Teaching someone how to drive?

[kipps]

How did you learn to drive, how old were you, and in what vehicle?

Second question, how would you teach your child or grandchild to drive today?

The first motor vehicle I steered, was a 1980's 75-horse loader tractor(Deere 2750).

The first one I drove solo, was a 1950's Deere 420. This was our dairy scraping tractor, and was pretty much bulletproof. I was about 9 years old, and within the first 100 feet I had taken out a gate post with the rear axle.

At 10, I was driving a 73 c20 on short hops around the farm. Unlike many other farm kids, I never drove at highway speeds, until I had my learner's permit.

If I was teaching someone today, I would still like to start them out on a small tractor. A Ford 8n is very similar to the Deere 420w that I learned on, and would be a perfect cheap(under-1000) vehicle for teaching someone to drive.

[truckster]

I've taught 10 of my children how to drive. We start out in the church parking lot when it's empty. We practice starting and stopping first, then smooth turns. Then it's on to the residential roads with little traffic. Then on to busier roads, and then the main drag (3 lanes each direction). After that it's the freeway. Then we go back to the church parking lot and practice backing, parking, and parallel parking. At every step we practice until they feel comfortable and I'm comfortable with what they're doing.

I like my old Subarus for the task, because they're not overly powerful but can get up to traffic speed quickly enough, and I have the hand brake in the middle just in case.

[Shorty Cox]

The first "learning to drive" task for a kid to master is, CHANGING A FLAT TIRE.

[mongocanfly]

Learned on the farm....

[PanelDeland]

Originally Posted by Shorty Cox

The first "learning to drive" task for a kid to master is, CHANGING A FLAT TIRE.

Coach Love was out DE instructor. It didn't matter gender, you had to be able to change a tire, check the fluids, Oil water Trans, and parallel park or you would fail. In Ok at that time, you had to pass DE or wait until you were 18 to get a license. We had to drive well enough in town to be able to take a 30 min drive over to where there was some traffic. Waynoka was only 1192 people (the History teacher was the census guy and had us do the census as a part of civics class) so traffic was "light" to say the least.

As an aside. I watched a girl pester a Biker into teaching her to ride. It took about 3 weeks. He finally told her OK, come on. He walked her over to a Sporty and told her to get on and keep her feet on the pegs no matter what. She did and he laid it over on her leg. Then he told her, when you have it on the kickstand, come get me and I'll set you up for lesson 2. She was upset but he told her it would be irresponsible for him to teach her to ride something she couldn't get out from under.

[davischevy]

I learned on the farm. Some kind of small John Deere tractor was my first steer and hauling hay was the best experience. Slow and smooth was the key, or get your butt kicked by the guys that had loaded the hay you just dumped.

The first time I remember driving on the highway was in a '56 F100, the only Ford my dad ever owned I think.

My kids learned to drive in the pasture around the house. I pretty much just showed them the basics and turned them loose in an old Caprice I had. They just played, but when It was time to hit the road, they had little trouble making the transition.

My grandkids are doing the same thing. They play in the pasture, on whatever they can find to drive. My granddaughter, at 14 is already a pretty good driver, although she has a lead foot we are going to have to cure.

[72 tigger]

I believe l was 7 the first time I drove my dad’s C20 on the farm. First thing I actually drove was our go cart at 5. I drove 6 miles to school to take the “book part” of drivers ed the summer l was 15. Can’t imagine doing that nowadays- unlicensed kid involved in a accident would be a injury lawyer’s dream. I’ve already started working with our 12 year old daughter teaching her how to drive

[67C10Step]

Tractor for me, Ford 2000 if I remember correctly. Then it was a 1948 Willys Jeep. First drive on the highway was a 1979 Ford, 300 six, three on the tree.

My kids learned by riding atv's a lot growing up and that seemed to help both understand acceleration and braking much better. Then it was empty parking lots and back roads. Son drove tractor a bit but since he didn't have the seat time I did.

[davischevy]

My two oldest grandkids ride ATV's, side by sides and dirt bikes. The lead foot granddaughter has already rolled my RZR once. She likes to drift. It just now hit me that her mother spun her Camaro out and went off the road backwards a couple of months after she started driving.

