http://www.hondasuv.com/stg/viewtopic.php?p=74655#74655
A motoring journo's review of the '05 CR-V (hmm)

The new CRV has a modified RT4WD unit. The hydralic part appears to be the same, but at lower degrees of wheel slip, a cam system operates quickly, applying a modest amount of torque to the rear wheels
http://www.honda.co.jp/auto-lineup/cr-v/mechanism/drivability.html

Does the '05 Element have the same updated RT4wd box?

No, this new RT4WD is only on the CRV. In terms of mechanics and innovations, the Element is the 'poor' American cousin to the CRV, getting the hand-me-downs.

paulj

Don't you think it would be expected that this evolutionary change in the system will sooner or later be incorporated in the Element as well?

ron

Interesting post Paul

As someone who has done a lot of offroading over the years I can certainly agree with the journo in the first link who said that ground clearance is the key. This will be the main limitation of the Element for me - deep ruts or rocks will defeat it pretty easily regardless of the AWD system.

As an example you should appreciate, last summer we went into Tsylos Lake Provincial Park off the Chilko Lake Road on the Chilcotin Plateau. That road would have been a bugger with the Element. Our Suzuki Sidekick (with about 8" of clearance and a slighly better approach angle) scraped quite a few times on the heavy ruts caused by larger vehicles after heavy rains.

Are you referring to the road that trys to go about the NE corner of Chilko Lake, that on paper, connects the two park campgrounds? The descriptions that I've read of that made it sound pretty bad.

There may be an tire-size war going on in these mud holes - big boys with big tires make deep ruts, making the track impassible to anyone with smaller tires. Next season people come back with even bigger tires.

I've tried my best in rutted areas to stay on high ground, rather than track along in the ruts. In one mildly rutted spot, I managed to keep my front wheels on high ground, but the rear ones tracked along in the ruts. I haven't tried anything very muddy yet.

paulj

Are you referring to the road that trys to go about the NE corner of Chilko Lake, that on paper, connects the two park campgrounds? The descriptions that I've read of that made it sound pretty bad. ...

That's the one, although even the road into the provincial park at the NW end of Chilko Lake was pretty heavily rutted.

I don't know how feasible a mild lift for the Element is but I'm sure there are other threads on this. I'm NOT going through that again, however, suspension mods are an even worse pit (of the money kind) than the roads in the Chilcotin! :-D