Teaching folks how to drive a stick shift...

[sm]

Subtitled: I ain't good sense...

I have been off on medical leave, due to chest pains, fear of clots, and whatever else.
One can only read so much, kill so many critters on the farm, watch so many DVD's...

I went "to town" and ran into a single mom at the store,  that used to work where I do.
Oh! Hi! I could really really use your help!

I cannot describe it, still I just knew this was gonna be good...

Single mom never learned to drive a stick shift, has a son, age 15 and daughter age 11, and they were given by relatives a Datsun pickup truck, with a 4 banger and stick shift. Yeah, the classic old basic truck. Replete with rust, dents, and balding tires and...

Single mom and kids live on a farm/ranch, have horses and chickens and...
This truck will do some serious "property duty" they have a need for.

Like an idiot, I said yes...
Sometimes doing the right thing and passing forwardcan...well for one thing make your blood pressure rise, a concern the docs were already concerned about...
Then again, I never said I had good sense.

Daughter wanted to be first. I mean  she knows how to "work me" and...
This gal  took to  stick shifts and driving, like duck to water.

Mom now, I just thought scared the crap out of me, until the boy got behind the wheel.

Perhaps Mentors and Elders were correct again when they shared there needs to  be steering wheel and set of foot pedals in teaching some folks to drive, especially a stick shift.

And...going back to ER, the on call heart doc asked if I "done anything" to set me off.
I shared, I had given said driving lessons.

"Oh yeah! That would do it for sure!" - he replied.

[wuluf]

Taught both daughters to drive a stick, 'cause they had to share a mid '80's Subaru wagon when they turned 17.

Now they're 29 and both are very glad they know how..most everyone they know can't!

[Hawkmoon]

Subtitled: I ain't good sense...

At least you admit to it ...

The problem with trying to teach a 15-year old male child anything is that he's sure he already knows it -- better than you -- so he acts like he's doing you a favor by allowing you to pretend you know enough to teach him anything at all.

Been there, done that. (Didn't even get a tee shirt.)

[lee n. field]

Brings back memories.  Somebody needed to borrow a car briefly, and Dad let him take the old '63 Falcon.  Three speed manual, shifter on the steering column.

I got to teach him (a buddy mine in HS) to handle the clutch.  I ended up at the end of the lane, in the passenger's seat, roaring with laughter as he could not master the coordinated motion of gas pedal and clutch, and killed the engine time after time after time.

[sm]

The problem with trying to teach a 15-year old male child anything is that he's sure he already knows it -- better than you -- so he acts like he's doing you a favor by allowing you to pretend you know enough to teach him anything at all.

Yes!

The thing is, boys today do not know of, or whom John Wayne is...
They still have John Wayne Syndrome though...

[Tallpine]

I started our girls off on the old 77 Suburban with 4 speed and no power steering 

They didn't even have their permits yet as I recall.  I took them out in the oil patch and let them wheel around on some two tracks. 

After HS, one of them worked on a ranch and was taking water out to a pasture with an old two ton.  She also ran the big swather.

[RoadKingLarry]

Getting the concept of the clutch across was the hardest part.
The idea that it isn't an ON/OFF switch was the key.

[tokugawa]

funny how few young folks know how to drive a stick- of all my daughters friends, she is the only one who can -mid 20's.

[Cliffh]

Before we were married, I taught my wife to drive a car with a manual transmission.  

She's a saint.

[Sideways_8]

I'm 23 and learned to drive a stick shift for work. All my friends around the same age know how as well. It's not that uncommon for this area for younger folks to know how.

[Boomhauer]

I learned to drive a stick at 6 y.o. No bullshit. 

Dad took me out to the field and showed me how it worked and let me loose.

Of course the problem is I haven't driven one SINCE then (except tractors) so I'm quite a bit rusty.

Here at the new park we've got a truck with a stick so I'm going to relearn on that when I get the chance.

[Regolith]

I had to learn how to drive stick before my parents would let me take the test to my license. I at least got to do THAT with an auto...the only stick we had was an F250, and it was just a bit too big and unwieldy to take a driving test in.

[Kingcreek]

I was probably age 7 or 8. Shown the basic concept in a 1963 Chevy ranch truck and left in a half section hay field in Nebraska. Instructions were 1. Stay away from the fence. And 2. Try not to hit the hay stacks.
3. And drive it back to the house (1.5 miles) when you get the hang of it.

[BlueStarLizzard]

I can't. Or rather I could sorta and I wouldn't trust myself without some remedial lessons and practice.

My moms little Mazda truck was a stick, and my treat when I was 8 and 9 years old was driving it up and down the driveway.

My first car was a stick, and Dad was largely responcible for me learning to drive it. It did not go well. Yelling and panicing when the person trying to learn how to drive the damn thing does not teach a person not to ruin a transmission.
My first solo trip, I got stuck on a nasty left turn, panicked just like I was taught and that was the end of the Lynx.

The thing is, I drove Erics truck with my Mom riding shotgun from Whitehall to Barracks (nice drive) and back and I didn't have any problems and actually got pretty smooth about shifting after a few minutes.