[fine69]

I started all mine by making them ride alone with me. Explaining to them that the purpose was to tell me what they see. ��������
Cars are like bullets out of the barrel of a gun. I made them rattle off what they were viewing as we went down the road. I wanted them to pay attention out there.
I wanted to hear everything they saw. Cars, birds, signs, what color they cars were, any and everything. Being aware is important.
But long before that driving around the yard.
And changing a tire is a must. Like it or not.
Two of mine turned out great drivers. One daughter i gave up on. No skill. Just could not, would not listen. She was a true danger on the road.

[mongocanfly]

I think I the way they teach now is give em a new car and a cell phone and turn em loose

[davischevy]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

I think I the way they teach now is give em a new car and a cell phone and turn em loose

And the rear view mirrors are a total waste.

[Andy4639]

Both my kids have been driving since about 8-9 years old. They started out driving the golf carts we had.

My grandson Rhett is driving his fire truck at 3 years old. He knows how to backup and he hasn't ran into a car yet and he parks the truck between my 71 C 10 and my 64 SS Impala on his own.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYruVs9xEHM

You Tube

[FleetsidePaul]

I learned how to drive a stick in my brother's 340 4 speed 71 Roadrunner. It had a very stiff clutch and I stalled it. Then the next try I smoked the tires with him yelling at me.
Hey. He told me to give it some gas. So, I did.

I taught the girl next door to drive a stick. (Yes I know there's a joke there) She drove my truck over the curb and landed it in a planter. I didn't get angry, she was really cute and I was 17.

I also taught my son. Or tried to. I can still smell that clutch burning. My son just couldn't get it. I was complaining to my FIL about it. He laughed and said he'd teach him. They came back and he was all ticked off. He just got in his car and left. Years later when my son was on his own he stopped by and he had a stick shift car.
So I asked him When did you learn to drive a stick?
He said. Dad, that car was cheap. Sometimes you got to do what you got to do. I was proud of him.

[Palf70Step]

I was 9 and learned on the family farms. Even before I got on tractors, I was trying to earn money with the hay bailing. My uncle's farm he had a 1956 International dump truck he got from the coal mines. Cut the sides off and used that to haul hay back to the barns. I was too small/skinny to lift the hay bails onto the truck, so he said if I want to earn money, drive. So I did.

[special-K]

I learned on the farm at 8. It was small tractors, then a VW Bug, then a Model AA Ford and big tractors and trucks. I started sneaking out on the road when I was around 13 in the bug. I had been running the farm stuff on the road, but this was a lit-tle ways farther. Pretty bad. I'm glad nothing bad ever happened. Things were different back then, though

I took each of my kids to an open area, either field or big parking lot, and went from there. On their learners permit you log so many miles you have plenty of time to give all the smaller "pointers" to make them better than average drivers. It's amazing all the pointers my dad gave me that all stuck in my head. A lot of things drivers ed doesn't teach you.

These days with Kubota tractors and ATVs many kids have the hang of things pretty well before ever sitting in a car's drivers seat.

[Palf70Step]

Yeah both of my kids learned on trucks. We spent a lot of time at an old housing supply learning how to back up to loading docks. A lady asked what I was doing with my daughter, and told her, she drives a truck, so she needs to know how to do this when she gets "volunteered "into hauling stuff for her friends. I still think my daughter does better backwards, than forwards.

I also taught high speed driving and evasion techniques in the 70's for limo drivers. Oh yeah, both kids were taught that too.

[rpmerf]

The fire truck reminded me I've been driving since I was like 5 if you count the power wheels.

First time in a real vehicle was my father's 87 Chevy Pickup when I was 14. On a parking lot for about 5 minutes, then small 2 lane road.

Learned to drive a clutch on his 73 VW Thing.

I know I had a yard tractor before I had my full license. Can't remember when we got it. By the time I got my full license, I had been pulling the tractor around on a trailer. Might not be too unusual for you farm boys, but in the city, it is rare to see people pulling trailers.

[1976gmc20]

I had a hard time with the clutch in my mom's 1969 C-10 with 350 and three speed.

