Honda Ridgeline RTL | Haulers
From the September, 2011 issue of Motorcyclist
By Peter Starr
Once upon a time, I owned a Chevrolet El Camino because I liked a vehicle with the comfort of a car that could carry my dirtbike. The Chevy did that with style and ease. Then came the Subaru Brat, which did the same thing with better gas mileage and lower insurance rates. That covers the ’70s and ’80s, but there weren’t many developments of any consequence in comfortable bike transport until Honda introduced the Ridgeline in March of 2005. It was met with mixed reviews from the automotive brain trust. Evidently, automotive brains don’t need to be cocooned in a civilized, luxurious vehicle while carrying a motorcycle.
Last winter, I drove more than 4000 miles in a 2011 Ridgeline while carrying a dirtbike or pulling a 3500-lb. travel trailer. For the most part, I love this vehicle. It has nimble handling like a car, albeit a large one. Though capacities are modest by American pickup-truck standards, it will still tow 5000 lbs. or carry up to 1546 lbs. of payload. And the Ridgeline is much more versatile than your average pickup. It seats five, and folding the rear seats down reveals a cavernous amount of luggage space. The tailgate opens vertically or horizontally, and there’s another 8.5 cubic feet of lockable cargo area beneath the bed, along with three 12-volt power outlets. There’s also a 115-volt socket in the center console to charge your laptop or other electronic devices.
Yeah, I was wondering about that too. I wish mine had an 115-volt. I have only seen the newer ones from the outside. I'd like to go look at one but hate dealing with car dealers. They circle around like vultures and assume everyone that comes into there has an infinite budget and needs a car today.
You are right... it can't be that conclusion. 300 lbs is the dynamic load, so you can put that much on it (say, the rear wheels of an ATV) and then drive over a bouncy trail.
Going from memory of long-past threads, the static load is about 1200 lbs and the breaking strength when new is about double that. You could literally support a Ridgeline on the tailgates of two other back-to-back Ridgelines.
So, you and your wife are safe on there, unless at least one of you is of highly atypical weight.