In-Depth Off Road review of the MDX
02-05-2017, 12:53 AM
#1
Moderator
Thread Starter
In-Depth Off Road review of the MDX
Hello Folks!
Today I want to give my full detailed Off Road Review of the MDX.
First of all lets get things clear, Neither Acura or Honda claim that the MDX is an Off Road vehicle in any way! They never show the MDX off roading in any Ad, Comercial or In web pictures. This Off Road review is based only on my Experience using the MDX for Off Road.
Now why the MDX is a Good Off Roader?
First we need to get 1 thing out of discussion, OFF ROAD is a term used for anything that doesn't happen in Tarmac. This means that everything that happens on a dirt road is classified as "Off Road", If your definition of Off Roading is something like a Jeep going through Rubicon trails or Rock Crawling well that is fine just keep this discussion focused on the type of vehicle the MDX is and its limitations and try not to compare it to a full fledged Off Road made vehicle as those are not jack of all trades either.
Something like this is never going to happen unless you wanna lose your oil pan or destroy the propeller shaft but nobody is recommending this with the MDX:
The MDX has a lot going in to help it off road (PROS):
1.- SH-AWD is an AMAZING AWD System even if Acura designed this to be an On Road system is incredibly capable to aid in Off Road duties as it can do E-LSD using the rear diff and its brake (drag LSD) is really good allowing it to push forward even on the craziest Diagonal Wheel-Spin. Simply put the Electronic Wizardy of the MDX allows it to be a very capable off roader even if it lacks Locking Diffs or even a real LSD! I have been in this scenario more than a dozen times..
This is not a challenge to the MDX! SH-AWD will send power to the wheel with traction and VSA will brake the front spinning wheel.. Seriously who needs LSDs with tech like this? Hint: Toyota calls this system ATRAC! on the Tacoma and does exactly what the MDX does.
2.- It has the Ride Height, Granted is not crazy Jeep Levels of Ride Height but keeping the Off Road in realistic dosis the ride height is very good.
3.- It has a short wheel base which combined with the ride height gives it a lot of Ramp Angle to work with for a Luxury SUV.
4.- It has the POWAH! The MDX obviously lacks a transfer case this alone strikes a punch on what the MDX can do Off the Road so only 1st gear is what moves it around and its not really a low enough gear to do crazy hill climb but what helps a ton is the 300HP engine that pushes the MDX... This alone can make you climb that hill!!
5.- Big Beefy front shocks! Those front shocks are no joke they are designed to take hits so you can be comfortable doing off road knowing you are not going to need new shocks afterwards, Obviously your are not going to be jumping.. Keep it Realistic.
6.- Wide Tires and 18" Wheels are your best friends, The Stock tires are very good off the road!
7.- Superb Honda Quality, Nothing squeaks! Everything remains solid and the Uni-Body gives it a Chassis Strength not known by many Body on Frames.
Now the MDX does still have On Road only DNA on it (CONS):
1.- It has an over sprung suspension, Which is quite good for On Road it is a huge hurdle off the road.. Having 2 diagonal wheels on the air is not difficult to do and bad condition roads are going to be felt everywhere on the car, But at the end of the day Springs are one of the worse enemies of the MDX in Off Road! Weight Shift!! Jesus Christ is Exaggerated to unholy Proportions.
2.- Tires if you are not going to sacrifice On Road behavior are going to be a huge setback.. I have done plenty of stuff with the stock Latitude HPs but Forget about going into sharp rock country! These tires will not survive under pointy sharp rocks... So you are limited in what kind of off roads you can travel.
3.- Dampening, Yeah you get it shocks are clearly not tuned for Off Road so you will be traveling SLOWWWWWWW most of your off road adventures.
4.- Say goodbye to your MPGs! 4-6mpgs will be your new average.
5.- Swaybars are your sole Enemy.. I swear in combination of the over sprung springs Swaybars are the worse enemy of the MDX you will absolutely hate weight shift because the MDX will rock like a boat on a hurricane... Awful AAAAWWWFUL.
I have collected now roughly 1500miles on pure off road mileage with the MDX, I don't claim to know its limits by I can safely say "I can do that" "I can climb that" with a lot of confidence so I will now guide you to the kind of terrains the MDX can tackle and how. First of all it is a given you will be traveling slow on most of all Off Road terrains so keep that in Mind.
Plain flat hardpacked dirt roads:
This is the easiest! The MDX can keep up with the big boys here and even better! Tires are wide enough to keep traction at +60mph speeds and unless the road becomes Un-Even you can drive all day here.
