Honda Ridgeline and an Oliver Legacy 23

[Kip in Ga.]

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

Best practices are changing as transmissions and transmission control software become more sophisticated. Best to consult the owner's manual for your vehicle.

ABSOLUTELY!!
The owners manual for our 09 Ridgeline says to tow in "Drive". And, that to tow with OD disabled could cause the tranny to overheat. But disable overdrive on steep declines, to take advantage of engine braking.

Problem with the G1 Ridgelines is than when OD is disabled the tranny drops to 3rd gear. In reality, in normal driving it rarely goes to 3rd in these N.Georgia rolling hills. It does shift back and forth between 4th and 5th.

I normally set the cruse control at 58-60 and let the tranny decide the gear it needs. Of course there are times when disabling OD seems like the best thing to do if searching between 3 and 4 is prevalent. .

Very level terrain as in Florida or much of Kentucky with no headwind will yield 16-18 mpg towing the Casita SD17.
Reasonably level terrain will yield 14-16 mpg . But throw in more challenging terrain and 12-13 is the order of the day.

We enjoy the Ridgeline due to it's excellent Ride and good fuel mileage of 23-25 on trips at 62-65 mph. And 17-19 locally. Not many AWD P/Us will do that.

Only about 10% is towing. If it was a lot more or the trips were really long we would have a full size V8 (Gas) P/U.

No way in the world would I care to tow much more than 3000-3200 Lbs of trailer with our G1 Ridgeline. . Unless I was restricting towing to a flat state!

"just because we can do something, doesn't necessarily mean we should".

I prefer a healthy margin of reserve power.


k

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Raspy

The devil is in the details.

So many times people ask if their vehicle will tow a certain trailer. They may have never towed before, are not aware if their trailer has brakes or not, no idea if they have a brake controller, no idea how old the tires are and no idea about proper weight distribution, sway control, or tongue weight.

If a rig is set up correctly and towed carefully, it's likely there will be no problem, even if the trailer weight is at the rated tow capacity. Those cases are of little concern.

The ones where everything is wrong and someone is telling them to "go for it", concern me.

Great post!
My first thought is for the prospective OP to read his owner's manual and consult his dealer.
I am beginning to suspect that people only bring the subject up to light other poster's hair on fire.

If the advice of the dealer/manufacturer isn't enough, the OP can always go straight to Wikipedia on his own.


As for the "go for it" crowd... No Worries!
For every one of them, there are thirty for whom
no TV is sufficient...But then "if you gotta ask".

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by floyd

As for the "go for it" crowd... No Worries!
For every one of them, there are thirty for whom ...
no TV is sufficient.

That’s me , I am proudly one of the thirty

[floyd]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

That’s me , I am proudly one of the thirty

Time for a Prevost.

[trainman]

Originally Posted by Kip in Ga.

ABSOLUTELY!!
The owners manual for our 09 Ridgeline says to tow in "Drive". And, that to tow with OD disabled could cause the tranny to overheat. But disable overdrive on steep declines, to take advantage of engine braking.

Problem with the G1 Ridgelines is than when OD is disabled the tranny drops to 3rd gear. In reality, in normal driving it rarely goes to 3rd in these N.Georgia rolling hills. It does shift back and forth between 4th and 5th.

I normally set the cruse control at 58-60 and let the tranny decide the gear it needs. Of course there are times when disabling OD seems like the best thing to do if searching between 3 and 4 is prevalent. .

Very level terrain as in Florida or much of Kentucky with no headwind will yield 16-18 mpg towing the Casita SD17.
Reasonably level terrain will yield 14-16 mpg . But throw in more challenging terrain and 12-13 is the order of the day.

We enjoy the Ridgeline due to it's excellent Ride and good fuel mileage of 23-25 on trips at 62-65 mph. And 17-19 locally. Not many AWD P/Us will do that.

Only about 10% is towing. If it was a lot more or the trips were really long we would have a full size V8 (Gas) P/U.

No way in the world would I care to tow much more than 3000-3200 Lbs of trailer with our G1 Ridgeline. . Unless I was restricting towing to a flat state!

"just because we can do something, doesn't necessarily mean we should".

I prefer a healthy margin of reserve power.


k

I owned a 2008 Ridgeline before we moved up to a 2017 Ridgeline and I can say that you must have one exceptional 2009 to get the fuel mileage that you get. Myself and three other friends who own Ridgeline's have never got that good of fuel mileage on there G1's. Now the G2 is a different story they do get around 5 miles per gallon better then the G1's. I think much has to do because of the 6 speed transmissions and I think the 2019's have the 10 speed transmission. All being said, the Ridgeline's do a very good job for towing trailers within there towing specs. Note the G2's do not have the transmission shifting problems that the G1's have, probably because of the 6-10 speed transmissions handle the trailer loads much better.

trainman

[Kip in Ga.]

Originally Posted by trainman

I owned a 2008 Ridgeline before we moved up to a 2017 Ridgeline and I can say that you must have one exceptional 2009 to get the fuel mileage that you get. Myself and three other friends who own Ridgeline's have never got that good of fuel mileage on there G1's. Now the G2 is a different story they do get around 5 miles per gallon better then the G1's. I think much has to do because of the 6 speed transmissions and I think the 2019's have the 10 speed transmission. All being said, the Ridgeline's do a very good job for towing trailers within there towing specs. Note the G2's do not have the transmission shifting problems that the G1's have, probably because of the 6-10 speed transmissions handle the trailer loads much better.

trainman

That is what it gets. I drive sensibly and use only top tier gasoline. I use 89 Octane when towing. I have friends with Ridgelines also. They moan and groan about their mileage.
But they drive a lot more aggressively than I do, and at higher speeds.

Yeah when not towing, if I drive 80 mph the mileage drops to 17-18. But at 62 it averages 24-26 depending on terrain and weather exceptions. And if I tow 65ish the mileages will drop 2-3 from above 58-60 mph posted above. .

These are calculated at the pump with a calculator. And that generally agrees with the slightly optimistic dash average.

Example: On one trip we camped at Cloudland Canyon State park in Ga. After setting up camp we decided to go to town several miles away. I reset the Trip B on the dash. For that trip to Trenton Ga. the average was 48mpg according to the dash.

k



PS: FWIW, the trip back up the mountain to the campground was closer to 9 mpg. Terrain can make a huge difference.