How it is?!

You're thinking way too far into it. Press the brake, slow down, let off the brake and position that foot above the throttle and leave it there, it will be used in just a second, next press the clutch in with your left foot while simultaneously moving the stick into neutral with your right hand, then fully let the clutch out with your left foot, now you get to use your right foot again, this is when you rev the motor (just a tap of the toe to rev and then release, *kind of like you're showing your hot rod off on main street to the sweet little thing sitting next to ya at a stop light vroom, vroom* don't put your foot down and hold it there you will grind) your rpms will fly up a little over where you're wanting them to be when you hit that lower gear, this is to give you time as they fall back down to quickly push the clutch in again (with your left foot obviously, maybe if the one eyed monster was long enough he could join in the action and hit it this time) and in the same fluid motion your also moving your right arm to position the stick into that lower gear down you're going into. Walk around downtown practicing this on the sidewalk and you'll look like a complete moron like I did when I was trying to learn. But you'll get it, I'm telling you it's all about timing your right arm to coincide with your left foot. If one moves, so does the other at the exact the same time.

 

the 1000 to 1500 rpm thingymadingy is just a fail safe guideline, you can shift at any rpm really, and many transmissions are different, but typically it's somewhere in the 400-600 rpm range from gear to gear. That's meaning you're riding at 1200 rpm in 3rd gear and decide to hit 4th, tap tap, clutch clutch, cluck cluck like a chicken, whatever you want to call it, now you're in fourth gear and your rpms should look somewhere around 600-800 rpms, somewhat bogging the motor down but she'll still move and pull and tug. The opposite of that is 3rd down to 2nd, you're looking at 1200 spiking up to around 1600-1800 rpms when 2nd engages.

 

The big difference between driving a car with a stick shift and double clutching a truck is how far you need to depress the clutch. In a car with syncromesh you have to depress the clutch all the way to the floor. In a truck if you do that you you stop the rotation of the gears and you can't make the shift because you have to have gear rotation. That's why people familiar with driving a stick have such a hard time adjusting to double clutching.

In a truck you should only depress the clutch about one inch to two inches maximum. Think of it as a "tap" of the clutch. As noted already a shift is like a "double tap". You need to find the rhythm for a smooth shift.

IMHO the hardest thing for new drivers is to get used to how little you have to press the throttle. I take my trainees through a drill, with the truck parked and out of gear, moving the rpm's between 1100 and 1500. Usually if a rookie is having problems shifting it's because they are romping way too hard or letting completely off the throttle, causing the rpm's to go from 600 to over 2000. Take time to do the "feathering drill" and that will go a long way to help you get the feeling of how LITTLE you press the throttle.

 

Everyone in my class who knew how to drive stick had issues including myself with breaking the habbit of regular shifting. Everyone who had no idea how to shift got yelled at a lot less.

 

And just wait until you have driven about 6 weeks and then get back home and jump into your car or pickem up and try to shift. You will probably try and double clutch again until you realize that you can not. Ohh, and wait until you are in your POV and you go to turn a corner or back up.

 

I keep reaching for the engine brake button that doesn't exist in my GMC.

 

I've had to drive my wife's car for a while while our grandson is at our house for the summer. Try getting out of the truck and into a Mazda Miata! Two years ago I drove it when my wife and I went out to dinner. I got my arse chewed out big time because I forgot where I was and who I was with and tried, foolishly, to float the gears! That only happened once, this old driver learned that lesson well. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks!