I'm sure more experienced RL owners will give you good advice. I'm in NOLA where icy roads have not occurred in the last 10-15 years so no actual RL AWD on my old G1 or current G2 with 200 miles on it.

I will tell you that my experience with conventional 4WD trucks and ice (Idaho, NorCal, MO) is - keep it in 2WD, put some weight in the bed as far aft as possible, lower the tire pressure a bit for bigger footprint, and proceed with a light foot on both the gas and the brakes. 4WD on ice tends to promote end swapping.

The AWD may be intelligent enough to figure it out for you. Which leads me to a new guy question - can you force the AWD system into FWD only mode?

 

Thank you.

I don't think we have ability to turn off AWD but it's interesting to know FWD is preferred on icy condition.

 

If it's actually icy...stay off roads...there's no mode for that. But for regular snow, I either just leave it, maybe put it in ECON mode to retard the throttle or use SNOW mode.

 

We will have a meeting at 9am and I am scheduled to give a 10 minute talk.
You are right. If I see ice covers road tomorrow morning, I will push to postpone the meeting. I don't want anything bad happen to me or my new Ridge.
Thanks for the ECON suggestion.

 

I find the snow mode good on snowy slippery roads; that sort of chunky dirty fresh peanut butter snow. What happens is when people brake they lock up and slide into the intersection polishing it up. When you try to leave on that surface you get way more wheelspin so the soft launch prevents that. It feeds enough to hook things up.

Otherwise for ice the formula is to stay home or slow down. Black ice is pretty well impossible to see until you're on it and while the traction management can save you it can't change physics. If you're sliding out of control at speed it's usually going to be a bad day.

For the thick glazed ice storm kind of ice on the road studded tires or chains are what you need but I can't imagine those are easy to find in Florida.

 

Here's what I do. First, wrap your steering wheel in bubble wrap. This provides a damping effect for steering inputs. Second, hang your lucky rabbit's foot on the mirror. Third, fill your tank with premium gasoline to provide smoother acceleration. Fourth, put two bricks on the rear floor passenger side and a water balloon in your lap. The bricks balance out the force on the wheels and the water balloon prevents you from suddenly breaking. Lastly, put the AWD system in eco mode (I know there is a snow mode - but what does Honda know?). That's about it. I find this approach provides the best traction and most controlled inputs from the driver.

 

Being Familiar with Tally, I think you need to pay attention to the bridges. that wintry mix will freeze on top of the bridges or overpasses. cold air under the over pass or bridge will freeze whatever is on top. What others have said about the AWD being smart is very true, however if you find your self in the slippery stuff try the snow mode, even that setting is found on the 2WD models. I think you should be ok on the major roads, Tenessee should be okay, Appalachy Pkwy should be ok too. Capitol Circle should be good too, just go slow, give your self lots of braking distance. A lot of the college students will still be out of town (MY daughter is still in South Florida) so there should not be that many inexperienced drivers on the road or they will still be sleeping. By the time you head home later it should be OK but the forecast for the next two days really stinks for up there.

 

I just went and looked at the forecast for tomorrow. James, I think you should re schedule your presentation. according to WeatherUnderground it will be freezing rain through 7 am and wintry mix after that… Heck… the FSU campus is closed till 5 pm tomorrow. Stay home, stay safe.

 

Just got word that meeting has been canceled and I will stay home tomorrow. My daughter's middle school also closes tomorrow. :smile:

Thanks everyone for your warm advice.

Happy New Year!

 

Stay off icy roads except in an emergency, and try not have any emergency.

 

It only takes one accident to close the road so take a blanket, some food, water and a full tank of gas in case you get stuck on the road for hours - speaking of which I better get my tank filled right now in case all the gas stations have a crisis like what happen in Atlanta a few weeks ago. I notice that all space heaters seem to be already sold out in Pensacola

 

Stay warm. My house uses heat pump. Not sure how effective it'll be when outside temp drops to lower 20s.

I went to Costco today but didn't fill up as there were long lines waiting at gas station and my tank was 80% full.

Maybe a gas station trip and power ball tickets are good reasons to head out tomorrow?:laugh:

 

When in doubt...leave it in AUTO and the Ridgeline will take care itself. :nerd::wink:

 

It snowed! Real one in 20+ years in Tally! My daughter had great time built her first snow man, or snow bird we say.











