How Much Can a Honda Ridgeline Tow? 5,000 lb, and 566 lb Left

Honda publishes a worked towing example for the Ridgeline, and the trailer in it weighs 4,750 lb. The truck is an RTL, the load is a boat on a trailer, the tongue carries 600 lb, and four people ride along with an estimated 761 lb of bodies and belongings. Take the RTL's 6,019 lb GVWR, subtract the payload Honda publishes for that trim, 1,544 lb, and the truck in the example weighs 4,475 lb, five pounds under the 4,480 lb curb weight Honda's spec sheet lists for an RTL; the gap is Honda's own, and this page comes back to it. Add the people. Add the boat. The total is 9,986 lb, which is the Ridgeline's gross combined weight rating exactly, to the pound.

A Ridgeline can pull 5,000 lb; every 2026 trim is rated for it. Honda's example gives up 250 lb of trailer because those pounds had to come from somewhere, and where they came from was the back seat.

The question has two halves on this truck, and only one of them is on the brochure: what it is rated to pull, which has not moved in twenty years, and what is left of the combined ceiling while it is pulling it.

How much can a Honda Ridgeline tow?

Every 2026 Honda Ridgeline has a towing capacity of 5,000 lb, on every trim, with the hitch, the wiring and the tow cooling already fitted at the factory. Honda's footnote is one line: maximum towing capacity is 5,000 lbs, towing requires accessory towing equipment, see your Honda dealer for details. The accessory equipment is what hangs off the receiver: Honda's own 2026 Ridgeline accessory catalogue lists one towing item, a 2-inch trailer hitch ball, and a ball mount with the right drop goes under it. Everything that decides the rating is already bolted to the truck.

There is one 3.5-liter V6 making 280 hp at 6,000 rpm and 262 lb-ft at 4,700 rpm, one 9-speed automatic, and i-VTM4 all-wheel drive on every 2026 trim. One body too: crew cab, 5.3 ft bed, 64.0 inches long with the tailgate up and 83.0 inches down. Every axis an American truck buyer normally has to decode, the engine, the drivetrain, the cab, the bed and the axle ratio, has exactly one setting here. So the ritual of hunting the window sticker for a towing package returns the same answer on every Ridgeline, which is a genuinely different exercise from a Toyota Tacoma, where finding your row is most of the work.

What does move between trims is what the truck itself weighs, and everything downstream of that.

The TrailSport with HPD wheels and the Black Edition Two-Tone are separate columns on Honda's spec sheet and carry the same weights as their parent trims. GVWR is 6,019 lb on all of them and the gross combined weight rating is 9,986 lb on all of them, so the only axis with any movement in it is 84 lb of curb weight from the cheapest trim to the most expensive. That 84 lb costs 74 lb of payload and 84 lb of combined headroom. Against the other midsize trucks on the towing capacity chart, the Ridgeline's row is the flat one.

Can a Honda Ridgeline really tow 5,000 lbs?

Yes, on every 2026 trim, and Honda's own example shows what it costs inside the cab: with a 5,000 lb trailer behind a Sport, 566 lb of the combined rating is left for everyone and everything inside the truck. That is the driver, the passengers, whatever is in the bed and whatever is in the trunk under it.

Two adults and two children at 150 lb each spend 600 of those 566 pounds. That is 34 lb over before the cooler goes in.

Now compare the two limits that both claim to answer the same question, how many pounds of people and gear may go in the truck. Take a 5,000 lb trailer carrying the 600 lb tongue load from Honda's own example:

The two columns count the tongue weight differently, and both are right. For the combined rating the trailer is weighed once, tongue included, so the 566 lb is people and cargo only. For payload the tongue is a load the truck is carrying, which is why 600 lb of it comes off the Sport's 1,583 lb figure before anyone sits down. The three-way check sets out how the limits sit against each other; the point here is which of them arrives first on this truck.

