Episode 88: Top 10 Tips for Safe Mountain Driving & Towing | RV travel how-to tips tricks
Spending time in the mountains is one of the best ways to enjoy your RV. If you're not accustomed to mountain driving, however, towing a heavy camper up and down steep, long grades can be intimidating, or even unsafe. We're here to share our top 10 tips for safely driving across big mountain passes, with or without a trailer.
Filmed: February 23-24, 2019 (plus library footage shot 2017-18)
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- Additional photography: Christopher Ziemnowicz & pxhere.com
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Bob Moore
July 25, 2019 at 5:20 pm
We are new to RVing. We have traveled east from Ohio, through the Appalachian mountains. We have a Ford F-150 with a tow haul package. Should we use cruise control when towing? I have tried it and it seems to work well, both going up the mountain as well as slowing us down coming down the mountain. It does stay in gear longer when in tow haul going up the mountain. Coming down the mountain, it downshifts early and often goes into 4th or even 3rd gear. Generally, I don’t even need to touch the brakes coming down the mountain. The temperature gauges for water, oil and transmission do not seem to fluctuate at all. (We have a 6 speed automatic transmission) When in the mountains, we only travel between 50 and maybe 60 mph and are usually on a 4 lane highway. I set the cruise at 60 mph on flat land and when going up the mountain and 50 mph going down the mountain. If the mountain is 7% or more, the cruise usually reduces the speed going down the mountain to around 45 mph. We have an ultralight trailer with a Propride hitch.
FYI: We really enjoy you videos.
admin
July 25, 2019 at 7:22 pm
Thanks, Bob! Personally I wouldn’t use cruise control while towing, but then again I dislike using it in most circumstances. I prefer the ability to shift manually to control my ascent and descent. I also wonder how the cruise would interact with the transmission settings while in tow/haul mode, but it sounds like it plays nicely together on your F-150.