Moderator note: attachments removed.

 

It snowed! Real one in 20+ years in Tally! My daughter had great time built her first snow man, or snow bird we say.

Rotated photos to save necks.

(how to remove previous photos?)

 

So funny to see the excitement over snow! Up here we've been mostly below 0 F for the past week. Guess it's all about what you are used to.

 

Icey roads stay off them!

 

My driving advice would be to slow down, increase your following distance, and use smooth application of gas and brake. Go for a drive to a big empty church parking lot and have fun. This is a great time to learn what your Ridgeline can do. Press and hold the traction control button until it turns off and see how sideways you can get it.

 

It's really amazing how good modern stability control systems are.

They can't solve stupid - but pretty damn close.


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Many good suggestions here. Let the AWD set up do its job. (There's no way any FWD alone outperforms an AWD system)

Having played with our RL a fair amount over the 6 feet of snow we have so far, I would only caution that any drive system (RWD..FWD..AWD..4WD) is only as good as the tires it's putting the power to. The Firestone Destination LE tires on our truck are NOT a good snow tire ...so be very careful stopping and steering. The AWD will treat you well if you don't push these tires much...especially stopping.

 

I'm retired now. My wife works from home in snowstorms. We leave both the Pilot and the Ridgeline in Park during ice storms.

 

Back when i moved to the south for a while, folks down there would ask me what it's like to drive on ice, and how to avoid accidents. I told them that it was quite simple really.....just pretend you have no brakes.

 

Up here we all go to work in ice, snow, sleet or extreme cold but then again everyone behind the wheel is rather accustomed to this and the roads are well prepared. That being said, I seriously doubt I would venture out in any area that usually never gets ice/snow. Definite recipe for disaster if you ask me with most people using all season or summer tires and no experience whatsoever when it comes to driving in the slippery stuff.

People think AWD is the winter saviour when in fact a 2wd on winter tires all around will easily outperform any 4wd or awd on all seasons except maybe taking off from a stoplight in some winter conditions. Glad you stayed home, be safe.

 

What this guy says. I'm in northern Canada. Snow/ice covered roads 6 months of the year. If you don't have the tires, it doesn't really matter how good your AWD system is, it's going to be a struggle. Having said that, if there is a mode I would recommend on ice, it's snow mode. It gives you 2nd gear starts, a 50-50 rear bias, and dampens throttle response. I've tinkered with it extensively this winter and it works quite well with reducing wheel slippage, but again, it's hard to do anything without the proper tires, which of course wouldn't make sense for you guys down there to purchase for the one time every few years you get a bit of snow or ice on the roads.

 

"bomb cyclone" no problem for the Ridgeline. Didn't use any special AWD mode.

 

"Bomb Cyclone"

 

There's stuffs most people already knew..but there's also some really good pointers here. :wink::nerd:

brakes are your enemy "sometimes" !! :nerd:
~~~

 

Best Tire

Latest Consumer Reports states the Firestone Destination LE 2 "stands Up to Snow and Ice.''
Top rated tire again!

 

Re: Best Tire

Latest Consumer Reports states the Firestone Destination LE 2 "stands Up to Snow and Ice.''
Top rated tire again!

Good to know. I tried to void Firestone tires in the past decade after its infamous failures.

How does it compare to Michelin Defender, the one I plan to get when OE tires wear out?

 

Talking about driving on ice, I think @fpalbrecht has some good experience here and may be able to provide some advice; checkout his pic!

 

Talking about driving on ice, I think @fpalbrecht has some good experience here and may be able to provide some advice; checkout his pic!

I love the Ridgeline. As for advice, I just push the button for snow and slow down.
Sorry, that's all I have!

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The biggest threat associated with snow and ice in the Deep South is other drivers. There’s no AWD mode for that! We have a similar threat up north but it fades after the first storm triggers a relearning process (and a batch of new work for auto body shops).

 

Factory tires, recommended tire pressure (35 PSI), no extra weight in bed, Intelligent Traction Mangement in "Normal" mode...

 

My advice for driving on ice is make sure it's thick enough to support the weight!!!