Sport 22 Tow Vehicle

[MSL]

Planning on getting a Sport 22 and having trouble deciding on tow vehicle. Would like to get 2019 Honda Ridgeline (600# tongue wt, 5000# tow capacity), which Airstream dealer says would be fine, but it seems to me I'd be near top of 600# tongue wt wet and about 95% of GCVW. 2nd distant choice is 2019 Ford Ranger (750# tongue wt, 7500# tow capacity). Can anybody comment on towing a Sport 22 with a Ridgeline and/or Ranger? How are they in hilly areas? I'm wondering if I'd notice a big difference with the Ranger vs the Ridgeline. Thanks to all.

[DryFly]

IF the specs from AS are to be believed, you would be plenty happy towing the 22' Sport with either vehicle. Personally, since I own and tow with an older model Ridgeline, I'm biased in that direction. The Ridgeline is very well engineered, comfortable and very capable. I can't speak to the Ranger option, but the specifications look pretty good.

[MSL]

I'm curious, are you in a Sport 22 with similar weight specs to new one? When I added up all weight I can think of, I'm only about 300# shy of the Ridgeline's Gross Combined Weight of just under 10,000#.

[TankerIP]

I met someone in Jacksonville towing a new 22 Sport with a Porsche. Amazed to see it. But the vehicle pair looked cute. The were headed to west coast. I think full timing for about 6 months or more.

[Sailor12]

I tow my 22 Sport with a 2016 Honda Pilot. I believe it has same drive trading and towing capacity as the Ridge Line. Pilot is awd. No problems towing. Use equalizer
We travel with minimum load. Very happy with set up. Have been all over Colorado Mountains no problems. Long trips to
Florida too
You will love your new AS
Sailor

[wh500special]

I’ve not done it yet, but I’m considering the same combination.

Anecdotal information suggests the Ridgeline is a great tow vehicle in its capability range. I tow a fairly hefty boat with mine and it’s revealed what an underpowered bumbling vehicle my last truck was...I just didn’t realize it at the time.

I posted the same question on the Ridgeline forum earlier this year. Some interesting feedback came from it:

https://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/33-racks-hitches-towing/215384-airstream-trailer-options-g2.html#/topics/215384

We are still up in the air if we go with a 22-sport to tug behind our Ridgeline or if we move into a self-propelled van camper. But having driven my truck and towed and hauled with it quite a bit I think it’s well suited to the task.

Steve

[Mainely Fish]

I have a 2008 22 Sport single axel. We towed for a year with a Pilot and were very happy. But started adding wt. I believe the tongue wt of the single axel 22’ is understated. I don’t know the payload of the two choices but I now have to tow with the trailer as light as possible to not max out the trailer specs. Therefore the tongue wt and the rest of the gear had to be on our TV. It is a GMC Sierra with a payload sticker of 1790# and we still use all of that. The only mod to the Sport was changing from on group 24 battery on the tongue to two 6 V golf cart batteries.
Enjoy your Sport.

[SteveF STLMO]

Bought my 22FB Sport last August. A factor in the decision was being able to utilize my Nissan Frontier SV as a TV and with a 261-hp, 281 lb-ft 4.0-liter V-6 it manages the job nicely pulling a sub 4000 lb trailer. Yes it is a bit pokey on long and/or steep ascents but nothing I can't live with for the time being. No suspension modifications were necessary and with the sway control hitch it handles remarkably well. Gas mileage improves at low 60's MPH but isn't great by any measure so that's a negative for many. Just another option to consider. Love my SPORT. Happy Trails.

[Ricky Bobby]

MSL, I pulled a sport 22 for 4 years with a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a 4.7 Liter V8.
Never had a problem no power problems even over the Mountains out west. Did over 10,000 miles with that trailer. So go for it.

[rsementi]

I have the same question. My TV is a Toyota FJ that is rated at 500/5000.
So I went onto a bunch of FJ fan groups on Facebook and asked the question of even trying to increase my vehicle’s towing capacity. The answers were unanimous:
- it’s ok to tow at capacity.

[MSL]

Originally Posted by Sailor12

I tow my 22 Sport with a 2016 Honda Pilot. I believe it has same drive trading and towing capacity as the Ridge Line. Pilot is awd. No problems towing. Use equalizer
We travel with minimum load. Very happy with set up. Have been all over Colorado Mountains no problems. Long trips to
Florida too
You will love your new AS
Sailor

Sailor12 - do you travel with a full size spare? One of the annoying things about Ridgeline is it cannot stow a full size spare.

[Glampman]

We love towing with our 2015 Honda Pilot. We tow dry as possible most of the time out of an abundance of caution and respect for the tow rating. Our 2015 Pilot has a 4500 lb max tow capacity; so this is about as big an AS as we can possibly have without changing our TV.

We do not force the Pilot to RPMs higher than 3000 when climbing and are content to stay in the slow lane when traveling through the mountains. Knowing I am likely chumming the waters for passionate advocates of equalizer/stabilizers with this next piece of reality--we tow directly from the ball and have found tremendous stability in windy,rainy, bumpy, snowy, and start and stop traffic filled situations for 1000's of miles--at rates of no more than 57 MPH.

