[McChizzle]

I like the idea except for the off-road portion... any experience with a trailer off-road? I've got one particular 90deg turn into a steep grade with a meandering rut that I worry about in particular. ...

I've pulled a 3,500 lbs trailer off-road, but not with my RL. If we can assume our RL would pull the trailer the same off-road as an old Sierra Classic, then I would say it depends on whether there is any soft sand you have to pull it through. If there's sand, it would be easy to get stuck. Since you have some tricky off-road maneuvers to make, I would avoid using a trailer.

One thing you could try to keep the rear from sagging so much is distribute the weight a little more. If you were to follow the owner's manual --which I don't always do in these cases-- our RL's have roughly a 1,500 lbs load capacity (that includes driver and passengers). 1,100 lbs of that load can be put in the bed leaving 400 lbs that you can locate in the cab. If you weigh 150 lbs, consider putting only 17 bricks in the bed and flip up your rear-seats and put another 5 bricks on the rear-cab floor. That may help distribute the weight a little while keeping you at the manual’s published load limits. Of course you could reduce the number of bricks in the bed further by relocating even more bricks to the rear-cab --as well as the front passenger seat floor-- for even more weight distribution.

Given where the high-strength steel crossmembers are located in the bed, I would put more of your bed weight forward (near the cab) and less over the In-Bed Trunk for safety.

If you're thinking of putting any bricks in the In-Bed Trunk, keep in mind that it has a weight limit of 300 lbs. Given how that trunk is suspended around the frame, I would not want to overload that storage compartment.

 

[vpik01]

McChizzle those are some excellent illustrations and very good points. I didn't appreciate the 1500lbs was including driver/pass or that the bed was 1,100lbs rated. Guess I overdid it a bit. I like the suggestion of using the rear seats and pushing the load more towards centerline makes sense as well. Both of those changes does make loading/unloading more of a hassle but I think it's a good call to make especially seeing how the support beam's are biased towards the forward end of the bed. A friend of mine with a short bed tacoma from a couple years ago offered to help me take some blocks next time I go up to my campsite so it'll be neat to compare notes on a max payload highway/off-road trip between the two vehicles.

 

[McChizzle]

... those are some excellent illustrations and very good points. ...

This Canadian press kit document on the 2006 RL is a wonderful resource. It explains so much about the design and capabilities of our RL that is not covered in the owner's manual. Plus, it has great illustrations on how things were designed to work. You just have to realize they are talking about the 2006 Canadian models which were equipped differently than our U.S. models. Be advised that most of the graphics in the Word Document are in color; you need to reset each graphic individually in order to see the colors (I don't know why). I can point you to the U.S. versions of this document but there are multiple documents (one for each section) and some are missing from Honda's website; the Canadian version is the most complete single document I have found (i.e it's easier to reference).

The cutaways and other photos can be found on Honda's Media Newsroom website. Just use the search feature on the page to find what you are looking for.

 

[McChizzle]

Here's another graphic I made --using the information from the press kit and owner's manuals-- depicting the RL's platform capabilities/limits that may be of interest to you.

 

[vpik01]

McChizzle that press kit document is unbelievable... what a resource and just all around interesting document. I will be pouring over that for a long time, if I hadn't already bought a RL after reading this thing I think I would have been pushed over the edge for sure. Neat diagram you created as well!

 

[Sparkland]

Now the Dodge Ram can haul more with its split tailgate. Hopefully someone can decipher this language from Dodge:

?the automaker described the system as such: ?The doors can be coupled to the respective frames to selectively pivot about a second axis perpendicular to the first axis and relative to the frames and can be selectively coupled to the frames via respective door latches.?

 

[Ice]

Hauled the bike along with racing equipment 220 miles and back. It's a success. Love the truck!!

 

[superridgeline]

Got my 2007 about a week ago. Here’s what I’ve hauled so far.

 

[Goreds2]

We bought a new tiller today. I love where there is a place to hook the strap that is floor level.

 

[JoeDuc]

Bikes......

 

[McChizzle]

Bikes...... View attachment 394184

Have you ever tried to load both bikes in your bed? If so, what was the pro and con of hauling them that way?

