Rolling with ducks now

[2FuryVet]

I got into the ducks when a friend put one on my Renegade a few years ago (it was what I could afford at the time but was at least a Trailhawk). She knew I was having a rough time, and that duck kept me from just giving up when I got home that night. That happened on the anniversary of me heading into the light and being pulled back by the other guys in my platoon, and it happened to be Memorial Day weekend (6 names on my arm that always get me down that time of year). Since then, I’ve kept a bag of ducks in the passenger seat and pass them out every chance I get. It helps brighten someone’s day and can truly change a life in ways you’ll never imagine.

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[swtrailboss]

I got into the ducks when a friend put one on my Renegade a few years ago (it was what I could afford at the time but was at least a Trailhawk). She knew I was having a rough time, and that duck kept me from just giving up when I got home that night. That happened on the anniversary of me heading into the light and being pulled back by the other guys in my platoon, and it happened to be Memorial Day weekend (6 names on my arm that always get me down that time of year). Since then, I’ve kept a bag of ducks in the passenger seat and pass them out every chance I get. It helps brighten someone’s day and can truly change a life in ways you’ll never imagine.

Thank you for your service and sacrifices!
Appreciated more than any One holiday on a calendar can symbolize! 365 (every day) !!!!

 

[ZeeJay]

I got into the ducks when a friend put one on my Renegade a few years ago (it was what I could afford at the time but was at least a Trailhawk). She knew I was having a rough time, and that duck kept me from just giving up when I got home that night. That happened on the anniversary of me heading into the light and being pulled back by the other guys in my platoon, and it happened to be Memorial Day weekend (6 names on my arm that always get me down that time of year). Since then, I’ve kept a bag of ducks in the passenger seat and pass them out every chance I get. It helps brighten someone’s day and can truly change a life in ways you’ll never imagine.

Man Renegade or 392 Ruby doesn’t make a shit bit of difference, if that got you through to a better place awesome. Guys get their “Daddy’s Girl” thongs in a twist over ducks sometimes, way I see it everybody could use a lift sometimes and it’s an outlet, nothing wrong with that. Some enjoy giving and others might enjoy receiving…..a duck I mean(boy does that sound loaded….)Me personally it’s way less about the ducks and more about the show iron that collets and hauls them around, Jeeping is taking on new face anymore, but that’s just me. Thank you for your service!

 

[2FuryVet]

Man Renegade or 392 Ruby doesn’t make a shit bit of difference, if that got you through to a better place awesome. Guys get their “Daddy’s Girl” thongs in a twist over ducks sometimes, way I see it everybody could use a lift sometimes and it’s an outlet, nothing wrong with that. Some enjoy giving and others might enjoy receiving…..a duck I mean(boy does that sound loaded….)Me personally it’s way less about the ducks and more about the show iron that collets and hauls them around, Jeeping is taking on new face anymore, but that’s just me. Thank you for your service!

I agree. It’s not for everyone, but that doesn’t mean one side is better than the other. Just putting in my .02 for perspective more than anything.

 

[Blade1668]

Thats why I’ve been leaning hard on the JT as a daily now, really hard. Around town I can squeeze 18.5 pretty consistently, a ZJ couldn’t do that parked with engine off. The ZJ’s require selling body parts on the Chinese black market to keep driving and I’ve run out body parts. Cost of living has encroached so damn much now they just sit….a lot, and it’s really depressing. Just about all off-road adventures this summer have been with ATVs, which I always have done that’s not unusual, but just as much is done with Jeeps too. I sold a KLR 650 four years ago and regret ever doing that now.

I was getting well over 20 MPG's with JT commuting to work, averaging around 25 if I remember correctly. "Driving miss dasiy" staying under 70 mph.
Definitely doing the 4wheeler thing for off-roading. I shifted to 4wheelers, cheaper to trailer 4wheeler(s) than a jeep and can still drive to work if you break it.
I have some regrets on buying the new 4wheeler that I did, a 550 would have been sufficient for my use, but around water and mud it's a better choice. A Polaris 850 High-Lifter, every time I ride it "you know" it wants to kill you. My old one is air cooled 08 Sportsman 300 but doesn't like running for hours in hot weather up long grades.
Been refreshing my Scamp T.T. to travel with it some, I put my R.T.T back on to possibly having to make unplanned 1200 mile round trip. Towing it should only be a 3-5 mpg hit over the R.T.T but being short notice and not in budget or camp grounds planned.I know every time I tow a trailer my JT gas mileage drops to about 16.5. The R.T.T drops it to around 19-21.

