Fear of Driving to the Mountains

If you need 1st gear going up, then you probably also need 1st gear going down. Downhill, it may be IMPOSSIBLE to shift down from 2nd into 1st: you may be going too fast already. It is possibe to shift up while downhill. Better to start in a low gear and see how the car is holding.

Another thing: where is the steepest part of the descent? If it gets steeper on the way down, then you ought not to upshift too soon.

As far as hard/short vs. slight pressure, I have heard it both ways. i'm not sure whether it really makes much difference. But I like to be in a low enough gear so that a tap on the brakes once in a while is all that is required.

Good advise on gearing. As for braking let the tranny do most the slowing and when you need to apply the brake do it to slow at least 10mph and then let off the brake. When traveling in the Rockies or Cascades I will go down in the gear I went up in and I apply brake firmly as needed to slow 10mph as smooth as possible, then release and repeat as necessary. Never had an over heating of tranny or brakes. Go as slow as you need.

You generally have the right ideas. The actual gears you use will vary based on the road but if in doubt go slow, then go slower. A lot of times, the curves will slow you down as much as the grade.

If you do feel the brakes getting soft, pull over and stop.

As far as what to do if you loose them entirely, well, there are not any great options there in most cases. The only real choice is to ditch it as soon as possible, as slowly as possible, and as level as possible...But.....if you have a well-maintained rig and take it easy, that is very, very unlikely to happen.

If in doubt, have the complete brake system checked out by a reliable shop...

Go slow. It also depends on what you are driving/pulling.

We just came down a long hill nearby in our Class C without having to touch the brakes. The speed maintained at about 60mph on its own with me having to give it gas every now and then.

A year and half ago, came down same hill towing a 10,000 lb travel trailer with our f250 v10 (same engine in class c). It was a bit different then. The TT pushed on the truck causing it to pick up speed. I had to use the brakes every now and then.

The climb was also different. Truck pulled ok up it, but I could tell there was less strain when driving the class c up the hill

Now as the the actual BRAKING issue. The WORST thing you can do is to lightly RIDE the brakes to control your speed. This will make them QUICKLY overheat and opens up the possibility of warping your brake rotors (disc brakes) or burning your shoes (drum brakes). It's RARE for disc brakes to fail from overheating but you CAN warp the rotors which can be expensive to repair.

The solution is to use brakes firmly to slow down BELOW the speed you want to drive then get back off of the brakes and allow the vehicle to speed up a little beyond your preferred speed. Repeat this procedure and when combined with gearing, you should be able to use your brakes only about 10 to 15% of the time instead of close to 100% by riding them. Using this method should let you reach the bottom of the mountain with only slightly WARM brakes, no damage and no brake fade.
Good luck / Skip

The Key as many have said is Speed, keep it Slow (60 mph in the mountains coming down from Big Bear will get one killed, IMHO) and allow the Engine & Transmission to do the Slowing, not the Breaks. Use the Breaks very Sparingly. Do NOT Ride the Breaks. But you wrote that yourself. It is easy to allow the Heavy RV to get moving faster than it should, Keep it Slow early on.

Better to start going down very Slow once you get into the Curves & Steep Descents, Keep the transmission in a low gear. Depending on the Steepness, may need First Gear.

Try not to psych yourself out, Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself, however, it is good to be Cautious.

I'm not familiar with the route up to where you are going, often in mountains they do have emergency 'truck' ramps for out of control truck to run up onto to slow them down. Truck Escape Ramps

Otherwise, one can 'brush' into the side of the hillside to slow a vehicle down, in other words, rub the side of the RV onto the side of the hillside if you have lost the breaks completely. Which would be an extremely unlikely thing to happen, IMHO.

Not sure if you will need to use 1st gear going up or not, depends on the steepness of the highway & the power of your rig. Use whatever gear one needs to keep it moving upward.

Likewise, you which gear you need to keep it slowly going down safely. Might just need First. Use it if you need it. Forget you are from SoCal & take it nice and easy when you start down.

Have Fun & Don't Sweat It......To Much.

Post Edit:
Some wrote this about Escape Ramps:
"In steep mountainous areas,the brakes on large heavily loaded vehicles can become overheated and then fail to work on long downhill runs. The ramp is usually located on a curve of the downhill road. The road curves right or left and the ramp continues straight and up a steep hill. The ramp is an excavated trench filled with loose, round, smooth river rock. When the runaway truck enters the ramp, the effect is the same as when you try to walk through deep snow or in deep water in a swimming pool, substantial yet gradual resistance. This brings the truck to a safe halt with no assistance from the brakes.

Whatever you do, you don't want to mistake a ramp for a place to pull off to take a photo because once you're in the loose gravel, you'll need a tow truck to get you out."

I did a Quick Look on Google Maps, it looks like the route has many pull outs for viewing, etc. Be careful using any of them on the way down, one can be going too fast at times to really be able to stop in one of those. At least be very careful you are not moving too fast to stop safely, make sure you are going slow enough to use a pull off.

Best of Luck on your Trip.

My wife was Born & Raised in the San Gabriel Valley & we go out there a lot, but I have never gone up to the Big Bear area. Her folks lived in the Victorville area for a while, we drove the Cojon Pass many times, but never when up to Big Bear.

But I have driven in mountains for many years in NM & the West. Born & Raise a Texas Flatlander, but really like the hills & curves. Really fun to drive.

Oh, yes, I did have a C-Class from '97 to 2005; a somewhat short one, about 22'.

Just for info.. What are you driving.
Someone here may have same RV. Than can give even more info on how it handles in the MT's.

In the semi we have a couple basic rules
1- you go down a hill 1 gear lower than you went up.
2- save your brakes for an emergency, use the engine/trans to slow you down.
3- if you have to brake, use stab braking as described above.

As one ole boy told me as I creped down the Rockies for the 1st time. "You can go down a hill too slow many times, you'll only go down it too fast, once."

Take your time and enjoy the view.

You should not have any problems at all using route 38 east of Redlands to climb up into the Big Bear area and coming back out.

It is not a straight climb / descent all the way so you will be in and out of various gears going up and down.

You are in the right gear going down hill if you only have to brake very occasionally. Ok what's that? Maybe every couple minutes or every 5 minutes or never. Depends on how the grade might change on you. Use the brake to scrub off maybe 5 or 10 mph if necessary and then get right back off the brake. The transmission should be controlling you downhill speed - not the brake. If you are in the right gear you should not immediately gain speed again after braking.

And when you do need to apply some brake it should not throw everybody out of their seat. Just get on it firmly for a bit and then back off. Five or so seconds maybe. Often times less.

So far as climbing a mountain grade, I always do that with the engine operating at the peak torque. For my rig, about 3200 rpm. Without a tach or experience that's not easy to know. You don't want the throttle floored if at all possible. That burns up exhaust manifolds and generally put some real stress on the engine. But keep the engine revved up at less than full throttle - not lugging.

Route 38 is probably about as good a mountain road as you could ever find to get some experience with mountain driving.

Don't worry about it. Go have some fun.

(edit: If you are coming down a steep grade and need to slow down for a couple of sharp switchback curves go ahead and use the brakes as much as necessary. It won't matter at all. 30 seconds or even a minute on the brakes a bit won't cause any problems.)

Thanks everyone. I am driving a 2004 Thor Motor Coach, Class C. I believe it weighs about 11000 pounds or so.