Mountain Towing With Honda Pilot

Who says the Honda Pilot (3.5L 4WD) can’t pull a Pod up the Colorado mountain passes? We just completed a 5+ week, 5434 mile trip through 12 states including the mountains of Colorado. The pictures are on Owl Creek Pass at 10,114 feet with snow and mud. No problem for the Pilot. The real tests were Red Mountain (11075 Ft) and Wolf Creek (10856 ft) passes with grades of 7%. These are some of the highest and steepest Colorado passes on paved highways and the Pilot did fine going up and coming down. Some first and second gear time, but no transmission temperatures over 233 degrees. The slow speeds were fine for the encountered road conditions. We averaged 12.7 MPG.

We spent three nights dry camping at 9500 feet and all appliances worked well. One night it got down to 26 degrees and nothing froze. An occasional  flush during the night insured the fresh water line from tank to pump did not freeze. The rest of the water lines are inside the Pod.

I'm probably wrong but I just read on honda's official site that Honda pilot 4wd has a 4500# towing cap. Must have read it wrong.

Originally posted by retiredtraveler Sorry. I have a real issue with this kind of nonsense. You're vastly exceeding your vehicle capacity and you might well be able to accomplish the trip you did, but you're definitely straining your vehicle.    The real issue is safety. You don't have the braking power to easily stop if someone steps out in front of you while you're exceeding your limits by at least 50%.    I don't care if you endanger yourself but you're putting others in danger by towing overcapacity.

So, please explain your reasoning for "exceeding  your limits by at least 50%" The 4WD Pilot is rated at 4500# towing. The GCVW is 9579#. My combination is within both of these ratings, confirmed at the CAT truck scales. Altitude affects only engine pulling power, not braking, frame, hitch, transmission or other safety ratings.

So please explain. 

The way I read my manual in my 2013 pilot that the towing capacity is 4500 lbs for pulling a boat, but 3500 for all other trailers. I am sure this is do to the frontage or wind blocking caused by a trailer like the pod. I pull a 151 with two kayaks on the pilot and have a good time traveling and feel safe with a brake control and sway bar

Hey Charlie, congrats on a successful trip. I'm getting close to retirement and plan on a similar trip sometime in the near future.
We just bought our 178 and we too pull with a Pilot ( 2013 touring).  We bought the 2500 lb pod specifically to be towed with the Pilot with a 4500 lb. towing capacity. My concern was not knowing the weight of our "stuff".  I didn't want to push the total weight limit .  I know manufatures sometimes over rate their product to make it more appealing. I didn't want to find out the hard way that the Pilot just didn't have the stuff  to pull.    After our trip last weekend I am alot more comfortable. It was the first time out and we camped locally but I got a good feel for the rig and have more confidence we made the right decision, espescially after reading your post. I wish I would have seen a similar post before our purchase, I would have slept a lot better the night before the sale.