[henryterry]

So I bought the 2019 Passport Touring and added the dealer installed towing package. With this, vehicle should be able to tow up to 5,ooo lbs without difficulty. Well I'm here to say, it was an epic failure.

I was towing my Aluma trailer (916 lbs) and my Indian Chieftan Limited (834 lbs), along with my wife and I (400 lbs on HIGH side), luggage (200 lbs, again, HIGH side) and bicycle (17lbs). So total, 2,367 lbs. I'll say i'm off a little on luggage and go to 2,400 lbs for arguments sake. This stated I was WELL UNDER the 5,000 lb max capacity.

We began our trip along some county 2 lane roads, max speed about 45-50 mph. PP engine did ok, but not stellar. The really disconcerting thing was the braking and the "floating" front end I encountered, along with when hitting any type of larger bump, the feeling of the vehicle being "pulled backwards" or temporarily losing forward momentum.

We made it to the highway finally and while accelerating to get on the PP could barely get up to speed quick enough to merge safely. While moving along finally at about 60-65 mph the engine seemed to start to struggle, those bumps that caused the lost momentum feeling got real bad and the floating sensation of steering became much worse. Braking, well it felt as though the trailer was really pushing us and hard braking was necessary, even more so when someone would cut into my "safety zone" between myself and the car in front of me.

Well, after about 40-50 miles my wife stated to me that she couldn't handle the unsafe feeling of the vehicle towing any longer, and I had to agree with her. We found a Ram dealer and that first day of towing (with this vehicle) and our first day of vacation was ruined. I traded in the PP for a 19 Ram.

The punch in the gut on the trade in price, and the feeling of betrayal by Honda for stating that this vehicle is capable of such a task was overwhelming. I will never purchase a foreign vehicle again, nor will I purchase a SUV for ANY towing needs ever again. It was that large of a disappointment for me.

If you are purchasing this vehicle to tow with, be warned. If you are purchasing this vehicle to tow the "max" with, I pray for your safety as I don't truly think it is capable of this, especially over any long distance. Honda, IMO has truly misrepresented this vehicles abilities when it comes to towing so it could sell them to this segment, and should be ashamed of themselves for it.

 

[henryterry]

Wow, that is too bad. I towed 4500lb with my 2017 Honda Pilot with the 5,000lb towing package and it did fine. So I purchased a new Passport Touring with the same tow package and expect it to tow as well as my Pilot did.

I'm glad you had success. It just didn't cut it for me. Best of luck to you.

 

[henryterry]

Page 441 in the owners manual covers an important point that may be related. The towing load chart lists a max tongue load of 500 lbs. If the configuration of your trailer and the weight and position of your motorcycle placed too much weight forward, that could be a cause of the symptoms you describe. I do a lot of towing/ hauling with my farm equipment with much higher weights and larger trucks. I have for instance placed a tractor too far forward on my large trailer and had very bad handling. I have had to stop and re-position the tractor further back on the trailer. When loaded more closely to recommendations the handling was excellent. The weight was not the problem, the load balance was the problem. We don't usually have immediate access to scales to exactly set our loads so we have to sometimes work by feel and experience to get in the proper range.

Good luck with your rig.

Thanks for the input. The trailer is a v nose with a 3 ft offset that I couldn’t get anything in (weight wise). The bike was centered in the trailer because I thought about hitch weights when setting it up, the PP was just not the vehicle for the job for me. I wish all of you the best of luck but I’m going to stick to good old American muscle for towing from here out. I don’t think these metric jobs are good enough for it. Happy 4th everyone!

 

[henryterry]

Did you have a weight distributing hitch? If so, perhaps it was not adjusted right if you're getting the floating feeling with the steering. Even so, it sounds like in your case with towing and cargo weight at the upper limit it was too much for the Passport.

I wasn’t close to the upper limit though, that was the issue. I was 2500 away from it.

 

[henryterry]

Sorry to read about your challenges.

Did your Touring have AWD? And did you install all the components to tow 5,000 lbs?

It did have AWD. I live in PA and my job (EMS/Cardiac Cath Lab) require I’m able to make it in inclement weather. The dealer installed all of the requisite towing items.