2017 Ridgeline is actually badass offroad!

32440 Views 61 Replies 30 Participants Last post by UnicornKaz, Dec 23, 2016

I_Slang_Hondas

Discussion Starter · Dec 5, 2016

Hey guys, my name is Jason and I actually work for a Honda Dealership in SoCal. I'm fairly new to Honda as I worked for Toyota for the last 6 years and am personally a Tacoma fanboy, on my 3rd Tacoma and have literally thousands of miles of offroad experience.

Anyways I took my boss' 2017 Ridgeline Black Edition for a little offroad adventure this weekend to see how this "truck" could handle mud, snow, ice and general offroading. I wasn't expecting much, but by the end of the day the Ridgeline was everyone's favorite truck to be in. So smooth so comfy and SO CAPABLE. I was seriously blown away by the things it handled with grace. This IS a truck, its actually a pretty badass truck. People that make fun of it being "an Odyssey with a pickup bed" have never actually been offroading in one and I'll be uploading some videos in the next couple weeks to prove them wrong! I think I'll make you guys proud

The Ridgeline made it to the top of Toro Peak! Which as of yesterday was still covered in snow and the last 1,000ft of elevation were very icy. Even a Jeep Rubicon turned back before the peak, but the Ridgeline made it!

Here's just a little taste of what we put the Ridgeline through, horrible quality as its my iphone recording a computer screen but many more videos to come!!!

What you don't see before the beginning of this clip is that I was literally TRYING to get it stuck, purposefully took a bad line through the mud and tried to pin it up agains't the edge as we hadn't been able to get the ridgeline stuck all day (had a land cruiser with a winch just in case). I THOUGHT it was stuck at the beginning of this vid, but my passenger reminded me of "stuck vehicle mode" and by God the damn thing made it out itself! We couldn't believe it.

So congrats on the badass truck guys, coming from a Tacoma guy I was very impressed.

check it out:

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DogOnBoard

· #2 · Dec 5, 2016

Wow, you did that and much more to your boss's new RL and didn't get fired? That is some boss.

Did the truck have the OEM Firestones on it? If so, that really impresses me. But I would be a little concerned about possible damage to some of the exposed components underneath the truck because it's not really designed for "badass" off-roading.

Reactions: 2

SK17touring

· #3 · Dec 5, 2016

That is impressive. Can't wait to see more.

Richard

I_Slang_Hondas

Discussion Starter · #4 · Dec 5, 2016 (Edited)

DogOnBoard said:
Wow, you did that and much more to your boss's new RL and didn't get fired? That is some boss.

Did the truck have the OEM Firestones on it? If so, that really impresses me. But I would be a little concerned about possible damage to some of the exposed components underneath the truck because it's not really designed for "badass" off-roading.

Not gonna lie he's an awesome boss, he also knew exactly what I was going to do with his truck lol.

When we put together real videos we're going to put up all the specs but I still should've mentioned this in the original post, this ridgeline is NOT stock but close. It has the TRUXXX Levelling kit and 30" Nitto Terra Grapplers. The tires DEFINITELY played a big roll in how well it performed, BUT we had several other trucks with the group also with Grapplers, and Wranglers, BFGs, General Grabber Red letters etc... and specifically in the mud the ridgeline out performed all of them, I don't think it was just the tires. I personally think it was the Ridgeline's Torque vectoring capabilities that gave it the edge. The Tacomas felt "reactive" with their traction systems where the Ridgeline was more "proactive" if that makes sense. Same thing happened on an icy hill, my Tacoma squirreled its way up it with the ass end kicking all over the place. The ridgeline practically idled over the same slope. My Tacoma was also aired down to 15 psi while the ridgeline did the whole day at stock 30psi all around which made it even more impressive.

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AG87BlkLX

· #5 · Dec 5, 2016

What is "Stuck Vehicle Mode"?

I_Slang_Hondas

Discussion Starter · #6 · Dec 5, 2016

Don't get me wrong I'm not gonna be trading in my Tacoma for a Ridgeline just yet. But I will say the Ridgeline earned RESPECT on this trip from all of us and we were a bunch of Tacoma/Land Cruiser/Jeep guys.

I_Slang_Hondas

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 5, 2016

AG87BlkLX said:
What is "Stuck Vehicle Mode"?

Hold the VSA button down on the AWD models and it puts it into "stuck vehicle mode", its like the 4-VTM lock equivalent for the new second gen.

Crappie man

· #8 · Dec 5, 2016

I am getting me a new ridgeline and cant wait. that was amazing

Midnightsun

· #9 · Dec 5, 2016

Oh my, finally some real stuff being done. Looking forward to the rest of the videos.

Ryan Little

· #10 · Dec 5, 2016

Love it! Did that with my RL but with about half the amount of water. Got worried for a second but it handled it like a champ.

DogOnBoard

· #11 · Dec 5, 2016 (Edited)

I_Slang_Hondas said:
...this ridgeline is NOT stock but close. It has the TRUXXX Levelling kit and 30" Nitto Terra Grapplers. The tires DEFINITELY played a big roll in how well it performed...