I wish I had gotten her to teach me to drive stick before Dad ruined it for me. *sigh*

[French G.]

I'd say I almost knew how to drive my dad's dual stick non-synched round tooth Mack box, he started me out about 8, telling me when to pull a stick in while he was on the clutch. As a teen I drove it on the road a few times. He upgraded, new motor an a modern 10sdbox that a monkey can shift.

For those that don't know, "if you can't find it, grind it" works fine on square profile gear teeth. With a rounded lead in, they're going to engage if you insist enough. Loud noise after engagement optional.  The only one that gets me now is a '60s beater C50 dump truck, I have little luck 3rd to 4th without grinding it. Probably because the non-muffled motor sounds like a crashing bomber anyway and I need to get going faster since the speed decays so quickly.

[RoadKingLarry]

The '97 Dodge I bought in '98 is a 5 speed. I made both the kids learn how to drive it. The '97 now has 280K miles on it and runs pretty good but needs a water pump.

The M715 of coure has a manual, good old cast iron SM420 granny low 4 speed.

[zxcvbob]

I got to where I could drive my '69 VW bus without using the clutch if I had to (like when the clutch cable breaks)  The gears synchronize and will slide right in if you shift at just the right speed and RPM.

Had lots of fun teaching Daughter to drive a stick a few years ago.  She was *so* frustrated for about an hour, going around the empty parking lot and stalling out over and over.  But eventually it "clicked" and she got it.  The next week she and I took a trip to the SD Badlands, a twisty scenic road thru the Black Hills, and on to Rocky Mountain National Park, where she got to learn how to get started going up or down a hill    Good times.

[230RN]

Like others, I learned on private property at a young age, 10-12, something like that.

Old Ford pickup truck.  Don't know the year, but pre-WWII.

I still remember my Pop telling me how to "feather" the gas and clutch in opposite foot motions.

Pop and my Uncle mounted a surplus deactivated  machine gun in the back of it, and I remember playing with it.

Swept it back and forth with a DRRRRRT sound, pretending I was wiping out bunches and bunches of the Pacific enemy.  Had two handles and a trigger button between them plus a water jacket.

Mom made him get rid of the machine gun, but we moved the truck out to the summer house on Long Island, which is where I learned how to drive it.

Terry

[grampster]

Two toned green 1952 chevrolet, stick.  I was about 10.  Learned how to drive on Saturdays when we took household trash to the dump.  No trash pickup in those days, kiddies.  You took it yourself to the dump.  Was good for pickin' for treasure and killing rats with a .22 as well.

[RoadKingLarry]

I got to where I could drive my '69 VW bus without using the clutch if I had to (like when the clutch cable breaks)  The gears synchronize and will slide right in if you shift at just the right speed and RPM.

A couple of years ago the clutch on the (now) daughters '97 Didge PU went out and thre was no clutch action, couldn't even push the pedal down to activate the clutch starter interlock.

She lives with her grandmother out in the country, about 10-12 miles of county road from my house. I went out and started it by jumping across the selonoid. Luckily she had stopped in a area of their yard with a bit of down slope and a reasonable shot back to the county road. Once it was started I got in and had her push it to get it rolling a little and jammed it in gear and off I went. With a bit of carefull timing I was able to get it where I needed to go. The trickiest part was getting across traffic on the 4 lane highway.

[Hutch]

I taught my fiancé (now wife of 35 years) and my kids to drive a manual.  I learned @ 15 on my sister's Beetle, and taught my wife to be on my Superbeetle.  It's the right thing to do, and about the only thing I think Europeans have better ideas about.

[geronimotwo]

my first stick was an old 8n tractor.  i swear i was about 6 years old.  i remember having to stand up to operate the pedals. as for teaching others to drive stick, i've always used the method where you let them do the shifting first while i'm driving. then, when they are driving, i will handle the stick shift to give them one less thing to think about.  feathering the clutch and throttle at a stop is always the hardest thing to explain.  either they get it easy, or they take a loooooong time to get it.

[French G.]

I'd say that a modern car would make it harder to learn, need that little beater Datsun or something else where the front is open so the trainee can watch the driver and see what to do and when with their feet.

[41magsnub]

Had a coworker the other day ask if he could borrow my brand new 2013 outback with a stick shift to teach his kid to drive one.  No...  go buy a beater truck.

[Cliffh]

Two toned green 1952 chevrolet, stick.  I was about 10.  Learned how to drive on Saturdays when we took household trash to the dump.  No trash pickup in those days, kiddies.  You took it yourself to the dump.  Was good for pickin' for treasure and killing rats with a .22 as well.

Change the two toned green Chevrolet to a white Ford 1/2 ton (6 cyl, 3 on the tree) and you've got the story on how I learned to drive.

Aw yes, the treasures to be found in a dump!  My brothers and I spent many weekend afternoons shooting rats & finding "stuff".  Learned how to work on small engines by tearing apart & reassembling what we took home.  Still have the boom box I found one afternoon; made a new power cord for it and it's had a place in every workshop/garage since.