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Old 08-14-2012, 10:49 AM   #2
Bill
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
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The answer has at least two parts.

1. Pack up the TM as if you were getting ready to go on a camping trip. Whatever you would bring camping, load it up. Then go find a scale, and weigh the TM. If you can't find a scale at any of your local businesses, landfill, quarry, etc, go to catscale.com. Cat scales are everywhere, easy to use, and inexpensive. This process of loading and weighing is important. The 2900 pound weight that you found is the dry weight of the TM - it doesn't include any options such as the air conditioner or awning, and it doesn't include any of the "stuff" that you yourself will add, such as food, clothes, tools, camp chairs, TV, or any other cargo. Those things add weight surprisingly quickly.

2. Go to the Honda web site, find the specs for your particular Pilot (year, model, equipment, etc), and look up the towing capacity specification. You're thinking that it says 3500 pounds, but it may not actualy mean it. Look for an asterisk or a footnote, and determine what that asterisk or footnote means. For many/most vehicles, any weight that you put in the tow vehicle (including people and cargo) subtracts directly from the tow capacity. You need to see if this is true for your vehicle.

Many members of this board will tell you to go ahead, a 3500 pound rating is plenty, just take it easy and stay in flat country. And I think several of our members tow with a Pilot - have you checked the Towing Rigs part of the forum? At any rate, it is up to you to determine if you agree.

[Edit] I made a quick check of the Honda specs for the 2012 Pilot Touring. It appears to 2000 pounds capacity for the 2WD version, and 4500 pounds for the 4WD version. I'm not sure this makes sense to me, but 2000 pounds is not going to cut it, while 4500 pounds is pretty good. The specs for the 2011 say 3500 pounds for the 2WD - this makes more sense. And there is no asterisk/footnote on the page I am looking at ...

Bill
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