Built Honda Tough

To prove the Ridgeline's "medium duty" worthiness, Honda hauled our motley crew of media types out to Vessels Ranch, about 40 miles north of San Diego. In addition to feeding us ranch delicacies such as barbecue and chocolate chip macadamia cookies, we were given the opportunity to drive the Ridgeline around a 3.2 mile offroad demonstration course. Here we spent the afternoon beating a trio of pre-production Ridgelines like rented mules. The course featured two stream crossings, a series of fairly severe hill climbs, a Ridgeline crossing, and a number of other features designed to showcase the Ridgeline's talents. To make it more interesting, rainfall earlier in the week provided "variable" conditions in the track's surface, ranging from semi-crusty, yet still slimy rutted areas to straight up mud bogs.

Honda is quick to point out that the Ridgeline is not designed for the gonzo, extreme offroading type. It was determined during the market research phase that only a small fraction of the core market of pickup owners ever ventures offroad, and when they do, they usually stay on existing pathways or fire roads - perhaps on their way to a remote camping site or a favorite hunting/fishing location. Or even better for Honda's bottom line, maybe they are carrying a Honda ATV or Honda dirtbikes to their favorite offroad trails. As such, this course was meant to show that the Ridgeline is a very competent offroad performer if the need arises.

For the most part, the Ridgeline had no problem with the most challenging segments of this course, but there were sections where it performed better with VSA (Vehicle Stability Assist) disabled, and a few spots where VTM-Lock was able to quickly justify its existence. For the most part, leaving VSA in the default (active) setting is the best policy, but there are some extreme cases where you might find it better to disable the VSA system. One such case was on a particularly challenging portion of the hillclimb, Here, the surface was rutted and slippery to the point where the resulting wheelspin would cause VSA to pretty much shut down forward progress. A second attempt with VSA disabled was a complete success. If you really wanted to make quick work of an especially slippery challenge, enabling the VTM-Lock makes things even easier, though it disables itself at speeds above 18mph and only functions when the transmission selector is in 1st, 2nd, or Reverse.

The latter part of the course was designed to highlight the Ridgeline's handling and chassis stiffness. A series of twisty turns on relatively flat ground permitted some exploration of the Ridgeline's offroad handling envelope. With the right combination of steering, braking, and throttle input, you could actually effect a very mild oversteering attitude around some of these turns, even with VSA active, but generally it was pretty neutral, with an overall tendency towards understeer. The relatively short, yet wide platform that the Ridgeline sits on creates a strong sense of stability, yet at the same time, it's extremely nimble for a truck that tips the scales at over 4500lb (2000kg). As I negotiated this series of turns as quickly as possible, I noticed how natural the steering felt, making it very easy to point the truck exactly where you wanted to go, even under full throttle. It was no problem twirling the wheel to nearly full lock and then allowing it to naturally unwind as the vehicle accelerated out of some of the tighter turns. Disabling the VSA system allows for more direct control of the vehicle's cornering attitude, but I couldn't help but wonder how much more fun it would be with SH-AWD or even the ability to force more torque to the rear axle (I'm thinking of the adjustable center diff on the WRX STi) to make oversteer more readily available. At the same time, I'm quite sure those thoughts would place me comfortably in the minority of Ridgeline intenders.

While the climbing portions of the course were pretty steep (at 28 degrees, or 53%), the layout did not feature any sort of severe descents, so it's diffucult to say whether the drivetrain would provide sufficient engine braking or not. There is no low range function, and the gearing itself seems fairly tall, so this may be something to consider if your offroading plans include steep descents. As for the brakes themselves, the 4-channel ABS system (with EBD) wasn't even remotely challenged in the low friction environment of the test course, but when they were called into action, they provided good feel and were easy to modulate.

It was easy to sense the the Ridgeline's superb overall rigidity pretty much everywhere on the course, but the very last segment of the course was designed to illustrate its granite-like torsional stiffness. A set of moguls was arranged such that the Ridgeline's suspension was sent to full compression and extension on opposite corners, leaving one of the four wheels several feet above terra firma at any given moment. From behind the wheel there was absolutely no sensation of any sort of chassis flex or twist. It was difficult to even sense that any of the wheels were becoming separated from earth. I would have liked to have tried this same section in one of the competing body on frame vehicles, but unfortunately they were only offered for "on road" benchmarking.

Tough Bed

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Objectives Met

In summary, while the Ridgeline may not have everything that a serious offroader might be looking for, it should comfortably exceed the off pavement needs of most truck buyers and should also be more than rugged enough to provide years of fairly demanding use.