Questions on towing vehicle / TM model years

Just joined to thank all of the great participants in this thread. It was really timely and very informative. We also have a 2005 MDX and live at 8.850 ft in Colorado. It is our second MDX because we were so pleased with the first one which now has 135,000 miles on it and has not had a minute's problem. The main criteria my wife put on buying an RV was it had to be one we could use with the MDX. She does not like pulling our 5th wheel and traveling in our pickup. After all of the great information on this site we made an offer on a used 3023 today. We can live with slowing down on the mountain passes which are usually only 4 to 5 miles of steep grades.
Incidently, part of the horsepower loss is compensated by the lower drag from less dense air. I routinely get 2 to 3 mpg better mileage in the mountains than when we travel in the plains. Furthermore the lower compression performs fine with regular fuel avoiding another expense.
If we get the TM I will report on performance in the rocky's.

I also live in Colorado and have an MDX. We're looking to buy a 3023 (hopefully a few years old) and are about to install a tow package. We plan on doing most of our camping in the Rockies. Any comments/advice would be helpful. Specifically: Did you install the Acura tow package? If not, what hitch set up did you use? What type of weight distribution bars, if any, did you install? I have also heard that the power steering cooler is not necessary.

Thanks,
Janet

[fcatwo]

Janet

On the power steering cooler: I installed the Honda tow package on our 2002 Odyssey and noticed that the origional equipment power steering cooler was longer and would possibly have interferred with installation of the Honda transmission cooler if not replaced by the shorter "finned" power steering cooler. The instructions that came with the tow package called for replacing the power steering cooler before installing the transmission cooler so I did not verify that this was the case however. My suspicion is that you may need both of the new coolers if you go with the Acura/Honda tow package and they have not changed it's components since 2002.

Have you ever found yourself stuck behind a 15 wheeler at 10MPH climbing a long hill? Or a motorhome?
ever see a garden tractor with 10 weak horses move a twenty ton load? Or strong man competition with a single man pulling a 16 wheeler? Hill climbing is a function of power and gearing. With automatics, the gearing is durn near infinite. In 1968 I moved a 26,000 pound mobile home from South Florida with an old Chevy 1 1/2 ton. It had 4 gears and a 250Cu. in. (4.2 liter) 6 cylinder 100 hp engine. On the level roads of Florida I could maintain the legal limit of 45MPH. We went up the old 2 lane road north out of Chattanooga at 5 MPH (in super low)(I am sure at the irritation of many other drivers.) The point is your Acura will darn near pull the tongue out of a TM by comparison.

Sure you can pull it. An extra transmission cooler would be nice. Sure you will not go up long hills like nothing is behind you. Sure you might want to take the big truck tack coming down hills ( gear down and use the trailer brake to keep your speed down). the big thing I would do is make sure you have enough tire capacity for the increased weight on the vehicle.

But then I am not going to tell the dealer how much I have been towing if anything breaks under warrenty. And I am content to cruise 70 on flat land and ease off a bit in the mountains - up or down.

Cheers

IMNTs2 Page

What an interesting thread this has been. A total of 13 different individuals posted, with seven contributing several times! Numerous posts were exceptional (Denny A in particular) and one post quite entertaining (imnts2). Bravo!!

This post started with a question about the Acura MDX and its ability to tow a 2720SL. Jim-NY compared the Acura with his Honda Ridgeline since both have the same 3.5 high performance V6 engine. Jim-NY's Ridgeline tows a 2720SL.

We also have a '06 Honda Ridgeline truck, but we tow the longer and heaver 3326K. So, I thought you all would be interested in knowing how this combination is working out.

With three trips and a total of 2400 miles towing, the Ridgeline and 3326K combination has worked out beautifully. We have traveled on many steep and long inclines, but our travels have not yet required us to cross high elevations. Given the Ridgeline's torque rating, slowing down will likely be necessary on the few really high mountain passes in this great USA. Having said that, the Ridgeline is a sensible and outstanding everyday ride as well as a very capable tow vehicle. Maximum torque is available over an exceptionally wide range of engine speeds (3,500 rpm to 4,500 rpm), which makes you think in highway passing situations there's a V8 under the hood. In towing our TM we have had absolutely no problem in keeping up with traffic. The Ridgeline has been suprisingly capable at passing large trucks doing 65 to 70 mph. Its 5-speed automatic with grade logic will drop down a gear without any input from the driver, thus reducing the dreaded "searching" common in less refined automatics.

