The Mt Vic pass is no steeper than most of the other toads from the coast over the Great dividing range. You are going to miss out on many good trips if you do not learn to cope with those roads.

There are many out there who think their tugs are struggling if they do not climb hills in top gear or one or two gears down. If you are going to climb steep hills you need to use low gears. It will not affect your vehicle if you climb hills slowly in 2nd gear with the motor revving at high revs. When climbing steep hills keep your revs over 3,000 rpm so there will be very little slip in the torque converter (that keeps gearbox temperatures down.) It will not hurt to give your motor a good workout at high revs providing you do not exceed the red line on the tachometer. Do that occasionally to blow the cobwebs out of the motor.

I do not consider my vehicle to be struggling unless I am in 1st gear and it is looking that the vehicle will fail to climb the hill. If I am climbing a hill in low gear, I do not consider that the motor is struggling, I just consider that I am giving the motor a bit of hard work to do. After all how many trucks do you see climbing those hills at cruising speed, they are just doing a bit of heavy work, they are not struggling.