 

[McChizzle]

I moved one of my extended family members into the Gorge Washington University dorms today--she starts her sophomore year--and man did she have a lot of stuff. I filled up the In-Bed Trunk, put a lot of bags in the back seat, and filled the bed with one-to-two layers of boxes and furniture pieces. The way my RL handled, I would say I had a good 700 lbs of dorm room goodies that I hauled into DC. It doesn't help that it was 94 degrees with very high humidity; a good sweaty workout to say the least.

 

[wb1dby]

I moved one of my extended family members into the Gorge Washington University dorms today--she starts her sophomore year--and man did she have a lot of stuff. I filled up the In-Bed Trunk, put a lot of bags in the back seat, and filled the bed with one-to-two layers of boxes and furniture pieces. The way my RL handled, I would say I had a good 600 lbs of dorm room goodies that I hauled into DC. It doesn't help that it was 94 degrees with very high humidity; a good sweaty workout to say the least.
View attachment 395706

I did that quite a few times bringing my son to college in the Rochester, NY area and then back home to Western MA. With both the G1 and G2 Ridgelines. Even though I told him to protect everything with bags, he didn't and we of course went thru a heavy rainstorm. But everything was dry by the time we got home 5 hours later. The ridge was brand new then.

 

[Pater C]

New to me 2001 Trailmanor. 3,500 dry weight. GVWR about 4,100. I’m working on a way to haul kayaks too. I think I will go with the Vantech truck racks.

 

[wb1dby]

I use Thule Hullavators with my G2 and Camper out back. Have had them for years and people still gawk and are amazed at how quickly the kayaks go on and off. They're fantastic and worth the price. Big back savers too! Rats, they're not in this picture. This one has just J brackets up a week after I got the G2 and before I had xbars for the Hulavators.

not

 

[wb1dby]

Here's one from July with the Hullavators as we were on our way to Cape Cod.

 

[Mr. Black]

We've been dragging this around all summer long. wb1dby has been an inspiration.

Keep in mind this is a major major downsizing for us.

 

[Pater C]

Wb1dby, how does the hullavator affect your mpg? I had thought about the hullavator, but I had a few concerns.
1) MPG
2) Don’t know if I like the look of it for hte majority of the time when I am not using 3.
3) Cost because I don’t have factory cross bars so I have to purchase towers, cross bars and then the hullavator. With the van techs I only have to buy the rack.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[wb1dby]

Wb1dby, how does the hullavator affect your mpg? I had thought about the hullavator, but I had a few concerns.
1) MPG
2) Don’t know if I like the look of it for hte majority of the time when I am not using 3.
3) Cost because I don’t have factory cross bars so I have to purchase towers, cross bars and then the hullavator. With the van techs I only have to buy the rack.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Surprisingly, it affects my mpg very little.I watched it this summer and barely affected my mpg with no boats up there. Plus you can take the cradle part off in minutes. I got my truck with side rails and just use a Thule square cross bar. That too can come off pretty quickly and with just the cross bars, a little more wind noise and very little fuel economy change. With my older truck, the G1 Ridge, I had much longer cross bars and had the Hullavators on the ends and 2 J brackets in between for carrying 4 kayaks around when my son and one of his friends would camp and kayak with us. Now just my wife and I. My cross bars were pretty cheap.

The big thing is it's so easy to load and unload the kayaks. No pulled backs or arms stretching to get them up and strapped down. It's easy peasy with the Hullavators.

I originally bought Honda cross bars but the Hullavator does not fit on them. I need to sell them as they just sit in a corner collecting dust.

 

[McChizzle]

I moved one of my extended family members into the Gorge Washington University dorms today--she starts her sophomore year--and man did she have a lot of stuff. I filled up the In-Bed Trunk, put a lot of bags in the back seat, and filled the bed with one-to-two layers of boxes and furniture pieces. The way my RL handled, I would say I had a good 700 lbs of dorm room goodies that I hauled into DC. It doesn't help that it was 94 degrees with very high humidity; a good sweaty workout to say the least.
View attachment 395706

Moved my extended family member's stuff out of the dorms again--who knows when they will be allowed back. Note how her stuff as grown by comparing how much more the bed is filled out. By the time she is a senior, I will need to bring a utility trailer to load all her stuff.