This is one tough truck, and it rides beautifully--with and without the 3326K TrailManor.

[fcatwo]

Dixielou

Thanks for the interesting report. Do you tow in 5th gear or 3rd with your 3326? Our Odyssey owners manual said to use 5th unless the transmission hunts and I'm wondering what they recommend with the Ridgeline.

fcatwo,

In answer to your question, I tow our 3326K with the Ridgeline's shift lever in Drive (D), as per the Owner's Manual. This 5-speed transmission was specifically engineered for the Ridgeline. "....For driving through hilly terrain, the transmission's Grade Logic Control system monitors throttle position, vehicle speed, acceleration and deceleration to avoid gear hunting and excessive shifting...."

If you would like more technical information try this:

http://www.hondanews.com/catID2138?view=t&page=1

[fcatwo]

Dixielou

Thanks for the response and the link. I read the Ridgeline info with interest and agree with your assessment of the Honda/Acura 3.5 engine. I remember following another (non-Honda) minivan in our Odyssey once while pedal-to-metal passing a few slower cars on a two lane hwy and we were dead even in passing prowess -- the difference being that we were towing our TM and he was running solo. In fact, I don't see much difference in the towing performance of the Ody and our V-8 Tundra with our TM2619 on our normal runs which are all below 4500ft. There is a difference in how they do it however. The Ody shifted down and spun while the Tundra hunkers down and goes on over -- I do lock OD out on the Tundra. I was maxed out on GCWR with the stripped (no 2nd or 3rd row seats) Ody and equally stripped 2619 however while I would have to tow two 2619's to max out the Tundra GCWR.

It's also interesting to see that Honda doesn't include the "casual or weekend towing capability" caveat in the Ridgeling towing info section that they include with most of their other vehicles. That confirms that they are not just plopping the Ody transmission in the Ridgeline.

Since I started this thread way back when, I figured I should give an update:

So far, the MDX has been towing the 2720SL with no problems at all. The RPMs hardly ever get to 3000, and I've only lost about 2 MPG (at most) on the three trips I've taken so far. For most level, interstate driving, I leave it in 5th gear and let it use the overdrive ... when the terrain is a little more hilly, I back it down to 4th. Braking and accelerating have all worked as if the TM isn't even back there, and the subtle loss of MPG suggests that Denny was right on the money with the info he found about reduced drag.

As a matter of reference (just in case I didn't elaborate earlier in the thread), I had the Acura factory tow package installed -- with both transmission and power steering coolers -- and use a Reese 750-lbs. WDH. with 2 links dropped (used to be 3 links, but I seem to get better MPG with only 2).

I just can't say enough about the MDX and its power. I was quite worried in the beginning whether it would make out to be a good tow vehicle, but boy, has it really worked out.

Many thanks again to all who helped along the way!! We're *really* enjoying our TM, and doubt that I'd have made the purchase were it not for the kind folks here on the board to educate me on all the finer points of ownership.

- Mark

Am looking at all the back and forth on towing in this incredibly informative forum site and seeing nothing on virtues/drawbacks of front v. rear wheel drives in discussions about the ins and outs of mini vans and small SUVs. For ex., I suspect that the Honda Pilot puts the vehicle into FWD when it's not in the AWD mode. Intuitively, one would think that RWD is the way to go for trailors, but mileage and handling espec in snow or rain favor FWD. Can I get away with FWD if I don't want to pay the extra bucks (and MPGs) for AWD? My sense is "yes," given high praise of Dodge Caravan I've seen in these pages, but given the fact that I'm pushing it with the idea of towing a 3023 with a Honda Pilot, I'm wondering if in fact I shouldn't be so cheap and go with the AWD. Many Thanks.