Over the past few months, it's like one in five Jeeps I see has a row of small rubber ducks across the dashboard. Anyone else seeing this? What's the joke?

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it -- I just don't know why it's suddenly so popular.

Always curious....

Its a Jeep thing. There is even a small platform you can mount on the windshield pillar for your duck to sit on. Jeep owners swap ducks amongst themselves.

Neat!

Those Jeep peeps sure do seem to make a lot of fun.

Now that I think about it... my pal Mike has a Jeep, and I have a sack of tiny rubber ducks. Gotta go sneak up on him now!

I was in Gatlinburg during the last Jeep Jamboree. This was the first time I noticed the ducks and was like WTH?

Now I am a car guys car guy so dammit I KNOW THESE THINGS!! My daughter was the one who actually told me about it. I have no idea how she knew about this.

Basically it started in Canada during COVID as a way for the folks to have a little fun without being able to interact. Folks would leave a duck on a Jeep they liked or thought was cool or special or whatever and apparently it became a thing.

Honestly one of the better car guy stories ever.

Eh, as a Jeep owner, and have had my JK "Ducked" a few times, I wonder WTH too...

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
Basically it started in Canada during COVID as a way for the folks to have a little fun without being able to interact.

A friend of mine was trying to explain this Jeep-Duck connection to me back around 2001, and he's in Florida and insisted this was a decades old tradition at the time.

Essentially, it means "Hi, fellow Jeep person, I saw your Jeep and you weren't here. Here's our inside joke."

I didn’t realize it was that old. It’s a cool tradition though.

The problem seems to be that they don't go jeeping, or at least to them it means to the shopping center. They can do that if they wish, but to many of us it requires they be taken "off road". Doesn't mean the shopping center parking lot.

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
The problem seems to be that they don't go jeeping, or at least to them it means to the shopping center. They can do that if they wish, but to many of us it requires they be taken "off road". Doesn't mean the shopping center parking lot.

Didn't see a duck on this one, but it was from Maryland where there are a lot of ducks...

I lived in the northeast and had a keep as my daily driver for about 15 years. I had never heard of the duck thing until I moved to Arizona about 8 years ago. Some friends have Jeeps and mention it a lot.

Duck Duck Jeep

I’ve been ducked a few times.

I come out of a store and find a rubber duck on my Jeep, hey, its funny.

Beats finding someone smearing a dog turd on your door handle, right?

I think the Duck thing only happens with the Wranglers. My Dad never got any ducks when he had his Grand Cherokee but started his collection when he got his JL Wrangler.

In the 1950s our 51 Jeep CJ 3(?) got named "Ducky". I dont know why. I painted "Ducky" on the side of the hood. Other Jeepers also kept referring to ours as Ducky.
Dad finally hit the best engine for it. After the flat head 4 there was a Plymouth V8, then the taller Jeep 4 (F head?), and finally a 63 Ford small block 221 V8. Perfect engine.

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:
I think the Duck thing only happens with the Wranglers.

Yeah, it's a Wrangler thing.

I've never been ducked, and I've had my Wrangler since 2013. But the town where I live Wranglers are everywhere. Think Moab. Most don't even bother with the Jeep wave because you'd be waving every minute.

I think it's fairly regional, some areas of the country seem to have never heard of it, while in others it's well known.


I also think it's more a "new Jeep thing", not an old Jeep thing. lol



Like the "Jeep wave", more common on some places than others. As are Jeeps. I used to have this guy wave to me every day on my way home from work. It's a whopping two mile drive, one day I counted 13 Jeeps ("jeeps", not Jeep brand products) on the way home. So it's not like spotting one is a rare thing. lmao Personally I don't play along, sorry but other than the name and general shape, your 2022 JL has nothing to do with my rolling piece of junk. The only ones I wave back to are the old crappy ones. "It's an Old piece of shit" thing.

My wife found a duck on her Jeep with a little hand written note saying “nice jeep- from a Mom in MA” Once she found out it is a “thing” it’s happened a couple of more times………not a bad thing with so much negativity in the world.

Happened to me once in western North Carolina. Came out of the store and saw a rubber duck hanging from my Wrangler's side mirror with a small card that said nice Jeep or something like that. had no idea what it was about but when I got home I googled it and found out it was kind of a thing. A few days later I hung it on another Jeep. It thought it was a nice fun thing among Jeep owners.

Not to drift but the Jeep fraternity is similar to Harley in that it's a frequent thing to get a wave from an approaching Wrangler.

quote:

………not a bad thing with so much negativity in the world.

Agreed, I had never heard of it before, but think it is a cool thing.

We've always had a CJ, Cherokee, or Grand Cherokee around here for over 25 years, and I've never heard of the duck thing. Of course, the rest of the state says that the area where we live is 20 years behind the times, so that's probably why.