Low Speed Shifting/Steep Grade new to 13 speed

Hi guys/gals. Got a question. Most of my driving has been in 18 speeds, learned on them and love them. Other day I'm driving a 13 speed and I'm starting off on a nasty dugway (talking oilfield road so its steep). Got my RPM's up to 18 and I go to make the shift to 2nd (floating) and as soon as I let up that throttle pressure and slide out of gear my truck is stopped before the RPM's come down to 10 and I can get it back in gear. I'm used to making such quick shifts with the split gears on the 18 that I'm really feeling stupid here. I tried a few more times and finally just forced the gear change because I'm holding up a line of trucks behind me. I find a hill to practice on a few more times and I can't figure out what I'm doing. This truck has a snappy throttle anyway and even my best shifts aren't great. I feel like I'm learning to drive all over again. I asked around and most everyone else is driving 18's and didn't have any advice...so people with experience having to make full gear changes starting out on inclines can you please give me some instruction. I've heard talk of using the jake to get the RPM's down faster (or am I misunderstanding that too?) and I've also started out in 2nd to get a little more speed before the first gear change but that required slipping the clutch and lugging the motor and I don't want to make a habit of that.

 

Rethinking what I said...I'll try what you said next time I'm in that truck at 16 and 11 and see what she does. I didn't realize how much driving such an easy shifting truck before had spoiled me.

 

Better luck using the clutch or floating?

 

Gotcha, looking forward to trying it again. I was just putting out some advice on shifting when I thought about this whole thing. Like I said, shifting an "easy" truck in the past has spoiled me.