Why is it better for you car to be in a lower gear to go downhill but also uphill?
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Internal combustion engines provide the most power/torque within a specific RPM range, which means you need a transmission to match the engine’s speed to the desired speed of the wheels.
Lower gears require more revolutions of the motor to get one revolution of the wheels, but the lower speed comes with increased power. Higher gears use fewer revolutions of the engine for a single revolution of the wheels, which allows much faster speeds, but lower power- you can’t start in high gear, for example.
So, going up a hill, the vehicle will slow down and require additional power to overcome the gradient- it’s harder to go up a hill, so downshifting allows you to get more power to go up the hill.
Going downhill, you may want to slow your vehicle, so putting it in a lower gear and allowing the engine to act as a drag on the vehicle’s forward motion allows you to rely on the brakes less. This is not typically something you should rely on heavily with most passenger vehicles, but can help keep you from accelerating too quickly when going downhill without having to ride the brakes and heat them up.
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