Hard packed slightly un-even dirt roads:
Suspension tune will become obvious that the MDX is not designed to fly by through here like most Jeeps or any Pick Up can, Read the terrain carefully and you can maintain speeds up to 25mph without stressing the suspension.. I do not recommend going faster than that because the hard suspension will make the MDX unstable.
Hard packed rocky dirt roads:
A great tip I can give you is to drop tire pressure to 30PSI (HOT) this will allow the tires to absorb the rocks! but if rocks are big enough you will have to slow down dramatically to find a better road line where you can avoid the bigger rocks.. Rocks about 1 or 2 inches big are no problem but rocks from +4 inches are a no go at speed.. You will max out at 15mph in these conditions.
Hard packed very un-ever dirt roads:
The biggest worse enemy of the MDX... Suspension Springs and Sway Bars are clearly not designed to handle this and the Weight Shift is very dramatic, Basically it will toss around the MDX like it was a toy. Be prepared to slow the MDX to a crawl (Idle Level) speed, A dude walking will overtake you all day... If you can avoid these types of roads it will be for the best because you will max out at 3-5mph in these conditions! AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS!
Soft Sand and Beach Dunes:
The MDX handles dunes and Soft Sand and Beach Dunes surprisingly well I have yet to get stuck on these conditions even with full 35PSI, This is mainly because the MDX uses Wide Tires for the segment so they are a huge help not digging in.. If you deflate the tires you can probably get by on these conditions all day! Obviously the MDX is not a Sand Bug and it will get rough if you find un-even dunes (Weight Shift = No) keep your off road realistic and try not to get yourself in dangerous situations (Like driving along a beach or something) and you will be fine.
Hill Climbs:
The MDX can hill climb very well, SH-AWD is a huge help here and you will use that amazing 70% Rear Bias all day long! Now the biggest concern here is that due to lack of a transfer case you will get your transmission (Mainly the Torque Converter) Toasty.. You can hill climb at speed no need to go crawling specially for too long in a deep steep, If you go for too long you will trigger a "Transmission Hot" Alarm this happens because there is no Air Flow at crawl speeds to the ATF Cooler. In 1500 off road miles I have only triggered a Transmission Hot once! What you need to do in this situation is to STOP and allow the ATF to Cool Down (Alarm will go off by itself). This only happens if you go very absurdly slow in a hill steep applying very little gas. The Engine is BOSS Honda quality all the day and will NEVER Over Heat its the Transmission that will hold you back. There are ways to avoid this! My biggest tip is to set your A/C To Max COLD! This will turn both radiator fans at full speed which will cool down the ATF on the ATF Cooler, Once I did this the Transmission Hot never came back in the same Hill that triggered before even going at the same speed, Since I installed the extra ATF Cooler to bypass the Radiator I don´t have the need to turn the A/C On anymore, I can climb the same hill without overheating the transmission. The Hill that triggered this is incredibly steep and broken add that is about 100meter long so its about like this but 6 times longer:
The MDX can do this very easily but not Continuously so If you have to climb stuff like this for longer than 5 minutes I advice you to take breaks of 5 minutes between each climb or install an Extra ATF Cooler or a Fan in front of the stock cooler that you can turn on in this situations. Unless the climb is muddy or very damaged you can climb pretty much anything just not for a long time due to the lack of a Transfer Case. With the extra ATF Cooler I dropped 20°C out of my ATF Temps when doing climbs.
Going Downhill is even easier, The MDX has great brakes and wide tires to keep you in control.. Even if you push it a little hard ABS Kicks in with authority and VSA keeps it in line.
But what about breaking stuff in 1500 off road miles?
So far I have yet to damage anything! You must keep it realistic obviously..There is no rock crawling or navigating new roads with the MDX unless you do some crazy stuff the MDX will hold fine! My shocks are all working, bushings and A-Arms are Intact. Transmission can tow 5000lbs it can Off Road all day just pushing the MDX.. There has been only 1 transmission over heat and it was on one of my first off road adventures so I didn´t have prior experience, After that and now with the ATF Cooler there has been 0 Trans Overheats but now I know better! I hope you learn from my experience and Try new horizons with your MDX.. For me it has been the best SUV I have owned even better than my prior BMW X5.
That is all Folks! Hope you like it.
Today I want to give my full detailed Off Road Review of the MDX.
First of all lets get things clear, Neither Acura or Honda claim that the MDX is an Off Road vehicle in any way! They never show the MDX off roading in any Ad, Comercial or In web pictures. This Off Road review is based only on my Experience using the MDX for Off Road.
Now why the MDX is a Good Off Roader?
