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[atreis]

From someone that towed sizeable full-height trailers with minivans for years, in the mountains, including SD, CO, I-68 in MD/WV, and I-77 in NC:

How to tow in mountains:

You need to know your vehicle. Most especially, figure out where the power band is for your engine. This is an RPM range (nothing to do with speed) where the engine produces the most power. If you have a tachometer, you can figure it out by staying in a low gear and revving through the RPM range. There will be a point where you feel noticeably more power, and another point where it falls off. If you don't have a tachometer, you can still do it, but it's a little fuzzier. You figure out the rough engine RPMs by sound, or by knowing what gear you're in and what speed you're going. (Sound is usually easier.) Play with it a bit and you'll get the feel of it.

Engine Noise: Don't be afraid to USE your engine. Yes, it can scream like a banshee at high RPMs if that's where your power band is. It's designed for that. Let it scream! I like to turn the radio off so that I can hear the engine better.

Going up: Goal: Keep the engine in the power band. Don't worry about speed.

At the bottom of the slope, get up to speed (speed limit to a little over). As you start up the slope, put your engine into the power band. The goal here is not to maintain speed, it's to maintain RPMs. Keep the engine in the power band. As the slope gets steep, just keep it in the power band. You'll slow down some, and it will downshift to maintain that level of RPMs. Start at the top of the power band, as you slow down and approach the bottom of the power band, push it to shift. If you stay in the power band, you'll be surprised how good a job it does at maintaining speed. You'll pass big rigs, much larger RVs, etc. driven by people that don't know how to do this or who are afraid to let their engine roar. (Loved passing big diesel pickups with trailers while towing a 21 foot trailer with a minivan!) The big thing to note here is that speed is unimportant. You'll go however fast your vehicle can while maintaining the engine in the power band. Don't stress about it. (Pulling a 19% grade with trailer in a minivan in PA, on a back road that I travel sometimes, I'd end up going no more than 20 mph by the time I got to the top. Interstate grades aren't anywhere near that steep, and I've never fallen below 40 mph on an Interstate.)

Going down: Goal: Control and limit use of the brakes. You don't want them to overheat.

As you approach the start of the downhill, slow down to the minimum speed.
Gravity will take care of making you go faster. As the slope gets steep enough that you start gaining speed without giving it gas, put the engine into high RPMs by downshifting using the shift lever. The friction of the engine will help slow you. (Again, don't be afraid to let it scream.) Let gravity speed you up, don't give it gas unless the slope isn't steep enough for gravity to do it. As you get up to the maximum speed you're comfortable with (not so fast the transmission computer forces an upshift!), brake firmly to slow back down to the minimum speed. So that your speed varies, for instance, between 65 at the high end or whatever is comfortable for you/the speed limit and 45 at the low end. The big thing here: don't ride the brakes. Brake firmly so that you're only applying the brakes for 10-30 seconds and slow down relatively quickly. Then let gravity start speeding you back up again. Repeat this process. Doing this, your brakes have time to cool between applications so that they can continue to work effectively.

Time: Allocate more time for mountain driving so that you're not stressing about that. It takes more attention and a little more mental work to drive in mountains, but once you get the hang of it, it's really not bad.