Then I went to work part time at a travel trailer sales lot. They had a ~1963 C-10 with a 283 and a four speed. I got along with that just fine and was moving around up to 25' trailers on the lot with it before I even had my DL.

But I really didn't learn to drive stick really well until I drove school bus a few years later. They taught us to double clutch IH 5 speed in the HS parking lot. I got it in a couple circles so I had to sit there and ride around and around and around while the other new drivers jerked and grinded. To this day I still tend to double clutch everything including a full synchro 5 speed.

For a short time I had this logging proposition going on where I used my saw and Cat, and cut on another fellow's timber sale and used his truck to haul the logs into his yard in town. It was an early 1950's GMC single axle, I don't know what the model rating was but it had some huge gas straight six and a five and three. I jumped right in and figured it out. I think the way I drove it was 2(1-2-3) 3(2-3) 4(2-3) 5(2-3). Never used low except for moving around in a tight place. But I was buying the gas and after a few loads I just quit because I was working for almost nothing. I think that truck maybe got 2 mpg

I started out our twin daughters in a 4 speed Suburban with no power steering out in an oil patch.

[shifty]

1984 GMC S15, manual transmission, got it at late 14, grandmother paid for it.

Learned how to drive in rural central FL. Dad started me out learning how the clutch operates on our gravel driveway which was about 100yds long, doing 3pt turns etc., back-and forth, back-and-forth.

When I could get the hang of that without stalling out the truck, dad took me in to get my permit and it was off to the nearby clay roads. Then dad let me hop on one of the big rural state road/HWY that had very little traffic. Then onto the Turnpike to get a feel for high speed. All-total that was probably 2 months from start to finish before Dad (bless his heart) would let me drive him to the store for errands, since Mom wouldn't dare.

I'm grateful Dad stuck in there with me, and I'm even more grateful they chose to put me in a 1st car that was a manual. Learning how to drive stick got me out of many a bind! Most of my friends were totally incapable, and when I finally got into my later 20s and started traveling international, it saved my ass and opened a whole new world for me only my enlisted family members got to see through service.

[joedoh]

15. waited around the corner for my parents to leave to visit my brother 100 miles away, took the EXP to band camp. it was a manual trans, a lot of firsts that day!

[weq92f]

.
Learned to 'drive' on a go-cart at a very young age, then mo-ped, then motorcycles.

Learned manual trannys on motorcycle then translated that to driving in a Datsun mini truck.

On the farm from a youngster I was allowed to drive the hay truck in the field ( steer it in granny gear ) real slow. It was always a chevy long bed. Then each week I drove our manual tranny Datsun mini truck to haul the trash to the dump. The "dump" was about 4 miles from the house off a gravel road and was very unofficial.

My kids ( 8 and 6 ) will learn in my Manual Daily Driver someday...

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by weq92f

.
Learned to 'drive' on a go-cart at a very young age, then mo-ped, then motorcycles.

Learned manual trannys on motorcycle

Your post reminded me of when I bought my first motorcycle. A 1971 Yamaha RD200 I didn't have a clue on how to shift it. But it looked cool and I really wanted it. So I plunked down a whopping $90 and the guy gave me the keys.

The guy was nice and gave me a quick course on how to shift it. And away I went... until it ran out of gas. No gas gauge. Whoops.

It was a good thing that it was a small bike because I had to push it to the gas station.

That was a rough first night. But I loved that little bike. I wish to this day that I had never sold it. But I was just a dumb kid. Hindsight is 20/20.

[truckster]

I mentioned my Subaru in my earlier post. What I forgot to mention was that, after initially learning in a Subaru, they graduated to our family's 15 passenger van. I figured that if they could learn to drive and park that, they'd probably be OK parking most anything.

[68C15]

I started out with bicycles, then riding mowers, then gokarts and then cars.

I taught my oldest son and a neighbor kid. First in a parking lot. Drive around the islands, pull into and out of spots and such. The one thing I drilled into their mind I like to think really helped since neither has had an incident. "Every car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, bicycle rider or anyone out there. They have one goal, TO KILL YOU!! Watch out for them".

My youngest is 17 with autism so he's more like 13-14. He's doing good at watching what I do and seeing what I see. I already have a vehicle for him, one that I'm fine with him destroying. But I'm still scared.