BAWC Forums

Aluminum framed truck? Pass.

[quote=""Jeff V.""]It's still a unibody truck based on the Odyssey minivan chassis. That line is just a rubber gasket. They technically could have made the whole side of the body out of one stamping, but they split it in two to make collision repair easier.

Making it look more 'truck like' was allegedly just a side effect. [/quote]

That's not completely true. Honda went thru and redesigned all of the front frames of all their vehicles to better improve collision force distribution. Hense the new front end design on the late model vehicles. The Ridgeline also got this same redesign.

It was actually market feedback which motivated the body line between the bed and cab. Engineers took advantage of this to improve collision safety/repair too.

[quote=""Silver""]Aluminum framed truck? Pass.[/quote]

It's not a heavy duty off roadster. Thankfully Honda doesn't try to market it as such.

Like Jeff said, it's a family street vehicle. With Facebook and all your social networking needs right at your finger tips.

Greg wrote:Honda went thru and redesigned all of the front frames of all their vehicles to better improve collision force distribution. Hense the new front end design on the late model vehicles.

I think you're talking about the pedestrian impact standards. I'm pretty sure it was Europe that was pushing for that. That's why so many cars have such upright front ends lately.

[quote=""Jeff V.""]I think you're talking about the pedestrian impact standards. I'm pretty sure it was Europe that was pushing for that. That's why so many cars have such upright front ends lately.[/quote]

Well... Yes but it's a lot more than that. It also helps distribute forces for objects that are lower than the vehicle like a small car or tree branch or whatever...

They call that the ACE body structure (advanced compatibility engineering).

I wouldn't dare tow 5k with a fwd based Honda.

Not that it couldn't do it... But that poor transmission...

[quote=""vr4""]I wouldn't dare tow 5k with a fwd based Honda.

Not that it couldn't do it... But that poor transmission...[/quote]

It's a longitudinal CVT.

Those style "AWD" systems that Honda has are pretty much garbage. Lots of testing was done to find that it almost never transferred power to the rear wheels just to keep gas mileage up. Some European place did the testing.

Greg wrote:It's a longitudinal CVT.

Uhh....



http://news.honda.com/newsandviews/arti ... id=8998-en

Need to take that back. Went out and looked at it.

Hopefully the AWD system has been improved.

http://teknikensvarld.se/honda-cr-v-4wd ... in-163708/

[quote=""Hans_GZP""]Hopefully the AWD system has been improved.

http://teknikensvarld.se/honda-cr-v-4wd ... in-163708/[/quote]

Not sure the AWD CVT which comes in most Hondas these days is the same from back then. Gives me something to look into!

[quote=""Monochrome""]Not sure the AWD CVT which comes in most Hondas these days is the same from back then. Gives me something to look into![/quote]

It's not a CVT in the Ridgeline, it's a standard 6-speed...

Aaron wrote:It's not a CVT in the Ridgeline, it's a standard 6-speed...

Doh! That info was right below the picture in the press release I linked

[quote=""Monochrome""]Not sure the AWD CVT which comes in most Hondas these days is the same from back then. Gives me something to look into![/quote]

Turns out Honda did some major improvements to the AWD systems for 2016. This applies to the Ridgeline and Pilot.

Ridgeline does come with a 6 speed manual and the Pilot comes with either a 6 speed or 9 speed depending on the trim.

For these two trucks, Honda engineered something they call the Intelligent Traction Management which is nothing more than a button which selects which mode you'd like the system to be in (road, snow, mud or sand). Very similar to what Mitsubishi uses in the EVO for the active center diff.

The AWD CR-V and HR-V (lower model cross overs) both come with the CVT (which isn't available in the Ridgeline or Pilot). Both vehicles are 4 cyl anyway.

It'd be interesting to see if those guys redo their test with this new system.

Early Colorado ZR2 details.

http://www.thedrive.com/news/6036/chevr ... l-versions

Front and rear lockers
MultiMatic spool valve suspension
Choice of 3.6L gas V6 or Duramax 4
Off-road oriented everything

They're already calling it a scaled down Raptor.

That thing looks awesome.

And those shocks look expensive

[quote=""Jeff V.""]

They're already calling it a scaled down Raptor.[/quote]

Raptor...

By far my favorite new truck right now.

https://youtu.be/5JTPbz-wWvc

What about a ZR2 Diesel?

So... 5 years later. Finally got a Diesel Truck that isn't HD (Heavy Duty).

Truck manufacturers are taking different approaches to the up coming fuel milage laws. Ford is making a Hybrid (and eventually all electric) 1/2 Ton pick up. Ram and GM created a smaller displacement diesel engine.

After driving all 3 and waiting long enough for the reviews to come in for all 3 trucks, I settled on the GMC Sierra EcoDiesel. The Elevation trim had all the options we needed.

The Honda Ridgeline served our needs just fine since it was new, but it seemed like once that truck hit 200K miles, literally everything started going to crap on it at once. Wheel bearings, starter, AC, brakes, suspension, steering rack, VTEC actuator, window motors, driver seat, stereo, oil leaks from all mechanical component, drive shafts, even the damn fuel filler hose started leaking.

After fixing all of that (filmed most of it for my YouTube channel), the truck STILL needed another $700 worth of parts just for things like the 200K tune up (timing belt, water/oil pump....).

The real kicker was our needs have grown for a full size pickup. Our camper got upgrades which increased it's tongue weight, we got a bigger horse trailer (that didn't have rust holes in the floor/roof), bigger flat trailer (we use for hauling feed/hay for our animals), plus I want to eventually get an enclosed trailer for hauling cars... That and we travel the country. So the need for just a larger truck with modern luxuries like Apple Car Play, integrated trailer TPMS/cameras, smarter trailer brake controller and better fuel mileage... Just didn't make sense to keep dumping money into the Honda anymore.

We were prepared to order one new from GM with just some basic options but thanks to the pandemic, there's a transistor shortage and manufactures have cut way back on production. Dealerships are taking advantage of this too and not offering incentives on any trucks. On top of that, all they stock are the top of the line trucks which were out of our budget and had way more BS in it than I care for.

People in the truck groups are all reporting the same thing. Truck order still pending after waiting 4+ months or they're just overpaying the dealerships for what they have...

We got really really lucky. Pick up this 2020 with 5K miles on it. Original owner only had it for 6 months then traded it in for the top of the line. This was after ordering 6K worth of extras for this truck like the electric popout running boards, rubber mats, and the X31 Off Road package. Which he then never took the truck off road... Didn't even tow with it... Hey whatever, right place, right time, right price.