[8307c4]

I am unsure whether maintaining speed is worse than losing speed, but I do know that accelerating up a hill is the worst thing. What I do is give it a little gas some distance ahead of the hill and build a few mph's of speed then as I enter the up hill I give it a little more gas as the car loses speed...
It's a trick, how much gas has to do with how long and how steep the hill is.
I don't mind losing 5-10 mph's but too much more isn't practical.

Then nearing the top just before I crest over it I let off the gas a little and then get back up to cruising speed afterwards.

Sort of try to 'flow' over it, but in actual practice it ends up acting much like 18-wheelers do... Sometimes I let it down shift, other times not, all depends.

Works much like IDPE as well, (Identify-Predict-Decide-Execute).
That is, identify the hill ahead of time, predict what it's going to take to get over it, decide how much fuel she'll need, then execute all that.

The perfect hill would be entered at about 5 mph's over the cruising speed and exited about 5 mph's below said limit. So if I'm cruising along at 35 I might give it some gas 1/4 mile ahead so as enter the hill at 40 and gradually lose speed going up it to where I'm doing 30-32 as I let off the gas some to crest it... Then after I'm over it I let the car gradually build back up to 35.
Of course if the car's shift point is 32 mph, again this varies from one car to the next and I wouldn't exceed the speed limit by more than a few mph's either (+5 MAX).

It does take practice, such as knowing the car's shift points...
That is, either let it shift or not, all or most of that has to be decided ahead of time or it may or may not work... It helps to practice on known hills first, once you get it down it's not so bad, and the actual tactic will vary some from one vehicle to the next.

Again I'm not sure if this is any better than simply maintaining speed, but it does somewhat guarantee that I never accelerate going up a hill.