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Originally Posted by Adrenalin Rush
I hope you don’t mind, but I see there are folks here offering in depth answers to TV questions. I have never towed anything serious before and want to make sure I am not getting into trouble. I bought a new Honda Ridgeline pickup and now I plan to buy a 3124KS or 3326 King to pull behind it. I want to be able to handle mountains, but only on occasion, so slow would be OK, I guess. Maybe someone can give me an idea just how slow it would be!
My biggest question is …generally, am I going to be OK, or do I need to go with a smaller trailer?
Here is some data on my truck:
3.5 L V6; 255hp at 5750 rpm; 252 lb.–ft. at 4500 rpm; 5 spd auto; gear ratios - 1st = 2.693, 2nd = 1.566, 3rd =1.023, 4th = 0.729, 5th = 0.531; Final Drive = 4.533; 6050 lb. = GVWR; 10,085 lb. = GCWR; 5000 lb. = Towing Capacity; 1550 lb. = Total Payload Capacity; 122” = wheelbase; track = 67”; curb weight = 4500 (58%F/42%R).
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Sorry for being a bit tardy in chiming in on this one...just got back from a 1000 mile trip that included 850 miles of serious mountain towing across Colorado's steep and high altitude roads. So I have lots of recent experience.
As Bill noted, I'm pretty busy so will try to cut directly to the chase here. As you've now discovered, the Ridgeline is adequate for carrrying a moderate load
or for towing a lightweight trailer but is not really capable of doing both. It has neither the structural strength (part of why they tell you not to use a WDH) nor does it have the mid-RPM torque to do it.
Honda was clearly desperate to get into the exceedingly profitable half-ton truck market and did what they could for a driveline with what they had in their parts bins. Horsepower is useless for towing...you must use the maximum torque numbers. And while the max torque of 252 ft-lbs is theoretically adequate for towing, it's being generated at a screaming 4500 RPM. With a 4.53 axle ratio...and running the transmission in 3rd gear with OD locked out, you'll be turning about 3300 RPM at 65 mph. Although 3300 RPM is high enough to produce a lot of noise in the cab, it's still way, way below peak torque RPM. So, even at sea level, I rather doubt you'll have much more than 180 ft-lbs to work with at the fastest highway speeds you should be towing at. And if you drop down to about 50-55 mph, you'll only have about 150 ft-lbs.
Climb up to 11,000 feet and you'll only have 60% of that (the torque loss is more like 3.5% than 2% per thousand feet of elevation once you get over 4000 feet or so). I consider 300 ft-lbs (at a reasonable RPM of 3000 or lower) to be the minimum for "adequate" high mountain towing.
What those torque numbers mean to me is on
flat, low elevation roads (midwest, Gulf coast), the Ridgeline would tow a 3600 lb trailer (loaded weight) adequately if you had 2 to 3 people in the cab and not much cargo in the bed. You won't have any spare power for passing though so avoid 2 lane highways.
But even with the lightest TM...and very little load in the cab, you will be down to about 15 to 20 mph when climbing the high and steep passes of the central Rockies (Colorado, Utah) or the Sierra Nevada and you would be at that slow speed with the engine
screaming at 4000 RPM in 1st or 2nd gear
continuously for as long as an hour. Keep in mind that even Interstate 70 across Colorado reaches elevations of 11,100 feet and has nearly 20 miles of 7% grades at elevations above 9,000 feet. The secondary highways sometimes have grades of greater than 10% at those high altitudes. The truck (and your nervous system ) might stand that kind of abuse one time but its longevity would be greatly shortened if you did this repeatedly.
As for the apparently minor difference in published weight between a 2619 and 3326, please keep in mind those are empty weights...no options, no consumables (water, propane) and especially no "stuff". One of the big differences between a 2619 and a 3326 is the larger trailer has enormously greater storage for "stuff"...and if you're going on a 3 week trip with 3 to 4 people, there will be a plenty of "stuff" (which always expands to fill every available storage area). The net result is a loaded for camping and well optioned 2619 (e.g. AC, spare tire, awning, overhead cabinet) will probably weigh around 3600 lbs whereas a similarly well optioned and fully loaded 3326 will weigh right around 5000 lbs.
The bottom line is that you need to think in terms of a 2619 or 2720 in terms of trailer size (preferably lightly optioned...i.e. no awning)...and travel with it lightly loaded. And if you're thinking of crossing the high Rockies of Colorado, you better be thinking driver and one passenger, not much cargo in the truck or trailer, speeds down around 25 mph for extended periods (30 to 60 minutes at a time), and making your mountain crossings in the cool air of the early morning, etc. Crossing the lower Rockies (Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico) will still be challenging but not quite as bad.