First we need to get 1 thing out of discussion, OFF ROAD is a term used for anything that doesn't happen in Tarmac. This means that everything that happens on a dirt road is classified as "Off Road", If your definition of Off Roading is something like a Jeep going through Rubicon trails or Rock Crawling well that is fine just keep this discussion focused on the type of vehicle the MDX is and its limitations and try not to compare it to a full fledged Off Road made vehicle as those are not jack of all trades either.
Something like this is never going to happen unless you wanna lose your oil pan or destroy the propeller shaft but nobody is recommending this with the MDX:
The MDX has a lot going in to help it off road (PROS):
1.- SH-AWD is an AMAZING AWD System even if Acura designed this to be an On Road system is incredibly capable to aid in Off Road duties as it can do E-LSD using the rear diff and its brake (drag LSD) is really good allowing it to push forward even on the craziest Diagonal Wheel-Spin. Simply put the Electronic Wizardy of the MDX allows it to be a very capable off roader even if it lacks Locking Diffs or even a real LSD! I have been in this scenario more than a dozen times..
This is not a challenge to the MDX! SH-AWD will send power to the wheel with traction and VSA will brake the front spinning wheel.. Seriously who needs LSDs with tech like this? Hint: Toyota calls this system ATRAC! on the Tacoma and does exactly what the MDX does.
2.- It has the Ride Height, Granted is not crazy Jeep Levels of Ride Height but keeping the Off Road in realistic dosis the ride height is very good.
3.- It has a short wheel base which combined with the ride height gives it a lot of Ramp Angle to work with for a Luxury SUV.
4.- It has the POWAH! The MDX obviously lacks a transfer case this alone strikes a punch on what the MDX can do Off the Road so only 1st gear is what moves it around and its not really a low enough gear to do crazy hill climb but what helps a ton is the 300HP engine that pushes the MDX... This alone can make you climb that hill!!
5.- Big Beefy front shocks! Those front shocks are no joke they are designed to take hits so you can be comfortable doing off road knowing you are not going to need new shocks afterwards, Obviously your are not going to be jumping.. Keep it Realistic.
6.- Wide Tires and 18" Wheels are your best friends, The Stock tires are very good off the road!
7.- Superb Honda Quality, Nothing squeaks! Everything remains solid and the Uni-Body gives it a Chassis Strength not known by many Body on Frames.
Now the MDX does still have On Road only DNA on it (CONS):
1.- It has an over sprung suspension, Which is quite good for On Road it is a huge hurdle off the road.. Having 2 diagonal wheels on the air is not difficult to do and bad condition roads are going to be felt everywhere on the car, But at the end of the day Springs are one of the worse enemies of the MDX in Off Road! Weight Shift!! Jesus Christ is Exaggerated to unholy Proportions.
2.- Tires if you are not going to sacrifice On Road behavior are going to be a huge setback.. I have done plenty of stuff with the stock Latitude HPs but Forget about going into sharp rock country! These tires will not survive under pointy sharp rocks... So you are limited in what kind of off roads you can travel.
3.- Dampening, Yeah you get it shocks are clearly not tuned for Off Road so you will be traveling SLOWWWWWWW most of your off road adventures.
4.- Say goodbye to your MPGs! 4-6mpgs will be your new average.
5.- Swaybars are your sole Enemy.. I swear in combination of the over sprung springs Swaybars are the worse enemy of the MDX you will absolutely hate weight shift because the MDX will rock like a boat on a hurricane... Awful AAAAWWWFUL.
I have collected now roughly 1500miles on pure off road mileage with the MDX, I don't claim to know its limits by I can safely say "I can do that" "I can climb that" with a lot of confidence so I will now guide you to the kind of terrains the MDX can tackle and how. First of all it is a given you will be traveling slow on most of all Off Road terrains so keep that in Mind.
Plain flat hardpacked dirt roads:
This is the easiest! The MDX can keep up with the big boys here and even better! Tires are wide enough to keep traction at +60mph speeds and unless the road becomes Un-Even you can drive all day here.
Hard packed slightly un-even dirt roads:
Suspension tune will become obvious that the MDX is not designed to fly by through here like most Jeeps or any Pick Up can, Read the terrain carefully and you can maintain speeds up to 25mph without stressing the suspension.. I do not recommend going faster than that because the hard suspension will make the MDX unstable.
Hard packed rocky dirt roads:
A great tip I can give you is to drop tire pressure to 30PSI (HOT) this will allow the tires to absorb the rocks! but if rocks are big enough you will have to slow down dramatically to find a better road line where you can avoid the bigger rocks.. Rocks about 1 or 2 inches big are no problem but rocks from +4 inches are a no go at speed.. You will max out at 15mph in these conditions.
