My Honda Ridgeline pickup truck

Until a couple of years ago, I wasn't even aware that Honda made pickup trucks. They only make one and it is called the Ridgeline. Basically it is the body of a Honda Pilot with the top of the back chopped off. Since it is one solid piece, it handles better than most trucks.

It has pretty good gas mileage and turns nicely.

My previous vehicles were a 2005 Ford Expedition and 2010 Honda CR-V but on New Year's day, a 300 year old oak tree decided it was tired of vehicles driving over its roots so it keeled over and crushed the car port and both vehicles.

A branch had previously dropped off of it and totaled our 1999 Ford Ranger. We had an arborist look at the tree and he said it was fine because it looked ok from the outside. He didn't realize that it had gotten hollow on the inside.

Anyway, we used various car search sites to find a good replacement. We wanted something that could haul people similar to the Expedition but could also fill in for the old pickup to kill two birds with one stone. We found a good contender and it just so happened to be 15 minutes away from my cousin's house.

Long story short, we are now the proud owners of a white 2013 Honda Ridgeline RTL.

We got it from a place called Planet Ford (which is HUGE-- and must make a ton of $ because they had DocuPad desks-- tablets built in to the desks).

The only feature on the truck I don't like is the moon roof. I would rather have a cargo rack on the roof.

I was hoping to get the silver one, but the white was what was available and I was getting nagged by the insurance company about getting out of the rental vehicle-- little side story on that: My insurance covered a rental for me so I paid in advance for 20 days. 10 days in, I was driving to the post office (since I don't get mail delivery at my house) and a tired/distracted woman ran a red light and took off the front end of the rental and totaled it. To add insult to injury, Hertz refused to let me have another rental until their vehicle was towed but it took a week. I ended up going with Enterprise at the expense of the other driver's insurance. I'd had the second rental less than 5 days when her claims agent called me before 8am to gripe at me that I needed to get out of the rental because it wasn't fair for his agency to have to pay for it for too long. I should have told him where to shove it, but he woke me up and I was half asleep so I just told him I would be done with the rental when I got a new vehicle and I first had to get the money for my totaled vehicles from my insurance company. The good news is, Planet Ford has an Enterprise office on the lot so I was able to turn the vehicle over when we bought the truck.

Anyway, the RTL is the top grade model of the Ridgelines and starting in 2013, backup cameras became standard equipment in pretty much all Hondas.

It has AWD, bluetooth, gray leather seats, heated front seats (butt cushion only for passenger side but butt and lower back for driver), navigation system, backup camera, air conditioning in front and back, separate temperature settings for driver and passenger, multidisk CD changer (6 CDs), an AC plug, multiple 12v outlets, and upgraded mud catching floor mats.

The advertisement claimed it had automatic headlights, but that turned out to be false.

Here is a front view after we purchased it and drove it down our road a few times:


Angled side view


One of the cooler features is that in addition to folding down like a normal tailgate, it also opens sideways like a door.


And what I think is one of the coolest features is the in-bed trunk (patented by Honda)


It can hold a full size cooler, sometimes people fill their trunks with ice and canned or bottled beverages. There is a plug in the bottom to drain it if it fills with water. Having the spare tire tucked away in there is also nice because it is harder to steal and it doesn't get covered in dirt on my road. The weight capacity of the trunk is about 200lbs.

 

The steering wheel came wrapped in black leather, which was too cold to the touch in this weather and would be too hot in the summer, so we got a $10 cushy steering wheel cover


I didn't take a picture, but I got the little memory foam microfiber wrapped pads to go on the seatbelts to make them more comfortable. I re-used some of the ones from the totaled vehicles. I managed to "rescue" a bunch of them from the Expedition.

The navigation system is pretty neat-- it has a touch screen (although not a dynamic one)



If you hit the Open button on the bottom left it folds down to reveal the CD player


Dealer photos of exterior (plus one my brother took)
Dealer photos of interior
Photos I took of the Ridgeline

I plan to get the OEM Rear Splash Guards because it only came with front ones.

It still has the standard dim bulbs so I want to upgrade to LED. I'm not certain which light package to go with, but I'm leaning toward Xenon Premium White LED (17piece) set although I'm considering the LED Package Interior + Tag + Reverse Lights (19 pieces)

I want to get a tonneau cover but I there are so many options and we still need to buy another vehicle so we can't spend a boatload. I've seen some pretty cool DIY ones, but I don't know if I would have the skill to make any. My requirements:
1. Easy to install / remove
2. Waterproof/watertight
3. Sturdy
4. Rails don't significantly interfere with opening of trunk (may consider a mod to trim rails so they don't interfere)
5. Not too expensive

I know price is relative on these things, but probably under $500 if possible.

More pressing than that is running boards to make it easier for my mother and her little dog to get in the truck. (Did I mention the back seats fold up and there is plenty of room for her walker?) She doesn't like nerf bars and wants something wide and nonslip. I was leaning toward some of the Westin running boards and wanted to get a light kit for those as well. Hopefully I could find cheaper prices on things than I've seen on some sites. I just need to figure out the max size running boards I can have with the standard tires. I think they said 85" might be too long. It only has a 5' bed, which is one of the drawbacks if we wanted to haul very large things, but it suited the purpose of hauling trash out to the bin (they don't pick trash up at our house so we have to drive it out to the end of the road). I believe the the tailgate down, we could fit a 4-wheeler in the back (if we had a 4-wheeler) although I think I'd want a "headache guard" for that.