It is the combined rating, by more than 400 lb, on every trim. An owner who reads the payload sticker comes away believing there is roughly 950 lb of family and gear available. The combined rating grants around 500.

Can a Honda Ridgeline pull a travel trailer?

Yes, and the trailer that fits is lighter than the rating suggests. A 2027 Jayco Jay Feather Air 16DB is sold as a lightweight entry-level bunkhouse and looks comfortable at 4,055 lb dry. Its own Trailer GVWR, 5,500 lb, sits 500 lb above what a Ridgeline is rated to pull, so this trailer can never be loaded to its own maximum behind one and stay inside Honda's rating.

Jayco's own definitions do the first part of the work. Unloaded vehicle weight is the trailer as built at the factory, excluding cargo, fresh water, propane, occupants, options and dealer-installed accessories. Cargo carrying capacity is everything the owner then adds, and the two add up exactly: 4,055 plus 1,445 is 5,500.

Water and propane come out of that allowance before anything else. Fifty-five gallons at 8.34 lb per gallon is about 459 lb, and the propane is 40 lb, so a full and fuelled 16DB weighs around 4,554 lb with nothing packed. That leaves roughly 446 lb of the Ridgeline's 5,000 lb rating for the belongings of a trailer that sleeps eight. (Those water and propane weights are arithmetic on Jayco's published capacities, illustrative rather than figures Jayco prints.)

Here is an illustrative loadout for a family weekend, and what it does to a Sport.

Put that behind a Sport at its 4,420 lb curb weight and the pair weighs 9,224 lb. Against 9,986 lb, 762 lb of combined rating remains. Seat two adults and two children at 150 lb each and 162 lb is left for the cooler, the bags and the bikes.

Meanwhile the payload check waves the same rig through. The tongue at this trailer's own 12.8% balance is about 615 lb, the four people are 600 lb, and 1,215 lb of a 1,583 lb allowance is spent, with 368 lb to spare. One check has 368 lb of room and the other has 162 lb, on the same truck, on the same day. Where those pounds go inside the allowance is the subject of the payload and towing capacity guide; which allowance runs out first is the Ridgeline's own answer.

Check this exact pairing against a 2026 Ridgeline Sport and Can I Tow It? returns caution (careful) from the two Jayco figures as published. The towing line reads 110% of the Ridgeline's rating at the trailer's full 5,500 lb, with about 500 lb of the trailer's own cargo allowance locked out and 946 lb of it usable. The combined line clears by 66 lb, before a single person gets in. Swap the two Jayco figures for your own trailer's and the verdict moves with them, between pass (well matched) and fail (no), and the check behind it is named either way.

566 lb. That is what a Sport has left of its combined rating with a 5,000 lb trailer behind it, and every pound of it belongs to the people in the cab and whatever rides in the bed. The figure moves each time somebody climbs in or a cooler goes aboard, so loadmate carries it as a running margin beside GVWR and the rear axle, live, for the whole trip. Watching that number move is free on the demo rig, with no account. A loadmate Pro subscription puts your own Ridgeline behind it, so the 566 lb is recomputed from what the truck is carrying today instead of from a Sport that left the factory empty.

loadmate provides decision support for towing safety, not legal weight certification. Score, compliance checks, and trip readiness are based on the data you enter and the regulator information current at the time of release. For legal weight evidence, use a certified truck scale / CAT scale. Towing remains the operator's responsibility. See /safety-disclaimer.

How much can I tow with a Honda Ridgeline once four people are aboard?

Honda's own answer is 4,750 lb: four occupants and their personal items, at an estimated 761 lb together, take the trailer 250 lb below the rating. Count people at 150 lb each, rounded up from the 149.9 lb (68 kg) per seating position that FMVSS 110 (49 CFR 571.110) uses to work out a vehicle's capacity weight, and the same subtraction works for any seating plan. A Sport has 5,566 lb of combined rating above its own weight, and everyone in the cab is spending it against the trailer.