Ah-hah! I was wondering why the front end ground clearance wasn't more of an issue as you pushed this RL to the limits. The TRUXXX gang might pay you for your off-road videos -- great advertising. So can you tell us what wheels and specific size Grapplers he's running on that truck?

Others will hopefully chime in here to confirm or correct me, but it's my understanding that turning off VSA allows much more wheel spin when you're mired in muck, but it's actually the i-VTM4 "Sand" mode that locks the rear diff, similar to VTM-4 Lock on the Gen1 RL.

BillmanMotion

· #12 · Dec 5, 2016

"Stuck vehicle assist" is available in NORMAL and SNOW modes when you hold the VSA button down and turn on the "vsa-off" icon.

In other words, any time the VSA is disabled in NORMAL or SNOW mode, you are automatically in SVA mode (stuck vehicle assist)

SVA is not available in MUD or SAND modes.

Reactions: 1

DogOnBoard

· #13 · Dec 5, 2016 (Edited)

Thanks. What about locking power to the rear wheels? I remember reading somewhere that "Sand" mode does that...at least at low speeds.

I wonder why Honda doesn't think you'd ever need Stuck Vehicle Assist when using "Mud" or "Sand" modes??

BillmanMotion

· #14 · Dec 5, 2016 (Edited)

2

Gearing up to try out some off road as well:

High amp quick disconnect:

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s2000zr

· #15 · Dec 5, 2016

DogOnBoard said:
Wow, you did that and much more to your boss's new RL and didn't get fired? That is some boss.

Did the truck have the OEM Firestones on it? If so, that really impresses me. But I would be a little concerned about possible damage to some of the exposed components underneath the truck because it's not really designed for "badass" off-roading.

His boss don't care because that truck is going to be sold as a demo. The new owner will never know where it's been.

Reactions: 1

I_Slang_Hondas

Discussion Starter · #16 · Dec 5, 2016

DogOnBoard said:
Ah-hah! I was wondering why the front end ground clearance wasn't more of an issue as you pushed this RL to the limits. The TRUXXX gang might pay you for your off-road videos -- great advertising. So can you tell us what wheels and specific size Grapplers he's running on that truck?

Others will hopefully chime in here to confirm or correct me, but it's my understanding that turning off VSA allows much more wheel spin when you're mired in muck, but it's actually the i-VTM4 "Sand" mode that locks the rear diff, similar to VTM-4 Lock on the Gen1 RL.

Now that you mention it I'm almost positive I put it in sand mode when I got stuck so maybe I wasn't in "stuck vehicle mode" at all. I know I was in "mud mode" when it got stuck and I was at least trying to figure out how to put in stuck vehicle mode but I'm pretty sure I just hit Sand and turned off the VSA. Whatever mode I put it in it definitely helped, I immediately felt it get some forward/reverse momentum where in the mud mode I was free spinning the wheels not moving an inch.

WHEELS: 18" KMC XD820
TIRES: Nitto Terra Grappler 255/60/R18 (we test fitted a few tires and this was the largest tire we could personally fit with no rubbing issues on our setup)

Outahere

· #17 · Dec 6, 2016

Will be interesting to see if you experience transmission or rear-end overheating as you continue your testing.

I_Slang_Hondas

Discussion Starter · #18 · Dec 6, 2016 (Edited)

I had the Ridgeline detailed today and its perfect, no rattles showed up, no vibrations or squeeks... Nada. I have a 2017 Tacoma with less miles than his ridgeline and even I've developed two little rattles one on the dash and one on the overhead console. They don't bother me because its a truck, its going to happen and they're very subtle, but they're still there and in the Ridgeline there's nothing so just another thing that impressed me about the truck.

Either way crawling through mud at 5mph and getting stuck makes for a good video and certainly LOOKS hard on the truck, but mechanically speaking for any modern truck it shouldn't be an issue even if I did that over and over day after day.

Here's me hitting the same puddle at literally 6x the speed in my Tacoma, and yes someone will eventually buy my Tacoma used as well, but ssshhhhh don't tell them where its been

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

I_Slang_Hondas

Discussion Starter · #19 · Dec 6, 2016

Outahere said:
Will be interesting to see if you experience transmission or rear-end overheating as you continue your testing.

It was like 40 degrees outside on this trip maybe that helped keep them cool. Next trip is the desert, Ocotillo Wells

We'll see how she handles some real heat and sand dunes.

DogOnBoard

· #20 · Dec 6, 2016

I_Slang_Hondas said:
...
WHEELS: 18" KMC XD820
TIRES: Nitto Terra Grappler 255/60/R18 (we test fitted a few tires and this was the largest tire we could personally fit with no rubbing issues on our setup)

Thanks for the wheel and tire specs! Those Nitto ATs seem like an excellent road/off-road choice. I'm going to guess those are the exact tires that you'd get with the Jsport leveling kit called "The Basics". One problem, though...Nitto is phasing out the Terra Grappler for the Terra Grappler G2, and their website does not list that size as available for the TG G2's. Maybe they will offer more sizes in the G2 as the original Grapplers go out of stock.

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