Does the truck come with a hitch? None of the trucks at the dealer had it.

 

Cedosada,

No the hitch is an addon, it will set you back $250.80 + shipping, if you install it yourself, no telling what the dealer install will be. You read the installation instructions at this link http://www.handa-accessories.com/ridgeline.html ,
They also have all of the other add-ons listed here. These are the same folks who are running the giveaways here, Trevor is good about answering qustions, so if you have any, just ask him.

Does the truck come with a hitch? None of the trucks at the dealer had it.

 

What I'm concerned with is will it tow a 3500 pound boat up a mountain? Can the engine/truck keep pace with traffic (i.e. 60mph at least)? What type of draw back if pulling a boat at that weight and having a bunch of camping gear in the bed? Other besides that this looks to be a great truck! Cant wait to test drive.

 

I've towed my 21 ft Chris Craft up mountains here in Utah; it went about 4000 lbs with the trailer, I think. Had no problem other than the lack of rearward visibility without extended mirrors...

 

Anyone who is having the dealer install the tow package...how much labor are they trying to charge you and how long did they say it would take to install it?

 

Re: Towing capability -hitch installation

Local dealers were charging $600+ for the hitch and trailer wiring to be installed.

I ordered a hitch through an internet source (several were adding them to inventory soon - only one (hitchweb.com) had them in stock at the time) - I paid about $240 (currently this is about the same price as through cheaphondaparts.com - I would go through them if I was to do this again). Installation is pretty easy - 8 bolts into nuts already welded in place on the vehicle. I did have my wife help as holding up the hitch by ones self is a bit unweildy.

I originally was impressed that Honda had the trailer wiring "installed". This is an overstatement - the wires run from the back of the vehicle to the front but are not connected at either end. I kept wondering what was in the honda wiring kit offered at cheaphondaparts.com for $126 (vs $169 list price). I printed off the information and took it to my local dealer - the parts lady pulled a sample from the shelf and it includes: prewired plugs to connect to the trailer, a conversion box and relays to isolate the trailer from the basic lighting curcuits, a new fuse box cover, and a pig tail to connect an electric brake module (not included). Installation was not difficult but it was a pain - the wires at both ends take some knuckle busting to get to - the instruction set I was provided was good.

Another owners manual error: The manual says that the Ridgeline is wired for backup lights and does not mention being wired for charging the trailer battery. The wire set DOES charge the trailer battery and DOES NOT include a backup light connection (I jury rigged wiring to the backup lights myself).

Sooooooo ... I saved between a lot of cash doing the work myself but I also enjoy this kind of thing (and besides its such a "bonding" experience to be lying on your back under your new truck with your wife at your side).

 

We self installed our Honda OEM hitch. We have backup lights and battery charging without and jerry rigging.

The wire bundle locations were a pain from the bumper and under the dash.

There are some detailed suggestions if you want to tackle this job yourself elsewhere in this forum. I can answer specific questions or provide photos of the install process if you want to PM me.

 

What I'm concerned with is will it tow a 3500 pound boat up a mountain? Can the engine/truck keep pace with traffic (i.e. 60mph at least)? What type of draw back if pulling a boat at that weight and having a bunch of camping gear in the bed? Other besides that this looks to be a great truck! Cant wait to test drive.

I can't say what another 500 to 1000 pounds will do, but we just towed our 2500 pound tent trailer with all our camping luxuries over 600 miles. We went 65+ in all the areas that allowed that speed with no problem. We had some long uphill grades combined with headwinds and it was a breeze. No more filing behind the slow semi trucks for us!

 

We self installed our Honda OEM hitch. We have backup lights and battery charging without and jerry rigging.

Have you actually checked for power at the backup lights pin on the trailer plug? I find this very confusing - I had to go as far as to install a male connector inside of the plug to attach the backup light wire to.

Norm

 

No, I haven't checked the pin unit, but we always do a light check before each leg of our trips. All our lights are working.

 

Here is a photo of the Ridgeline towing a 4700# boat/trailer (axel weight). I wanted to get a photo going down the freeway but my wife refused to stand on the front bumper while we were underway. I have no trouble towing at 60- 65 mph but its very hard on the gas mileage (not surprizing or unexpected).

 

Nice shot, Norm. Can you and your wife step that mast yourselves?

 

Most people who own this model boat use a lever system that makes it very easy (we plan to get one when we get "old and weak"). We were in the habit of stepping a similar mast on our previous boat and find it much faster to just have the two of us muscle it up (its light enough that I can do it alone but not somethng I chose/care to do very often).

