My father was a truck driver, a farmer, and a mentor to his three sons. He never owned a pickup truck that wasn’t a stick shift. He used to say that a man who can’t drive a stick shift shouldn’t be driving at all. Those were the words of yesterday’s southern man. Today it is getting quite difficult to find a new truck that is a stick shift. Still, his words hold some meaning even in this modern, automated world. Machines can do so many tasks for us today, but a person who forgets the past and completely gives over control gives up more than may be realized. The ability to drive a stick shift is not a necessity today, but it can be a useful skill even if you usually drive an automatic. For this reason, I offer these tips for learning to drive a stick shift.
Never Use Your Clutch Foot to Brake
I was nine years old when my father told me that it was time for me to learn to drive. He bought an old fiberglass-bodied Volkswagen dune buggy for $200 and sent me and my brothers out into the back forty. The first thing he told the three of us was, “Never use your clutch foot on the brake pedal.” This is important. Your right foot should always be used to alternate between the accelerator and the brake pedal. If you bring your left foot into this arrangement you’re going to find yourself short-footed when you need to come to a complete stop. If your left foot is on the brake, you have no foot left to engage the clutch. Your vehicle will stall, or worse, it will jerk and lurch into the vehicle stopped ahead of you. This is a good habit to have, even in an automatic transmission vehicle. Pressing the brake and accelerator at the same time is counter-productive.
Keep a Soft Foot on the Accelerator When pulling out
Revving the engine RPMs too high when pulling out from a stop can cause the vehicle to lurch and “gallop” in an erratic pattern. When attempting to pull out, keep a soft foot on the accelerator. You’ll likely need to give the vehicle a little gas, but not a lot. Too little gas and the vehicle will stall, but the more likely scenario is that you’ll over power and lurch. This will likely also lead to a stall, but not before thoroughly rattling your neck.
Listen to the Motor
A 9 year old child has very little listening skills. For this reason my brothers and I completely thrashed the motor and transmission in the Volkswagen. We drove the car in first gear, rarely shifting to second, until the motor block was very nearly melted to the transmission casing. Throughout my teen years my father continued to coach me. He eventually taught me to listen. “Listen to the sounds of the motor,” he told me. What he taught me was that if you listen to the motor it will tell you when to shift gears. If the motor starts to sound wound too tight and stressed, you’re waiting too long to shift gears.
Climb the Hill and Master the Stick
When my wife and I married, we owed a stick shift truck. It was our only vehicle. The military had shipped the both of us and our truck to Guam in the Marianas Islands and we had no family near us. The only option my wife had for getting around was to learn to drive our stick shift truck. I remember the day clearly, though it was nearly 20 years ago, that she said, “I’m going to learn to drive that truck.” Our house sat at the top of a steep hill. She took the truck to the bottom of the hill and said, “I’ll be back when I can get the truck up this hill.” She returned home about an hour later. She never had trouble driving our truck after conquering that hill. Climb the hill and you’ll master the stick.