The rating stops being the binding number at the fourth seat. A Black Edition starts 84 lb heavier, so the same four people leave it 4,882 lb.

The tongue weight is the other half of the load, and it rides on the truck. Honda's rule is that the tongue of a fully loaded trailer should not exceed 15% of the total trailer weight, which is 750 lb behind a 5,000 lb trailer. Those 750 lb land on the rear springs and come out of payload. The combined rating allows less again: 566 lb. Honda's 15% is a rule about the trailer; what it costs the truck is worked out in tongue weight vs payload.

Honda publishes the Ridgeline's weight distribution as 57.1% front and 42.9% rear on the Sport and RTL, and 57.3% front and 42.7% rear on the TrailSport and Black Edition. It publishes no front or rear GAWR anywhere in the 2026 press kit or on its product pages, so the axle ratings for your truck exist in exactly one place: the certification label in your own door frame.

Is there a Honda Ridgeline towing package?

There is no optional tow package on the 2026 Ridgeline. The integrated Class III trailer hitch with its 7-pin connector, the high-capacity radiator with two high-power fans and the heavy-duty transmission cooler are standard on every trim, including the Sport. Honda's footnote that towing requires accessory towing equipment refers to the dealer-fitted items you hang off the receiver.

Two things are still yours to buy. The first is a ball mount with the right drop for your trailer. The second is a trailer brake controller: the Ridgeline does not include one, and owners on the Ridgeline owners club, plus five commenters under The Fast Lane Truck's 2026 Ike Gauntlet video, report the truck arrives pre-wired for one, with the Honda trailer-brake harness behind the dash. One owner found the harness sitting in the glovebox of a 2022 Black Edition from new; another names a Redarc Tow-Pro as a plug-and-play fit.

That matters because state trailer-brake thresholds sit well below what a Ridgeline pulls. In California, Vehicle Code section 26303 requires brakes on at least two wheels of any trailer coach or camp trailer with a gross weight of 1,500 lb or more, supplemental to the brakes on the tow vehicle. Every state writes its own number, so read yours before borrowing California's. The 16DB above ships with self-adjusting electric brakes as standard, which is typical of the class and is the half of the arrangement a trailer buyer rarely has to think about.

One more line from Honda's own towing page, easy to miss and cheap to follow: premium unleaded fuel is recommended when towing more than 3,500 pounds.

Where is your own Ridgeline's number printed?

On two labels in the driver's door area, and the figures printed there belong to your truck alone. The tire and loading information placard carries the combined weight of occupants and cargo that your specific truck may take, as built, with the options that were fitted to it. The certification label alongside it carries the GVWR and the front and rear axle ratings.

Do not derive your payload. Honda's published payload figures are not simply GVWR minus its published curb weight, and the gap changes sign between trims, so the subtraction gives a different answer from the maker's own table. Read the placard on the truck.

The gross combined weight rating appears on neither label, nor on any other sticker in the vehicle. Honda publishes it in the specification sheets for the model year, and the towing section of your owner's manual is the place to open before the first trip for the conditions Honda attaches to it. So the 9,986 lb figure is worth writing down somewhere you will find it again.

Has the Ridgeline's 5,000 lb number changed?

It has not. The MY2026 specifications Honda published on September 9, 2025 are identical to the MY2025 set from August 7, 2024, weight for weight.

What changed for 2026 is paint: Ash Green Metallic exclusive to the TrailSport, and a contrasting black roof available on the Black Edition. The current truck is the second-generation Ridgeline, the one Honda has built since the last full redesign. Honda's launch release for this model year, published September 2025, marks the twentieth anniversary of the first-generation truck, which arrived in 2005 with half-ton hauling and 5,000-pound towing, so a used shopper reading a 5,000 lb figure on a second-generation Ridgeline is reading the same number. One caveat on a 2017 to 2020 truck: Honda also sold a front-wheel-drive Ridgeline in those years, so read the drivetrain on the window sticker before you take a 5,000 lb figure as read. The curb weights, and therefore the margins behind them, are what have moved.

