Thor Forums

[Chance]

In crossing the Rockies many times in different motorhomes, I’ve also found proper transmission gearing is key both up and down. The principle has been the same no matter the size or weight.

Going up a lower gear allows the same engine power to develop more climbing force at lower vehicle speeds. That’s common knowledge to most drivers.

Going down is a lot more critical in my opinion, which is why I use brakes for stopping or momentarily slowing down, but never to limit speed on long descents. I think in terms of engine braking can only provide a certain amount of negative horsepower, so the slower I go in a lower gear the more braking force it can provide indefinitely (unlike brakes which will overheat and fail).

If motorhome gets going faster than I want, I use brakes if needed to slow down enough to engage a lower gear. If that lower gear doesn’t provide enough engine braking to maintain my desired safe speed, I slow as needed again to engage an even lower gear. Eventually I’ve always found a gear that could hold speed without ever riding brakes.

I will admit I came close to losing it a long time ago descending on I-40 west of Flagstaff. I allowed myself to get going too fast for the vehicle and trailer because of fear that other traffic was moving way faster than us and that I may get hit from behind. I will never make that mistake again.