I have nothing against Honda specifically, my wife has an '07 Civic EX, and it's a fine car. The Ridgeline however, is one ugly failure from Honda as far as I'm concerned.

 

Does anyone else see the humor in a thread, designed to stir the poop on a pick-up site, being started
under a screen name taken from the guy who stabbed himself 6 times... and still couldn't get it right?

 

Unfortunately uni-body offers the most advantage on a vehicle with a boxy body. That's because it get's it rigidity advantage by taking advantage of the inherent rigidity of a three dimensional box-like structure. A pickup is not the ideal shape to utilize this considering the bed must remain open at the back and top to carry tall objects so pick-ups work best with a body on frame design. A ladder type frame such as that used on our trucks is easy to make very strong but difficult to make very rigid. They are inherently flexy and that can contribute to and 'feed' trailer sway oscillations. More tongue weight can help, but not cure, this phenomenen. The Ridgeline has a short bed and exaggerated bed sides and a very low tow rating, it's not a real pick-up. I think pick-ups should remain body on frame and manufacturers have worked hard to increase the rigidity of the ladder frames. Modern truck frames have cross-frames that arch higher than previously used cross-frames.


But that is not to say there are not towing advantages to unibody vehicles if they have an appropriate form factor. For example, the VW Touareg is well known to be a fantastic tow vehicle right up to it's rated 7700 lbs. even though many believed it's wheelbase was too short to be stable towing such loads at speed. However, it has since proven itself to be a sure footed tow vehicle even at higher speeds with larger trailers. That's because it is very rigid and doesn't feed energy into trailer sway oscillations. The very rigid unibody chassis can transfer the trailer sway energy directly into the suspension dampers to stop oscillations before they become problematic. And that is why it often highly praised by those who have experience towing with more traditional tow vehicles that have body on frame designs.

But real pick-up trucks should continue to use body on frame designs because of the open bed that does not lend itself to a rigid unibody design.

 

I wouldn't do that if I were you..

 

theres no way that unibody would hold a ****ing camper.

 

a ridgeline is not a truck...look under the hood of a Ridgeline not only is it a unibody, ITS GOT A TRANSVERSE MOUNTED ENGINE AND A TRANSAXLE! guess what your trucks primary drive is the front wheels!

 

^ x2

 

agreed, I wouldnt be making nasty remarks calling him G.I. Joe not a way to make a first impression on the site.

 

Truck = Body on Frame


. <----- period!

 

My F150 pukes up ridgelines all morning as it goes to work after hanging in the bars all nite drinking straight shots. And it still gets the job done.

Can that ridgeline even handle straight gas? Or does it need to be milked down?!

 

 

best be trollin

 

you mean '61-'63 with '63 being the split year, like '65 and the twin I-beam suspension

they still had a ladder frame...

 

fixed it for you...

 

I smell a GDR rat or two ...