I’ve read it helps with towing and steep hills, but what is actually happening and does it hurt the car by having it in L at any other time?
In: Engineering
If you ride a bike, this should be something you’ve experienced before.
L, or Low gear, is good for exerting less force yourself, the trade off being that you need to pedal more times. So you’ll be pedalling many many times with little effort, but each rotation will be moving your bike by a miniscule amount.
At a high gear, pedalling requires considerable effort, but each rotation of your feet moves the bike along much further. So when the terrain is flat and you can easily expend that effort, you switch to the high gear and zoom past. When the incline is steep, you switch to a low gear so you can pedal up without dying.
If you use L under normal conditions, you’re spinning your engine (pedal) much more than is needed, and will be inefficient with your fuel. This also increases the wear and tear on your engine, and caps your max speed, since even when spinning (pedalling) furiously, your car won’t move very fast.
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