2019 Honda Ridgeline: Testing Towing in Our Long-Term Unibody Pickup
In presenting our then-shining new 2019 Honda Ridgeline to our long haul test armada, we guaranteed that "towing, outdoors, closely following, pulling, driving, and traveling" were "all on the plan." Already our staff members have been doing essentially those exercises utilizing the Ridgeline, a demonstration of the truck's flexibility.
Through the Ridgeline's initial 10,000 miles—a turning point came to and outperformed snappier than we could discover an opportunity to compose this refresh—it saw a lopsided accentuation on towing. Thus, we will center around that truck litmus test in this report.
WHAT WE LIKE: That the Ridgeline can, actually, tow. You may think, "obviously it can tow. It's a pickup!" But that is certainly not an inescapable result, attributable to the Ridgeline's unibody development and generally low 5000-pound tow rating—or, in other words thousand pounds short of body-on-outline rivals in the fair size truck portion. Factor in the Honda's transverse-motor, front-drive powertrain (our truck is outfitted with the discretionary all-wheel drive) and minivan roots, and you can comprehend why web analysts and resolute truck people may expel it as unfit for towing obligation.
We're more edified. What's more, the Honda performs well hauling something behind it, however with two indicators: The first is that if the trailer is tall and square shaped, the Honda works perceptibly harder than with lower-profile freight, for example, an auto on a flatbed trailer. Second, despite the fact that the Ridgeline can competently deal with burdens as substantial as its 5000-pound rating, that still misses the mark regarding contenders' greatest limits. Inquisitively, Honda doesn't offer a trailer-brake controller as a manufacturing plant adornment, just a possibility for an underdash hookup for one (our truck came so prepared). We caught a Honda-particular fitting connector for our Prodigy P2 controller, connected it to, and sticky-taped it to the underside of the dashboard, despite the fact that a more coordinated arrangement would be welcome.
Purchaser's Guide aide editorial manager Eric Stafford hauled his F-body Chevrolet Camaro from Michigan's Upper Peninsula somewhere in the range of 400 miles back to C/D's Ann Arbor base camp easily utilizing a leased tow dolly, all while getting 17 mpg. (For correlation, our truck has so far found the middle value of 21 mpg through about 16,000 miles.) Staff picture taker Michael Simari likewise observed towing achievement pulling his Acura Integra track auto on a steel trailer to GingerMan Raceway on Michigan's west drift. The Honda disregarded the close greatest limit stack like it wasn't there while returning 16 mpg. Online duplicate boss Rusty Blackwell's experience hauling a spring up camper stacked with a kayak and a kayak in like manner was dispossessed of catastrophe or shock, and the Ridgeline found the middle value of 19 mpg amid his excursion.
It was specialized proofreader David Beard who found that, while towing a trailer that stands far taller than the Ridgeline, the resultant breeze obstruction represents an issue. Notwithstanding Beard's container trailer's low mass—evaluated to be under 2000 pounds stacked—at interstate velocities it had the Honda's V-6 motor shouting along in fourth apparatus, drinking a gallon of consistent each nine miles. The main other towing-related negative mark needs to do with the Honda's squishy brake pedal and the brakes' absence of starting nibble. Our Ridgeline isn't awesome at ceasing when unladen—simply check its long 191-foot preventing separation from 70 mph—and adding a trailer to the blend abandons us wishing the plugs were more grounded.
WHAT WE DON'T LIKE: One odd disturbance that sprung up actually from the first occasion when we pushed the start catch is . . . the start catch. Irregularly, with the end goal to begin the Ridgeline, one must place a foot hard on the brake pedal before squeezing the starter—and afterward keep their foot there until the point when the motor flames, a moderate two-tally later. Expelling your foot from the brake before the motor begins once in a while results in a prematurely ended begin. It takes becoming acclimated to.
WHAT WENT WRONG: Nothing. The Ridgeline's dashboard cautioned us that it was the ideal opportunity for an "A1" benefit at 8400 miles, and $75 later the Honda was content with crisp motor oil, another oil channel, turned tires, and an investigation from the merchant.
WHERE WE WENT: Already, it has gone far and wide. Our Ridgeline was squeezed into administration promptly upon its landing in our workplaces as a help vehicle for our yearly Lightning Lap track test in Virginia before making a trip to Northern Michigan various occasions for summer excursions and making a side trip to Cooperstown, New York.