Hard packed very un-ever dirt roads:
The biggest worse enemy of the MDX... Suspension Springs and Sway Bars are clearly not designed to handle this and the Weight Shift is very dramatic, Basically it will toss around the MDX like it was a toy. Be prepared to slow the MDX to a crawl (Idle Level) speed, A dude walking will overtake you all day... If you can avoid these types of roads it will be for the best because you will max out at 3-5mph in these conditions! AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS!
Soft Sand and Beach Dunes:
The MDX handles dunes and Soft Sand and Beach Dunes surprisingly well I have yet to get stuck on these conditions even with full 35PSI, This is mainly because the MDX uses Wide Tires for the segment so they are a huge help not digging in.. If you deflate the tires you can probably get by on these conditions all day! Obviously the MDX is not a Sand Bug and it will get rough if you find un-even dunes (Weight Shift = No) keep your off road realistic and try not to get yourself in dangerous situations (Like driving along a beach or something) and you will be fine.
Hill Climbs:
The MDX can hill climb very well, SH-AWD is a huge help here and you will use that amazing 70% Rear Bias all day long! Now the biggest concern here is that due to lack of a transfer case you will get your transmission (Mainly the Torque Converter) Toasty.. You can hill climb at speed no need to go crawling specially for too long in a deep steep, If you go for too long you will trigger a "Transmission Hot" Alarm this happens because there is no Air Flow at crawl speeds to the ATF Cooler. In 1500 off road miles I have only triggered a Transmission Hot once! What you need to do in this situation is to STOP and allow the ATF to Cool Down (Alarm will go off by itself). This only happens if you go very absurdly slow in a hill steep applying very little gas. The Engine is BOSS Honda quality all the day and will NEVER Over Heat its the Transmission that will hold you back. There are ways to avoid this! My biggest tip is to set your A/C To Max COLD! This will turn both radiator fans at full speed which will cool down the ATF on the ATF Cooler, Once I did this the Transmission Hot never came back in the same Hill that triggered before even going at the same speed, Since I installed the extra ATF Cooler to bypass the Radiator I don´t have the need to turn the A/C On anymore, I can climb the same hill without overheating the transmission. The Hill that triggered this is incredibly steep and broken add that is about 100meter long so its about like this but 6 times longer:
The MDX can do this very easily but not Continuously so If you have to climb stuff like this for longer than 5 minutes I advice you to take breaks of 5 minutes between each climb or install an Extra ATF Cooler or a Fan in front of the stock cooler that you can turn on in this situations. Unless the climb is muddy or very damaged you can climb pretty much anything just not for a long time due to the lack of a Transfer Case. With the extra ATF Cooler I dropped 20°C out of my ATF Temps when doing climbs.
Going Downhill is even easier, The MDX has great brakes and wide tires to keep you in control.. Even if you push it a little hard ABS Kicks in with authority and VSA keeps it in line.
But what about breaking stuff in 1500 off road miles?
So far I have yet to damage anything! You must keep it realistic obviously..There is no rock crawling or navigating new roads with the MDX unless you do some crazy stuff the MDX will hold fine! My shocks are all working, bushings and A-Arms are Intact. Transmission can tow 5000lbs it can Off Road all day just pushing the MDX.. There has been only 1 transmission over heat and it was on one of my first off road adventures so I didn´t have prior experience, After that and now with the ATF Cooler there has been 0 Trans Overheats but now I know better! I hope you learn from my experience and Try new horizons with your MDX.. For me it has been the best SUV I have owned even better than my prior BMW X5.
That is all Folks! Hope you like it.
02-08-2017, 03:00 PM
#3
Moderator
Thread Starter
Thanks Illustro!
Nope there is no extra wear on the tires as fas as I could tell and I don´t cross stuff that might damage my wheels either so they are as good as when I bought the car.
I never go in groups basically because most of my friends own Tacomas, Jeeps and such.. I am the only crazy one going with an MDX so I will slow them down.
Basically is rolling by the spot, I am traveling in the road and there is a cool flat dirt road I can explore so I take it until it becomes a No Go for the MDX.
Nope there is no extra wear on the tires as fas as I could tell and I don´t cross stuff that might damage my wheels either so they are as good as when I bought the car.
I never go in groups basically because most of my friends own Tacomas, Jeeps and such.. I am the only crazy one going with an MDX so I will slow them down.
Basically is rolling by the spot, I am traveling in the road and there is a cool flat dirt road I can explore so I take it until it becomes a No Go for the MDX.
