I have a 4x2 manual Patriot, here's my experience... YMMV.
Anything less than 1800-2000 RPM with a load on the engine causes it to bog. I try to keep my RPM over 2k, unless I'm idling or cruising in 5th.
You start to hit peak torque about 3800-4000 RPM, when the intake flapper valves open. The engine will pull hard up to about 5000, then begins to fall on its face as it approaches 5500. By the time you hit redline (about 6k) you're out of gearing and should've shifted already. Of course, for daily driving, you don't NEED to run it out this high, as there's plenty of torque for regular driving under 3500 RPM.
Upshifting is best anywhere between 3000-5000 rpm. You can certainly upshift before that, but if you shift before hitting about 3k, the engine RPM drop to less than 2k, and you bog the engine (as mentioned above).
For downshifting, everyone has their own preferences. I have a bad habit of heel-toeing my downshifts (i know, i know, it's not a racecar), but I spent years without doing so as well. If you rev-match on your downshifts, I tend to do this: clutch in, shift to neutral, clutch out, rev to about 4k, clutch in, downshift, clutch out. If you can do this quickly enough, you'll have nice smooth downshifts and save the synchros a bit of wear and tear.
For what its worth, some people have stretched their clutch out past 120k. Mine needed replacement at about 80k, but as you can surmise, I'm probably harder on mine than most people.
Hope this helps.
