Ridgeline Towing - Event Date: 27 Jan 2022 - 27 Mar 2022

The weight issue is not a function of how close to home to tow, but what conditions you encounter while towing.  A trip only 10 minutes from home can become a nightmare if you encounter very strong cross-winds while driving at highway speeds.  Whether it happens to you in FL or in NM, doesn't make any difference.  The most important thing to keep in mind is not how far you travel, but whether you are within the margin of safety for the limits of your TV and trailer.  If you plan on towing only on flat terrain, then mountin climbing will not be an issue, but high winds can occur in many places, so be aware of the weather where you'll tow and be prepared to wait if needed.  

Thanks for your reply.  We do not intend to tour the U.S.  We plan to travel light and I have weighed the trailer and we come up to less than 4,100 lbs while we are rated for 5,000 lbs.  We have installed a WD hitch, brake controller, cameras, etc.  

Originally posted by Dirt Sifter ; thank goodness the 195 comes with its own ladder attached.

TT, why would you say I base my response on being a solar engineer? I base my response on an engineering analysis of my Highlander/179 combo and my personal experience driving that rig. The Highlander and Ridgeline have very similar capabilities. The 179 is much lighter and smaller that the 195. I considered my rig to be acceptable but not optimum because I needed to carefully monitor weight, a heavier tow vehicle would have been better.

The analysis portion is a simple problem in statics that any 1st year engineering student should be able to solve. Heck, it's done for you in the towing calculator, all you need to do is plug in some numbers.

The only thing I am using my professional background for here is to avoid being fuzzy in my response, because as I explained I have learned that doesn't do anyone any favors. Folks are either looking for clear input or have already decided to do whatever it is and looking for justification to make them feel better about it.

Either way, it goes without saying it's a personal choice, folks can ovbiouy do what they want, there are no towing police out there going to stop you. Well I guess maybe there are in extreme circumstances, if you were towing a 35 ft triple axle trailer with a compact SUV the state police would probably pull you over. Whether you look at that as the officer doing his or her job or as unreasonable governmental interference is up to you. So feel free to ignore my posts, it's ok with me.

If my response makes you or anyone want to buy a 195 and a Ridgeline just to show something can be done, that's also up to you. But it wouldn't be convincing, any more than not falling off a cheap ladder or any other anecdotal report is convincing. Safety is a game of statistics, by selecting the right ladder or the right tow vehicle we are trying to take the accident rate down from one in 1,000 to 1 in 100,000 or similar math. You would need thousands of cases to demonstrate that kind of difference. Lacking that, we must fall back on analysis and experience in similar circumstances, resulting in the establishment of appropriate safety factors, which is what I did.