Folks, I am a real newbie here - just pulled a small 2-horse stock a couple of times - and I am going to be driving two horses out to the Black Hills in SD in two weeks due to a cancellation within my camping party.

I am driving an '03 Escalade EXT with commercial breaks and am having a brake controller installed next week, so I think my rig is adequate, but I sure could use some advice about driving in the mountains!

Can you guys give me some suggestions on the best practices, transmission-wise, to save both my brakes and wear-and-tear on the tranny?

Thanks!

totally agree with everyone's take your time comment, but expanding on it a bit.  I haul over mountain passes quite a bit, and I see you are in Minnesota and I guess you probably don't.  When everyone says take your time, I think they mean drive only as fast as it feels safe to you, and this will likely be quite a bit slower than the speed limit.  Especially downhill, if you manually shift down to let your engine and transmission keep you going slower, it will save on your brake wear.  When you do have to brake, brake steadily and then let off, allowing your brakes to cool between applying them.  If you ride the brakes down hills, they will heat up.  It is important to completely let off the brakes. 

In my area, a certain mountain pass has a downhill speed of 55-60 mph, but when pulling the trailer I usually am doing just 40-45 mph in the very steep part because that is where I feel in control.  If something were to happen I feel like I could safely brake at that speed.  Any faster and my stop time would increase greatly. 

Listen to your vehicle.  If it starts shifting/down shifting, turn off your overdrive.  Go as slow as you need to, up and down, everyone else can wait or go around.