Can you take the Honda Ridgeline to the trails and expect it to perform for you? This is a tough question to answer.
The Ridgeline has been a truck that’s made to be more comfortable than any other midsize truck in its class. The unibody construction brings a drive that feels more like a smooth SUV than a truck when you’re behind the wheel and on the road.
Standard AWD at Your Fingertips
When it comes to items that can be great for off-roading, AWD is somewhere on the list. Not considered as off-road-capable as a traditional 4WD layout, every version of the Ridgeline is equipped with torque-vectoring AWD to push up to seventy percent of the power to the rear wheels, which makes the drive on light and medium trails much more of a reality for you than if you had a truck that wasn’t equipped with this system.
Various Settings in the Honda Ridgeline
If you choose to take this truck out on the trails, you could be faced with various surfaces and need to change the settings of the truck to handle your drive. The Intelligent Traction Dynamics System offers you Snow, Mud, Sand, and Normal modes to adjust the transmission shift points, throttle response, torque distribution, and traction control settings for the Ridgeline when you drive.
A New Trailsport Model is On the Way
We don’t know exactly when we will see it, but Honda filed for the Trailsport trademark over a year ago and we expect them to use their new logo for the Ridgeline to give us more off-roading features. The Honda Performance Development (HPD) team has been hard at work to figure out what needs to be changed to give Ridgeline drivers the added capability desired.
The good and the bad of this upgrade are interesting. The bade part is the Ridgeline is too far into the production cycle to add a new suspension without re-engineering the rest of the truck. This doesn’t mean the future of the Ridgeline won’t add the items you need to be able to handle the hardcore trails. It might not be long before you can see this truck taking on some of the other off-road versions from competitors.
What Do We See in the Current Honda Ridgeline?
While we wait for the Trailsport model of the Ridgeline to become a reality, you can enjoy the drive any of the four trims of this truck currently offer. All four have the standard AWD system mentioned, which means you don’t have to stay between the lines to have the drive you want to enjoy. Let’s take a look at these four trims.
Sport
The Sport trim is the base model and it gives you the starting package you want to enjoy. This model has the Honda Sensing suite of safety features, 18-inch alloy wheels, tri-zone automatic climate controls, an eight-inch touchscreen, a dual-action tailgate, an in-bed trunk, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto. You can have everything you want with this base version of the Honda Ridgeline.
RTL
The next stop along the trims of the Ridgeline is the RTL trim. This model upgrades the features and qualities you want with leather upholstery, a power moonroof, an acoustic windshield, a power driver’s seat, heated front seats, and a power-sliding rear window. These items add more comfort to your truck to offer you more of the features you’re after.
RTL-E
Third in the lineup for the Honda Ridgeline, is the RTL-E trim. This model adds more technology to your drive with blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alerts, LED daytime running lights, heated side mirrors, a heated steering wheel, front and rear parking sensors, a 540-watt audio system, a truck-bed audio system, and automatic high beams. You can truly have a lot of fun when you let this version of the Ridgeline be the truck you take home.
Black Edition
Specialized items are added to this Honda to give you the Black Edition trim. You’ll have special exterior trim, leather upholstery, 18-inch alloy wheels, and red ambient LED cabin lighting to give you a special look for the truck you love to show off and drive.
More is Coming for the Honda Ridgeline
The Trailsport model is on the way, but for now, you can head out on the light and medium trails in your Honda Ridgeline and pull up to 5,000 pounds with the strong V6 engine that’s found under the hood. This is a truck that brings comfort and capability to your driving experience every day. Check it out in person at your local Honda dealer and see if it’s the right light-duty pickup for you.
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