Towing with a Honda Ridgeline

Baygirl wrote:
My Honda Ridgeline has a maximum towing capacity of $5000. I'm looking at buying a trailer that weighs 3735 pounds, dry weight. Is that too heavy?

You are probably not going to be real happy with the towing experience. The Ridgeline has a "hybrid" chassis, kind of a cross between a unibody and a body-on-frame.
Honda's logic, if we want to call it that, for recommending "NO" weight distributing hitches is because "it can be set up incorrectly".
Given that, if I were stepping into the arena of towing with one, I would personally use a weight distributing hitch, and "set it up properly". But, having said that, given that Honda has an official stance of no-wd, then I suppose good sense should say we advise going with what they state.
Even if the a trailer weighed just 4000 pounds, with a tow vehicle of those dimensions, I would say a WD hitch would be a requirement.
That was a long way of saying, no, your plan is probably not a good match.
I'm not trying to run down your vehicle, but honestly, a Ridgeline is not really a truck. It's a front wheel drive car, with a computer controlled AWD system, dressed up to look like a truck.

I think that this trailer is within your capacity, if only just.

The Ridgeline has 600 pounds of tongue weight capacity- nice on a rig that only allows for 5,000 pounds of trailer! And a good thing since according to my quick look at the manual just now, Honda recommends against the use of W/D.

Do be advised that the tow limit is based on two occupants and drops by 250 pounds for each additional person. Presumably this number includes the weight of their gear, too, and doesn't represent Honda's opinion on the average user's weight!

Baygirl wrote:
My Honda Ridgeline has a maximum towing capacity of $5000. I'm looking at buying a trailer that weighs 3735 pounds, dry weight. Is that too heavy? How much weight, on average, would goods and supplies sufficient for 2 people for 2 weeks usually add?
Thanks

Average load of camping supplies (chairs, BBQ, water, groceries, bedding, pots and pans, dishes, tools, spare parts, etc) is 800 to 1000 lbs. Depending on how much stuff you take with, it could be more.

Advertised dry weights are rarely accurate. That trailer will be heavier, before it leaves the dealer lot. By the time it is loaded for camping, it will be close, if not over 5000 lbs.

Your max towing capacity was calculated with a 150 lb driver and no passengers or cargo in the Ridgeline. The vehicle also has a max weight rating for Cargo Carrying Capacity (payload), and a max weight rating on the hitch itself. Actual max tow capacity is limited to the weakest link (normally payload) in the vehicle's ratings.

As you load passengers and cargo, the max tow capacity and available payload go down pound for pound. IE: If you put 500 lbs of passengers and cargo inside, you no longer have 5000 lbs tow capacity and your available payload is 500 lbs less.

Payload is available weight capacity for carrying passengers, cargo, trailer hitch, and trailer tongue weight, combined. For a 5000 lb trailer, with weight distributing hitch, you'll need about 750 lbs of available payload.

The ridgeline has a chassis like a truck; I think wd hitch will work.

$5000 towing capacity. Must have to buy a cheap trailer.

On a serious note, I have read that Honda people do use a WDH, but I believe honda discourages it.

I would bet your Ridgeline has a maximum hitch rating of 500lbs. That will limit you to a maximum fully loaded trailer of 3850.