Well, that "L" button is pretty useless,,,

[The Real Maverick]

'24 Lariat EB AWD, found myself on a winding downhill stretch of road in PA this week, signed at 9% grade. Figured this was as good a time as any to try the L-button and see if there was any compression braking available, damn did the rpm's shoot up to 5k+! It certainly doesn't drop just 1 or 2 gears,,,,,,

HRG

I think you did not give it a fair test.

But in short, it is designed to rev higher because bloody 'ell that's what any low gear does!

RPM will "probably" drop if your speed does. RPM's taper off in the hybrids.

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[Edge Haley]

Discovered this in the Hybrid in Big Horn Mountain Range, Wyoming this summer. Was at 9,700 feet at the top of a mountain pass heading down the mountain not wanting to ride the brakes so put Hybrid in Cruise Control for 40 mph and the Hybrid transmission/engine up and down shifted all the way down the 66 mile mountain pass maintaining the 40 mph speed.....found it most impressive...felt very similar to a PDK transmission.

Have driven the EB many hundreds of miles and the Hybrid transmission is a whole different animal compared to the EBoost.

 

[DTF-Garage]

Not really sure what you thought was going to happen. It doesn't just downshift, it goes into gear to keep your RPM's as high as it can for downhill slopes and max torque. I don't think it goes over 3rd or 4th gear depending on your speed.

 

[Hot Runr Guy]

Not really sure what you thought was going to happen. It doesn't just downshift, it goes into gear to keep your RPM's as high as it can for downhill slopes and max torque. I don't think it goes over 3rd or 4th gear depending on your speed.

Honestly, I did not expect such a dramatic downshift. At the time, I was at about 40mph, well under 2K rpm, and the L button brought it over 5K, so like you said, down to 3rd or 4th (out of 8).
I found an earlier thread where someone retrofit paddle shifters, which gave him incremental control of the downshifts. If I lived in a mountainous area, I would certainly consider that.

HRG

 

[PNWMaverick]

The hybrid and EB Maverick's have widely different downhill behavior. With my hybrid I can set a speed with cruise and it will keep that speed up and down our steep hills. It feels like I could throw it out of a plane and it would maintain the set cruise speed, some how.

My brother's EB does feels like it was thrown out of a plane, as soon as it even slightly points down a hill. Cruise simply doesn't matter on a downhill as it will go as fast as gravity will take it.

 

[todd92]

So it does EXACTLY what it says it does in the manual, yet here's a thread exclaiming it 'doesn't do much of anything'. There's nothing wrong with high RPM's, especially when engine braking, so I'm amused that it 'scared' you.

The adaptive cruise in my EB Lariat holds speed up and down hills just fine. Tow mode downshifts more to help retard speed on downhills. I don't see a problem with any of it.

 

[PNWMaverick]

So it does EXACTLY what it says it does in the manual, yet here's a thread exclaiming it 'doesn't do much of anything'. There's nothing wrong with high RPM's, especially when engine braking, so I'm amused that it 'scared' you.

The adaptive cruise in my EB Lariat holds speed up and down hills just fine. Tow mode downshifts more to help retard speed on downhills. I don't see a problem with any of it.

That's interesting. Why would Ford have a difference in this behavior between the two systems? We have, and had, much older vehicles that maintain their cruise speed down hills.

 

[Thoron99]

Not really sure what you thought was going to happen. It doesn't just downshift, it goes into gear to keep your RPM's as high as it can for downhill slopes and max torque. I don't think it goes over 3rd or 4th gear depending on your speed.

Yeah that’s pretty much how low gear mode works on any car. Haven’t driven to the mountains (NC) in the Maverick yet, but I-40 has a stretch steep enough to have runout slips for the tractor trailers.

We’ve done it in our Highlander and previous CRV, both would rev up to several thousand RPM when using lower gears for engine braking.

 

[Bob The Builder]

Gotta have it in the winter when I want to leave my Mav idling for a short time while while clearing snow. For this reason alone not useless for me.

 

[Carlitos_92]

I found an earlier thread where someone retrofit paddle shifters, which gave him incremental control of the downshifts. If I lived in a mountainous area, I would certainly consider that.

Honestly, being able to downshift incrementally (coming to red lights, in stop and go traffic, you name it) is bar none the thing I miss most about my previous vehicle. It was a SUV with a decently sloppy 6AT that really had no business having paddles in the first place - but I used the downshift paddle every day, every drive.

 

[fossil]

Honestly, I did not expect such a dramatic downshift. At the time, I was at about 40mph, well under 2K rpm, and the L button brought it over 5K, so like you said, down to 3rd or 4th (out of 8).
I found an earlier thread where someone retrofit paddle shifters, which gave him incremental control of the downshifts. If I lived in a mountainous area, I would certainly consider that.
HRG

yeah I drove the wife's 2020 Escape with paddles for 2 years. The paddles were the least satisfying feature for decel. Just not enough engine displacement for compression braking. Ended up toggling at least 3 times for any real effect. At that point might just as well pushed the L button. Otherwise the shifts were too slow for performance use. Ended up just being a novelty imo. Maybe with a trans remap it would be more useful. Wife got more use from them as a scrunchie hanger.

After spewing all that negativity I would like to try paddles for controlling what gear I'm in offroad.

 

[Justin says...]

I just use L when driving up my parent's 20% grade driveway. Pretty sure it keeps the trans in 1st gear. At least to my understanding.

 

[No Brand]

Yesterday, 7% Grade down Monteagle in TN never had to use low (Slippery Mode) never touched brakes.

 

[Nw_adventure]

L made it easier to get up an icy slope even with an FX4 in slippery mode.

 

[commadorebob]

I have found tow mode works better down hills. Not sure what the "L" mode is good for unless you are trying to get unstuck.

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