Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/816045
EquipmentWorld.com | April 2017 77 Y ou don't see many Hondas tooling around a jobsite, but the company is poised in 2017 to change that – or at least make a dent in it – with its second genera- tion unibody Ridgeline pickup. The second generation has come a long way. After briefly shelving the truck following the 2014 model year, the Japanese automaker went in a decidedly new direction with its Lincoln, Alabama-built pickup. A serious redesign The original Ridgeline sold about a quarter of a million units before production was stopped after eight years, hindered by a mashup styling that was more Pilot-without-a-hatch than pickup. The next generation Ridgeline shed those angular bedrail panels behind the rear doors and replaced them with … well, noth- ing. When you walk up to the new Ridgeline, it looks like a truck, not like an SUV that was pulled too soon off the assembly line. The previous generation Ridgeline also featured a prominent single side panel, but now there is a clear and welcomed delineation between where the cab ends and where the bed begins. Ridgeline still shares its chas- sis, 3.5-liter i-VTEC V6 engine and pretty much everything from the front bumper to the back of the seats with the Honda Pilot SUV, but the back half of the vehicle – the part that makes it a truck – is dis- tinctly truck-like. A cool byproduct of this new rear end is that Honda's reinforced composite truck bed doesn't require a bed liner. The automaker at- tracted attention earlier this year when it published a truck bed challenge video showing a load of concrete blocks getting dumped into the bed from a skid steer. The bed held up nicely: no cracks, no visible scratches, and because of its composite structure, no dents. A double-hinged tailgate – it drops down normally or swings open to the driver's side (but doesn't have a lock) – is a hold- over from the previous generation Ridgeline. So is a 7.3-cubic-foot waterproof trunk-like compartment mounted under the floor of the bed (which does lock). The compart- ment also features a drain plug in case you want to do some heavy duty tailgating. Available in-bed audio speakers and a 400-watt AC pro pickup | by Jason Cannon | JasonCannon@randallreilly.com TEST DRIVE: 2017 HONDA RIDGELINE A SURPRISINGLY TOUGH PICKUP