 

Ok, so we are told it has a 5000# towing capacity. There is a camping trailer that my wife and I REALLY want to buy that is 7000# and sits on a 2" hitch ball.

Does the 5000# capacity mean that we cannot tow that trailer?

Sorry to be a moron, but im new to towing. Never pulled anything bigger than a motorcycle, and this is my first truck

 

Don't do it. Get a more powerful vehicle if you are intent on that size trailer. You will just aggravate yourself and pound a good truck into the ground. There may also be some safety problems that others on this website are more informed about than I am.

It's much better to tow a bit under the recommendation. Remember that you may add to the weight with passengers and you will certainly add to the weight with gear.

 

Another factor is suspension. In Norm's photo at the top it appears that the rear of his vehicle is being pulled down some by the weight. It may appear worse than it actually is because it looks as though the photo is taken from an uphill position. In contrast, look at the levelness of the Ridge in the photo I posted when we hitched to our tent trailer.

http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=857

Norm's truck is about twice as heavy as our trailer. The Ridge is built to handle the weight of Norm's boat. If you were to add another 2300 #s onto that you would be pulling the rear down to the same extent as stacking our trailer onto Norm's boat.

Our Trooper was rated to tow about 3500 #s, if I remember right. When we hitched to it, the rear dipped dramatically even after putting on stronger shocks. It also powered out on hills and we had to fall in behind the slow semis.

With the Ridge we are able to whiz along at freeway speeds. The Rigde was built to easily handle our size trailer and it rides so much better when towing than the Trooper could.

The weight recommendations are there for a reason. It's my advice that you abide by them.

 

Dropping the rear end has more to do with tongue weight than gross weight of the trailer. That said - the tongue weight of the boat trailer in the photo is between 3 and 400 lbs and drops the back of the truck about 3 or 4 inches. (Just stand a couple people on the rear bumper and you will get the gneral idea.) In the photo the nose up is somewhat exagerated by the angle of the road and the camera. On the road I don't notice it - I do notice a bit of hobby horse bouncing that might be decreased if I change the tongue weight a bit (by moving the bow stop fore or aft a few inches).

Back to the question about the travel trailer - do consider aerodynamics. A lot of travel trailers are big boxes on wheels. You will be over the recommended towing capacity AND you will be pulling a big box through the air. This has been our motivation for keeping our tent trailer up to now but as we look to bigger travel trailers we are looking at the ultralight fiberglass models (eg: Scamp, Burro, and Escape brands). If you get the 7000# trailer then you should really consider a larger towing vehicle if you plan on going any distance with any frequency.

 

It should also be noted that the 2" ball Honda sells for its hitch is only rated for 6000lbs. Exceeding the weight of the ball could be more dangerous than exceeding the capacity of the vehicle because although you may destroy your engine towing something over capacy you aren't likely to lose the trailer, if you exeed the capacity of the ball you can snap it off. I would guess that the entire hitch isn't rated for anything beyond 6000lb.

 

Thanks for all the advice. Didnt know how literally to take the weight limits or how tongue weight factored in and such.

I'll definately look into those fiberglass lighter trailers.

Yeah, the one i was looking at was more or less a big box on wheels. Very good friend of the family just upgraded to a fifth-wheel trailer and was making us a killer deal on their old one.

 

We went to a local dealer recently and rented an Aljo Lite for the weekend. The weight is well within the Ridge's limit, unloaded weight listed at 3250 lbs; starting out and accelerating were no problem.

The problem comes when you get up to highway speeds. Plain and simple, the Ridge has enough horsepower to get the travel trailer up to speed. What it doesn't have is enough torque to maintain highway speeds in top gear pulling that big flat windblock. You'll be running in 3rd or 4th on the level (depending on headwind) and 2nd or 3rd up any kind of grade. And you'll find you're getting maybe 8 mpg, so plan gas stops accordingly. And when you're done, be ready to be a little surprised when your oil change reminder comes on early.

If you're set on a hard-wall camping trailer, I'd recommend a Hi-Lo or a TrailManor. Unfortunately (for me), a 25ft or better toyhauler is out of the question, way too tall and not streamlined.

Has anyone given any thought to building some kind of air dam/wind deflector to go from the top of the cab up to the roof level of a trailer like some tractor trailers have? Or make a V-nose air deflector?

 

towed about 550kms at variuos speeds up to 145km/h on hwy and city streets up and down hills( electric brakes)
very happy with its towing capacity!!!!!


http://www.ridgeliner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=183

i got more pics, but this site claims they are too big to upload!!
if anyone want i can email some pics!!