Honda Ridgeline Pickup anyone?

[Gale Hawkins]

The RAV4 is one of the many, many Crossovers on the market, ordinarily differentiated from SUVs by unibody construction.

There is a reason why Subaru market share in Vermont is eight times their national share.

Thanks for sharing about the top go in the snow SUV test.

 

[goeduck]

I've owned a 2017 Ridgeline for over a year now. 20,000 miles on it. Absolutely love this little "truck". Rides like a nice SUV......very smooth. Pretty nimble for parking and loaded with all the features you would want. I like being able to haul dirty stuff or deer and such in the box.

Excellent to hear. I am thinking more and more to replace my daily driver sedan with a Ridgeline/Ranger/Colorado class pickup (4 door) and put less miles on my Super Duty to boot with small loads. Sounds like they drive nice and are easy to park. :thumbsup:

 

[Garandman]

Thanks for sharing about the top go in the snow SUV test.

Tons on YouTube, although many aren稚 well done. This one shows a roller test with two or three rollers.

A practical test is to park facing down hill with the front wheels on ice and see if you can back up. Most Cute Utes are FWD with extra hardware to make them é„*WD. But many of them cannot transfer enough torque to the rear wheels to pass that test.

 

[crazyal]

I've had Subarus and while their awd is probably the best you can get in a car or small SUV I found the over all quality to be very lacking. If you plan on driving through 6" of snow the Subaru will do better than the Rav4. But if you plan driving through deep snow on a regular basis then a truck will extra ground clearance will do better plus you can get a limited slip rear end and unlike awd the transfer case doesn't have any slip (of course you can't drive on dry pavement). As for driving on snowy roads go, I can't tell the difference between the Rav4 or the Forrester that it replaced. Both do excellent. I don't see myself going back to Subaru.

 

[bcp]

My older Wrangler, Cherokee, and Forester all were good in snow, going straight. The Jeeps had all manual transmission, t-case, and limited slip. They did not want to make a sharp turn uphill or downhill into my driveway. The Forester did with no problem.

Our new 2018 Cherokee is as good as the Forester, with very limited snow time so far.

The worst was a Tacoma. The anti-lock brakes wouldn't stop it on snow. It's about 200 feet slightly downhill to my gate. The Tacoma would go the entire distance at about 2mph, brakes chattering, pedal to the floor. I never did drive it to town on snowy roads after that first experience.

Bruce

 

[ultrarunner]

^^^ I have almost no snow experience with 4wd... only 2wd in the Sierra chained up and this was a lot back in the ski days.

That said... I wonder if the 4wd full size pickups are as bad as the Tacoma?

Heard from friends that the Range Rover has an excellent 4wd as does Audi Quattro and Subaru...

When it snows around Olympia... the snow is usually gone by noon... so it has not been much of an issue.

 

[Code54]

My older Wrangler, Cherokee, and Forester all were good in snow, going straight. The Jeeps had all manual transmission, t-case, and limited slip. They did not want to make a sharp turn uphill or downhill into my driveway. The Forester did with no problem.

Our new 2018 Cherokee is as good as the Forester, with very limited snow time so far.

The worst was a Tacoma. The anti-lock brakes wouldn't stop it on snow. It's about 200 feet slightly downhill to my gate. The Tacoma would go the entire distance at about 2mph, brakes chattering, pedal to the floor. I never did drive it to town on snowy roads after that first experience.

Bruce

I have a different take on the Toyota Tacoma.
My last work truck was a Tacoma crew cab 4x4. I put about 90K on it before they got rid of it and had it in a lot of bad snow storms in the mountain and personally had great luck with it. Never had a problem stoping or going anywhere even on mountain passes loaded with snow. Last year I was up in Erie PA when they had their major snow event and I couldn't believe how easily I was getting around. Maybe tires had a lot to do with it???

 

[aczlan]

I have a different take on the Toyota Tacoma.
My last work truck was a Tacoma crew cab 4x4. I put about 90K on it before they got rid of it and had it in a lot of bad snow storms in the mountain and personally had great luck with it. Never had a problem stoping or going anywhere even on mountain passes loaded with snow. Last year I was up in Erie PA when they had their major snow event and I couldn't believe how easily I was getting around. Maybe tires had a lot to do with it???

Tires and weight in the bed make a HUGE difference...

Aaron Z

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^ I have almost no snow experience with 4wd... only 2wd in the Sierra chained up and this was a lot back in the ski days.

That said... I wonder if the 4wd full size pickups are as bad as the Tacoma?

Heard from friends that the Range Rover has an excellent 4wd as does Audi Quattro and Subaru...

When it snows around Olympia... the snow is usually gone by noon... so it has not been much of an issue.

I run in 4WD when road conditions are bad. With the driveline locked up, as a last resort you can use the parking brake for an emergency stop.
Just expect to be rear ended because everyone else is depending on ABS, so the tire with the least traction determines stopping ability.

 

[newbury]

I had a 1967? Toyota Hilux in high school and early college. Talk about light in the back end! We lived on a rural "ridge" road in Northern Vermont, back a mile on a mud road (spring) dirt road (summer) ice road November through April.

I worked at a pet shop that sold a lot ot tropical fish and supplies. The owner threw out a lot of "dirty" gravel from diseased tanks. Often it was bright colored gravel. I carried buckets of it for ballast. By ice out there would be brightly colored patches on the roadside where I had dumped some gravel for traction. I must have dumped about 100 lbs a couple of times.

But that was a great truck.