I was explaining to somebody how my TL SH-AWD 6-6 drives, trying to explain the edginess and steering quickness that I felt would make most drivers a little nervous.

I suggested that VTM4 would probably be the better AWD for most people shopping for AWD, because cars like the Crosstour and Ridgeline drive pretty much like regular FWD Hondas until you start slipping in weather or bad terrain.

Something that I didn't expect was the counter that SH-AWD wouldn't get stuck on the beach like the Ridgeline famous incidents that have been described.

Poking around a bit, I am not finding any description of these events and I am ignorant about them.

How would a VTM4 car like the Ridgeline get stuck on the beach?

 

im curious about this as well.

 

I can't see how you could get stuck on a beach with VTM-4. My step dad's Ridgeline drove through lots of snow and ice after we had a blizzard a few weeks ago and it just fine. Sand has more grip than ice. But if you're driving right on the shore I might see how someone could bury the tires in wet sand, which is a stupid thing to do in any vehicle.

 

Okay. Here's the problem.

The Ridgeline has TPMS (T)yre (P)ressure (M)onitoring (S)ystem like a lot of modern Honda/Acura cars.

What was happening is that people would follow the conventional wisdom from the Jeep days of lowering the tyre pressure from what is normal for the road to something like 15 - 20 pounds for driving on the beach. This is a common 4WD thing to do.

The problem is that these very low pressures signal to the computers that there is a problem with the tyre pressures.

As a result of that the car refuses to allow you to switch off VSA (V)ehicle (S)tability (A)ssist, and that keeps you from turning off traction control.

If you had not lowered the tyre pressures, you could've turned off VSA and locked the diff, and you'd have always had a wheel turning and you could keep going.

With the lowered tyre pressures, VSA stays on and the vehicle thinks when you're slipping a wheel that it needs to intervene and apply the brakes to stabilise the vehicle.

The answer appears to be to never lower your pressures below about 25 pounds, and everything will be fine.

:-)

 

Where did you find this information? That's good to know.

 

Somebody tapped me on the shoulder. It's hard for me to type something without getting caught.

 

Hehe, I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing in a couple of years once I graduate and get a job, hopefully with American Honda. Times are tough, but they're getting much better.

 

Or put all the sensors in your spare

And SH-AWD can get stuck on the beach too, my brother-in-law managed to get his 08 RDX stuck in the sand in the OBX.

 

clean !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!