. buy new and get the honda extended warranty also
Last edited by mactlman; 01-24-2023 at 06:59 PM.
2022 z519 cup 225 merc 4s ser # 3B210484. 2--hds12 live units. 2 poles, atlas plate, ghost, hamby's, active target, merc digital gauges
2002 basscat pantera 3 (dad bought new) sold 8-2-22
2000 stratos 20 ss (bought new) 200 hp Rude ficht great boat/motor sold 11-21
pulled by a 2500HD Denali
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My RT188 weighs 2700 pounds lake ready at a certified scale. The AWD Ridgeline handled it well. I bought an early model that had several nit picky build issues. Those all should be corrected. I am not sure how the new transmission will hold up over time? The 3.5 does have a timing belt that will need swapped out about 100K miles.
I pulled the largest trailer U-Haul offers full of furniture a couple of times with it, no issues. It did everything “truck like” that I expected. I simply missed the full size room and was willing to pay the 5 MPG penalty to go back to a Tundra. The Tundra gets the same exact MPG pulling that same exact boat.
I have a full-size truck [Silverado] and a low-mileage grocery getter Civic. Have been tossing the idea of melding two vehicles into one by getting a mid-sized pickup. We are a Honda family from way back: have a ton of faith in their products and service. I also like some of the features of the Ridgeline such as the bed storage. But they are comparable in price to more popular mid-sized trucks and have a lot less torque than my full-sized pickup. Chevy’s new Colorado looks awesome at up to 430 foot pounds of torque, but they won’t be available for a while yet, and the vehicle is totally redesigned, so they *could* be a little quirky. Lots of time to shop vehicles right now, but still not a lot of inventory to look at.
Note: I don’t put many miles on either of my vehicles. Average 5k per year, each.
John Clark — Findlay, Ohio
John Walker - Matthews NC
2021 Ranger RT198P - Mercury 150 4S - Enertia Eco
VesselView Link - MotorGuide Tour Pro - Lowrance Carbons
One word.............don't. They are rated for it and will pull it but you will know its back there and the parts wear out quickly.
Is this personal experience? Or guessing.
I do know I have towed just under 2000lbs with my buddies CRV without any issues. It "only" had 325k on it before rusting away and only 2 major repairs. 1 timing belt and at just under 300k a rear u-joint assembly failed. Beyond impressive in my book. CJ
2002 X19 200HP OX66 HO Vmax,HPDI lower, it lives, thanks Hydro Tec.
I wouldn't use anything FWD based to tow with.
I took my boat to the dealer. They were more than happy to let me hook it up and tow it around.
Tom
i don’t think anyone is able to say with a straight face that a Ridgeline or any mid sized SUV can tow as well as a full size pickup. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable tow vehicles.
I tow with a v6 AWD Durango and do just fine. In fact I know many many people who tow with Jeep GCs, Durangos, 1/4 ton pickups, Highlanders, even a Maverick pulling an 18’ nitro (which I’ll admit is insane but it’s not my vehicle). Sure a pickup truck will tow better, but people completely write off a capable AWD or partial 4wd when there’s no reason to other than preference.
1995 Ranger 481v
1995 Johnson Fast Strike 175hp
Fair enough. Thank you for clarifying your opinion on it. We can agree to disagree no worries . IMO I think for example a Ridgeline would be equally capable to say a new Ranger or Colorado. I would not compare a Ridgeline to a half ton truck. I might have agreed with you 10 years ago, but now a days they are just built stronger. New Rams putting 600-800 ft lbs of torque thru front cv axles. Even all your high powered cars now are rear IFS with cv axles. They can handle it a lot better than they used to imo.
CVs in the front of a 4x4 don't take most of the load like in a FWD, in a truck even if it's a 4x4 you tow in 2wd which is only the rear axle. You don't pull a boat with a RWD car either, and even if you did the RWD transmission can handle a load much better than a FWD transaxle.