For a used truck one item is worth a VIN lookup. NHTSA lists no recalls at all against the 2026 Ridgeline as of July 2026. It does list campaign 26V365000, reported June 4, 2026, covering 2017 to 2023 Ridgelines sold in 22 salt-belt states and the District of Columbia, where the rear subframe may corrode at the suspension mounting points. The rear suspension is what carries tongue load, so on an older northern truck that campaign belongs on the pre-tow checklist. The remedy is an inspection and a reinforcement kit, and the lookup is by VIN at NHTSA.

Which trailers do Ridgeline owners keep coming back to?

Molded fiberglass trailers in the 16 to 19 ft class, small boats and teardrops, with the Escape 19 named again and again as the practical ceiling, well under the 5,000 lb figure. Escape Trailer owners, the Fiberglass RV forum and the Ridgeline owners club all land in the same place: an Escape 19 behind a 2017 for several years, described as fine but always at the limit; another behind a 2019 in the Oregon mountains, fine with slowdowns on the steep parts. An Airstream Basecamp 16X gets named for how well it handles. Owners report molded fiberglass trailers of that class returning mileage in the mid teens. Teardrops are trivially inside, and a 3,000 lb boat over Berthoud Pass at 15 to 17 mpg is a routine post. The trailers with their own "can I tow this" threads on the owners club, an Airstream Cloud 23 and a heavier Airstream, sit where owners talk each other out of it. A fifth wheel is not applicable at all, because the bed is a unibody composite bed with a trunk underneath it.

The Ike Gauntlet says the same thing from the performance end. The Fast Lane Truck put a 2026 TrailSport, a GMC Canyon AT4X and a Jeep Gladiator over an 11,158 ft summit in April 2026, each pulling 5,000 lb, and the Ridgeline climbed it quickest of the three. Owners under the same video describe a 4,500 lb enclosed U-Haul box over that grade, twice, on a 2006 truck. So the fiberglass-trailer list above is set by weight, not by power.

Which leaves one variable, and it is the one most people carry down the road for no reason. Take the 16DB out with the fresh tank empty and fill it at camp, and the same trailer arrives at 4,345 lb instead of 4,804. That is 459 lb of water, and on a Ridgeline it is the difference between two verdicts. Run the same Ridgeline pairing with the tank empty and every check comes back pass, with 1,221 lb of combined headroom instead of 762, and 655 lb of towing capacity unused. The Escape 19 owners have been describing the same arithmetic from the other end for years: the trailer that suits a Ridgeline is one whose loaded weight sits between about 3,500 and 4,400 lb, which is a lighter unit than its brochure figure implies. Fill the fresh tank at camp instead of at home and that is 459 lb the Ridgeline never carries.

Related guides

The concepts this page leaned on, and the trucks that reach the same 5,000 lb from a different direction.

• What can I tow?: the general version of the check, for whatever else is parked next to the Ridgeline
• Towing capacity chart: the flat 5,000 lb row against midsize trucks whose ratings move by configuration
• Towing weight ratings explained: the difference between a tow rating and the combined rating that overrode it here
• Payload vs towing capacity: what happens to the 417 lb of payload the combined rating never lets a Sport reach
• Tongue weight vs payload: the 600 lb Honda's own example puts on the ball, and which of a Sport's two limits pays for it
• Weigh a travel trailer at a CAT scale: how to swap the 4,804 lb built from Jayco's capacities for a weighed figure
• How to read a CAT scale ticket: what the axle lines on the ticket are telling you about the rear of the truck
• How much can a Toyota Tacoma tow?: a truck where finding your row is most of the work, which is the opposite of this one
• How much can a Ford Ranger tow?: what a tow package does to a rating, on a truck that sells one
• How much can a Jeep Wrangler tow?: where the hardware at the back of the vehicle decides whether you can hook up at all