You'll probably be fine, especially when it comes to safety, but may not be 100% happy with the performance of your TV if you are towing close to capacity. You may find that your trailer tops out a little higher than 4200#, but unless you carry a lot of extra stuff, you probably won't go over 5000#. Be careful about tongue weight when the trailer is loaded, though, so that you don't exceed your payload capacity. (This statement true especially if you have a large family or carry a lot of stuff in your TV.)
Knowlton - Thanks safety is my #1 concern. Also, I do not want to kill my Ridge's tranny or anything. I don't care about racing out to the campground. When going camping I plan to take my time and not be on any schedule!!
Mainly want to be safe and not hurt my TV as I love this Ridge..... it has been a great truck so far!!!! It has far exceeded my expectations thus far.
Dry weight is pure fiction designed for salesmen to sell you a trailer you shouldn't tow. Vehicle empty weight (including Roo accessories like the spare tire!) runs about 350 pounds more.
3168 + 350 = 3518. 3510 sounds right to me.
I want a minimum of 1000 pounds cushion over trailer travel weight (for passengers and cargo in the vehicle) and think 2000 pounds is better. But, as long as you don't exceed the 5000 pound maximum towing capacity (including cargo and passengers in the lil truck) you're all right.
Pushing maximums is still within specs.
You'll pushing maximums. Hard.
-- Chuck
'06 Roo 23SS behind '07 Expedition out of Cleveland Our Photo pages
You should be ok. Lock out overdrive when towing. On steep hills don't feel bad about slowing down and downshifting. And I'd recommend a good weight-distributing, anti-sway hitch like the Equal-i-zer or Reese Dual Cam.
Mike & Sherry
2000 Mercury Mountaineer
2008 Toyota Highlander
2005 Rockwood 2304s
= Equal-i-zer hitch =
I think you'll be fine with your Honda. They're tough trucks. I have an '07 Toyota Tundra and it gets 16 MPG towing my Roo and 19 MPG all the time otherwise. It's all in how you drive it. Those 6 cylinders have lots of torque. Good luck with your new camper.
I know it is a different truck, but I run a Roo19 with a Nissan Frontier. Most of the time we are loaded to the gills with bikes and boats, etc. You are not going to win any races out of the gate and you definitely have the right idea that it is a slow cruise to the campground. All of the trips that I take start with a 20 mile climb up into the Sierras and the 6-cylinder handles it just fine. I even pass 1-2 trucks on the way up. You will be fine, but do take the advice to get a sway bar/ distribution hitch. It takes out some occasional white knuckle factor.
Greg
Greg, Becky, Jack and Ella (kids), Sam and Lilah (dogs)
2005 Nissan Frontier
2008 Roo 19
I have an '06 Ridgeline (and love it). Here are my thoughts.
Take a look at the table in the towing section of the manual, that shows how towing capacity varies with the number of people or amount of cargo in the truck. In my case, with about 700 pounds of people and dogs, it's 4100 lbs.
I used to have a TT with a GVWR of 4800, that weighed ~4000 ready to travel. We traded it for a much lighter Starcraft XP 18RB for 2 reasons: (1) No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the tongue weight down below 550, which was just too much. That was a showstopper for me. (2) Even empty, and with an Equal-i-zer hitch, it was a handful in windy conditions, and was more than I wanted to tackle for my first camping trailer tow.
I am much, much happier with the Starcraft behind the Ridge; it's like they were made for each other. Having half a ton less weight (3000-3100 ready to go, GVWR of 3500) made all the difference.
Whatever you pull, I super-strongly recommend a sway-control hitch like the Equal-i-zer.
True, but this is also a paper figure since most of the auto manufacturers understate their capabilities by a margin of real world experience.
Chuck, you used to tow your rig with an Expy, and like my Expy did with my old 19' trail-lite, it did the job. While I wasn't setting any landspeed records I never felt any saftey concerns under 65 mph. You just need to keep in mind that your near your auto manufacturers legal advisors set limit, so if something does happen you won't have much of a case against them.
Enjoy your rig, you should be fine, besides you'll see more of the country at 55 then at 75+ mph like some of the maniacs brag about doing on here. Life is short enough and from what I've seen most campgrounds aren't going anywhere faster then you can get there
P.S. Invest in a good hitch with built in sway control.
Today is the only day that you can use to take steps towards the great future you see. Yesterday is gone forever and tomorrow never comes, it’s always today.
2007 Dodge RAM
2007 Jayco 26L
1 DW
2 DS
1 Sheena the wonder dog
Ditto on the Avalanche ---but I think your worried too much--you're with in the limits--just dont fill your water tank--that is one way to avoid a lot of weight--and it's not like you're gonna do cross country--heck, seen people tow stuff with mini vans and litte Blazers etc and they are way over their limits--you just pray they don't get themselves into a pickle and take some innocent person with them--at least you are concerned about it, so you must try to do things safely-so git on down the road with it!--oh yeah and if the tranny should go on the Ridge I'll swear to Honda you don't tow nuthin
05 Trail Bay 27DS
07 Tundra SR5 4.7
00 Harley Electra Glide (My Baby)
07 Civic for cheap gas
Margarita machine---nothing better then sittin in the shade on a hot day sippin a Margie!
I pushed maximums -- hard -- when I was towing my Roo 23SS with my Explorer.
Which is the reason for my comment "Pushing maximums is still within spec."
But flogging the poor beast cross compartment on two lane roads in the Finger Lakes region of New York reaffirmed my maxim that ya need more than spec to be comfortable.
1000 Pound Rule says ya need 1000 pounds more towing capacity than the trailer weighs to support the weight of passengers and cargo in the truck.
One Ton Rule says you'll really be much happier with a ton more capacity.
I applied the One Ton Rule wheh I bought my 5500 pound rated Explorer to tow a 3500 pound popup and upgraded capacity by buying a 9000 pound rated Expedition for the Roo 23SS. To be sure, I got by at max specs with the Explorer for two seasons, but was never happy.
My daughters drive-to-high-school Rodeo didn't seem reliable enough for the task of drive-to-college, and the Explorer was uncomfortable with the trailer, so the solution was a F150 or a V8 Expedition. With the special order HD trailer tow package we how have 9000 pounds of grunt.
The Roo 183 - Pilot combination is pushing maximums, but pushing maximums is still within specs.
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---but I think your worried too much--you're with in the limits--just dont fill your water tank--that is one way to avoid a lot of weight--and it's not like you're gonna do cross country--heck, seen people tow stuff with mini vans and litte Blazers etc and they are way over their limits--you just pray they don't get themselves into a pickle and take some innocent person with them--at least you are concerned about it, so you must try to do things safely-so git on down the road with it!--oh yeah and if the tranny should go on the Ridge I'll swear to Honda you don't tow nuthin
-- when I was towing my Roo 23SS with my Explorer. 
