Mountain Driving Forums

jhelm

This last weekend we did a tour of some potential ski areas here in Italy, trying to locate parking areas. We passed from Bolzano going East back to Belluno. Now I think I'm pretty good with the mountain driving. I have a good amount of experience on ski trips etc. But not much experience driving a truck/MH in the mountains. So in spite of a lot of down shifting on the downhill runs the brakes on our Hymer got a good workout and the smell of hot brake pads was evident after some long runs. That makes me a bit nervous. So I'm wondering if others have techniques that I don't know about. I can't imagine what they might be but one never knows.

Wizzo

I've never been in that situation so I cannot say but my own gut reaction would be to brake in short bursts rather than holding the brake on continuously - give the discs and pads some time to cool.

I suppose that some scientific boffin will shoot me down in flames though because the energy (heat) generated could be the same in both cases? Sometimes wish I'd done sciences at school instead of languages but I hated Physics when the time came to choose.

JohnW

hilldweller

teemyob

Hello,

If we are doing a lot of climbing or decending, I find it is a good idea to stop sy halfway down a very deep decent and allow the brakes to cool a little.

All the advice I have I am afraid.

Trev.

bikemad99

I was always told when driving heavy goods,to use the same gear going down hill as you would need if going up the hill. This means you need less braking.

Reg.

eddied

Buon giorno jhelm,
we have some pretty rought mountains down here too. I have a 25 Km mountainous road on the way out or home, before I hit a road where I can engage 4th or 5th gear. I can but echo Reg. never go down a mountain road in a higher gear than you would use to go up it. Only ever touch the brakes on a hairpin.
saluti,
eddied

Vennwood

Hi,

I use pretty much the same method as Reg and resist the temptation to go faster to appease the cars behind and keep the van speed down. I realise that they will be pulling out and nipping back in and getting uperty, but at the end of the day it would be our van over the edge not theirs. If its a long hill (up or down) we try to pull in halfway to cool down both engine and brakes.

Not much help I guess but every little helps as a well known supermarket says.....

Carper

jhelm

I never tried braking in short bursts. Not too sure if it helps or not, but I will try it. I do downshift, however, I wonder how high one wants the rpms to go. When they get over 3,000 I start to wonder if it might not be so good for the engine. Driving a car this always seemed to work fine but with all the weight of a MH speed and or rpms build up pretty fast. Thus one has to use the breaks anyway. That's the problem I found, inspite of using a low gear one must still use the brakes a lot. I don't mind going slow and do pull over when a bunch of cars are behind me.

I suppose stoping for a rest is a good idea.

The road from Selva down to Canazei is a lot of fun, true hairpins one after the other, verysteep and places where if you encounter a bus coming up the hill there is no way the two of you can pass.

Wizzo