With the mindset that we are enjoying a slow and deliberate journey to wherever we are going, we just stay to the right, monitor our weight and speed, and sip our mocha's while confidently and safely traveling to our next glamping experience.

Enjoy!!!

[Free bird]

I toll my 22 sport with a Chevy Colorado 6 cylinder. 3.6 liter. This is my 3rd season and have had no problems. 6000 lbs toll capacity.

[debbietaylor]

Originally Posted by DryFly

IF the specs from AS are to be believed, you would be plenty happy towing the 22' Sport with either vehicle. Personally, since I own and tow with an older model Ridgeline, I'm biased in that direction. The Ridgeline is very well engineered, comfortable and very capable. I can't speak to the Ranger option, but the specifications look pretty good.

We are towing our 22' Bambi Sport with a Mercedes ML350 which has a 7200 lb. towing capacity. Works like a charm! Good luck!

[kingston man]

I have the exact same setup you are considering (2017 Sports 22 and 2017 Ridgeline). Went on a 6,600 mile trip to the west from Woodstock, NY, one week after took the delivery of the Sports 22. Ridgeline was the only truck I ever drove and never towed anything either. We toured National Parks along the way - Bad Land, Rushmore, Glacier, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, RMNP and Great Sand Dunes. Having no prior experience, I was very worried in the beginning, but as the trip progressed felt completely as ease. Ridgeline handled Sports 22 without any problem at all through some fairly steep climbs and descents and unpaved rough roads. There were four adults traveling and fair amount of standard gears on the truck bed. If anything else, you will find that Ridgeline has really good ride quality with or without annoying in tow. (I had Ridgeline for two years now, drove about 60,000 miles and really love it!)

[MacCoroner]

We have been towing our 22 Sport with a Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 Diesel. And we've been though the Monarch Pass in Colorado several times with no real problems. We stop at the top to let the rig cool down at the top, and to take in the views. This is a common problem with high altitude.
Enjoy your Sport no matter what you pull it with!

[out of sight]

Originally Posted by debbietaylor

We are towing our 22' Bambi Sport with a Mercedes ML350 which has a 7200 lb. towing capacity. Works like a charm! Good luck!

We've towed our 22 sport over 35,000 miles with our ML350. It's an awesome tow vehicle. The only problem we had is coming East on I-80 from Salt Lake up a very steep, long grade when it was 102 degrees outside. I thought I could keep it at 75 mph but the engine coolant temperature crept up. Just before it redlined the engine software knocked me down to 40 mph, so I had to get into the truck lane and creep along. A few minutes later the coolant temp dropped and I was back to normal speed.

[twbucksr]

Originally Posted by MSL

Planning on getting a Sport 22 and having trouble deciding on tow vehicle. Would like to get 2019 Honda Ridgeline (600# tongue wt, 5000# tow capacity), which Airstream dealer says would be fine, but it seems to me I'd be near top of 600# tongue wt wet and about 95% of GCVW. 2nd distant choice is 2019 Ford Ranger (750# tongue wt, 7500# tow capacity). Can anybody comment on towing a Sport 22 with a Ridgeline and/or Ranger? How are they in hilly areas? I'm wondering if I'd notice a big difference with the Ranger vs the Ridgeline. Thanks to all.

We towed our 2015 22FB with our 2013 Honda Ridgeline for 2 years before we purchased our 2018 27FBQ FC. Here is a pic of the weigh ticket from our last trip. Used an Andersen hitch to get the weight distributed and ride height level. Also used a Tekonsha 90195 P3 Trailer Brake Controller in the Ridgeline which was helpful going down the steeper hills in the Ozarks.

[MSL]

Is anybody out there towing a Sport 22 with a Nissan Pathfinder? If so, curious as to how it performs.

[MSL]

Originally Posted by twbucksr

We towed our 2015 22FB with our 2013 Honda Ridgeline for 2 years before we purchased our 2018 27FBQ FC. Here is a pic of the weigh ticket from our last trip. Used an Andersen hitch to get the weight distributed and ride height level. Also used a Tekonsha 90195 P3 Trailer Brake Controller in the Ridgeline which was helpful going down the steeper hills in the Ozarks.

Attachment 338761

Thanks very much for the info. Here's how I was calculating potential weights, which has me concerned:
Tongue Weight: I'm assuming we'd be in the 500 - 550# wet (full fresh water tank + battery + propane), maybe even higher with cargo in the trailer because most of the storage is under the bed and in front of the wheels. This is about 90% of the Ridgeline's 600# tongue weight spec.
Tow Capacity: With full fresh water tank, we'd be at about 3,800#, then with maybe 250# cargo we'd be at 4,050#. This is a bit over 80% of the Ridgeline's 5,000# capacity.
Gross Combined Weight: I think the Ridgeline has about 4,500# curb weight, the two of us (350#) plus tongue weight (550#) plus cargo (200#) plus rigid tonneau cover (guessing at 75#) to secure full size spare in bed (guessing at 50#) plus the trailer (guessing at 4,050#) brings us to GCW of 9,775#, 98% of Ridgeline's 9,987 capacity.