Other than those few upgrades, I have a cheap throw blanket for the back seat, although I'm thinking of getting a more pet-friendly one-- perhaps even a 12v powered heating pad or blanket for the dogs to sit on when going to the vet. We want to protect the leather from dog claws.

One more feature I would like to add is a powered/manual tailgate lock combo. Pop & Lock sells one but it is horribly expensive and some members of the hondaridgelineowners form have figured out how to DIY their own versions of the powered ones for under $10. I think its over $80 for the pop & lock one and the combo kit is $150. If I could figure out how to make it out of scrap mental, I would do it. My problem is figuring out how to find a good key bezel and how to tie it in to the mechanism.

I know someone can just reach in to the back if there is no cover, but a lock might deter some of the lazier thieves from trying to take stuff-- and it would also make it harder to access the trunk (although, not many people know it has a trunk-- the Planet Ford dealers had no idea).

 

Good for you zanne! Hope you enjoy your Ridgeline and........ Don't park under any trees

 

Good looking car/truck. Does it drive like a car or a truck?

 

It drives like a car, I think. I was used to driving SUVs. It turns better than the Ford Expedition but not as well as the CR-V. It certainly doesn't have the truck feel of the Ford ranger. Doesn't fishtail and is nice and steady. It does very well in crash tests (although I don't want to find out personally).

oldog, we had the poor 400-year-old oak tree trimmed back so it no longer hangs over that part of the driveway and house.

Before


After


Poor tree.

 

that's odd that there is no lock on the tailgate. I like my truxedo low profile tonneau cover. I just searched and they do make one for the ridgeline and I think it might suit your needs.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GKS0YW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

Thanks. For some reason I think of fruit roll-ups when I read that it's a roll up cover. LOL. I was thinking of getting something like those plastic or aluminium panels that sit on a rail and can be removed. The biggest problem with the rail system is that it interferes with the opening of the trunk. Even the OEM honda tonneau has that issue, I think.

 

I had a fiberglass one on my 99 f150 and it was ok for small things but everytime I needed to load something big it was a pain, you had to pull the whole thing off. with the rollup version it just rolls out of the way. so good and bad I guess.

 

I have a hard tonneau cover on my ram and I love it except for when I need to haul something that it gets in the way. I would like a sectional one. I had a metal roll up one but it took up almost a foot of space at the front for the roll.

 

My problem is that anything with rails that are inside the truck bed will block the trunk from opening fully even when moved out of the way. The curve closer to the front tends to make it a lot harder for the covers that sit on top rather than inside to fit. I'm considering a soft-topper camper style one, but the only one I saw doesn't look very good and doesn't have side windows. There are some hard-top camper shells from Leer and A.R.E. that look decent, but are difficult to put on and off. I may just go without for awhile and hope they develop something better or find out a way to DIY something. Running boards and the splash guards are a higher priority right now.

I actually had a hard tonneau cover for my Ford Ranger and we had to take it off because it was in the way. It is still down in the barn. It had been up in the loft. I went to see if it was still intact and it is what is currently holding some stuff up and preventing the barn from collapsing more. I don't think I could extract it without the danger of the roof and remains of the loft falling on me. (I was thinking of seeing if it was in decent enough shape to sell)

 

We've decided to call the truck Reggie since it sounds close to Ridgey.
Noticed that this piece of plastic was broken around the light that shines up on the license plate.


Anyone know what that is called so I can get it replaced?

I know I need to get Reggie washed. Might drive it around back and hose it off if I have time tomorrow.

 

It got a little bit of a natural wash from the rain, but I still need to hose Reggie off.

Found a DVD player under the driver's seat:


I'm not sure what the PCCARD thing is. And I'm not sure how to get it to operate. It opens and closes, but I don't know if it was hooked to something else or if it hooks to the navigation.

I'm thinking of getting covers for the door lock brackets (I think that is what they are called)


These ones on Aliexpress are actually cheaper than a lot of the plastic ones.

 

Ahh! Thanks, havasu. I was wondering about that.
Here's a better picture


I can probably find some free instructions on the ridgelineownersclub forum. And I might be able to find the software somewhere legitimately for a decent price if I shop around. I just need to figure out which software to use. I'm not overly fond of the current stuff. I mean, if the voice command worked better, it wouldn't be so bad. I wish I could find the same style of navigation screen in LED with in-plane-switching (IPS) and anti-glare screen.

 

I'll have to try that. I still need to figure out most of the options on the navigation console.

At least I found out about that light thing that was broken. Part number 34121-SJC-A11ZA. Unfortunately, I can't just get the housing, I have to get the full thing and it runs around $30 to $50. Trying to find it with free shipping. Most places are charging around $17 for shipping. That just seems absolutely ridiculous.

 

Tell the truth, drunk texting, weve all been there.....

 

LOL. I figured out the gist of what you meant. I thought it was another one of those autocorrect things messing it up.

 

I may or may not be there now.