 

[Blade1668]

I got into the ducks when a friend put one on my Renegade a few years ago (it was what I could afford at the time but was at least a Trailhawk). She knew I was having a rough time, and that duck kept me from just giving up when I got home that night. That happened on the anniversary of me heading into the light and being pulled back by the other guys in my platoon, and it happened to be Memorial Day weekend (6 names on my arm that always get me down that time of year). Since then, I’ve kept a bag of ducks in the passenger seat and pass them out every chance I get. It helps brighten someone’s day and can truly change a life in ways you’ll never imagine.

Some of us have them times. You just need to keep going for them too. One of my buddies was killed on the day half of our unit redeployment back to the States. We both got promoted to SSG same time and mid tour leave same time. The real kick in the nuts for me was I tried to swap flights out to second flight so he could get home to see his kid that was born while we were deployed. Now he has a post office named after him in his home town. Unfortunately, he is among a fair size list of buddies I have known that were killed, blown up or just passed away.
On occasions I've been on that dark path certain months especially, I have came across other former soldiers that I've served with or in charge of. Most of them have thanked me for being who I was and things that I trained them at or how to do. A few on me being a SOB but instead of pushing for UCMJ I gave them corrective training. With that they were thankful or they would have not been able to get promoted to SFC, 1 SGT and CSM.
On many occasions I've had the F### it why, but I keep going. A few years after Frank was killed, I worked with a young MP soldier. I didn't know but had returned from a deployment. His squad took heavy casualties in A-stan except him. He was really messed up with that he was given a star with V device and lived. He thought he didn't deserve it, I told him to remember it and to wear it for his comrades to honor them.

 

[ZeeJay]

I was getting well over 20 MPG's with JT commuting to work, averaging around 25 if I remember correctly. "Driving miss dasiy" staying under 70 mph.
Definitely doing the 4wheeler thing for off-roading. I shifted to 4wheelers, cheaper to trailer 4wheeler(s) than a jeep and can still drive to work if you break it.
I have some regrets on buying the new 4wheeler that I did, a 550 would have been sufficient for my use, but around water and mud it's a better choice. A Polaris 850 High-Lifter, every time I ride it "you know" it wants to kill you. My old one is air cooled 08 Sportsman 300 but doesn't like running for hours in hot weather up long grades.
Been refreshing my Scamp T.T. to travel with it some, I put my R.T.T back on to possibly having to make unplanned 1200 mile round trip. Towing it should only be a 3-5 mpg hit over the R.T.T but being short notice and not in budget or camp grounds planned.I know every time I tow a trailer my JT gas mileage drops to about 16.5. The R.T.T drops it to around 19-21.

Last job I had a 35 mile drive one way via I-80. Set the cruise on 70 and squeeze 20 ish out of it. I been riding wheelers forever it seems, I’ve found 500-700 is where it’s at. When time to upgrade the fleet almost got an 850 or XP1000 knowing would be riding one more often and looked at the big Can Ams. Great thing about where I live you can literally travel hundreds of miles on dirt so I go off on these mini overlanding trips the larger power plants have an advantage for the amount stuff I end up carrying, 850 wasn’t bad but the XP1000 I tested was just a death trap. Took all of about 60ft of that and was done with it, for the terrain I can encounter it’s just asking to wear it like a bedspread, no thanks. I did really dig on v twin action, the power on tap was nice. The hard part is transitioning from ATV to a Jeep. I’ll go out in my ZJ and can’t see shit out front, of the corners or just about anywhere, it’s miserable. Literally takes most of the winter to get used them again. Cost to operate is the biggest reason now to keep with ATVs, cheap to feed and cheap to maintain, so long as you don’t beat the hell out of them anyway. I just got done doing plenum reseal and cover update on my 5.9 Limited. Mind you have had the plenum plate, all the gasket, and new 4 hole injectors for two years, and still managed to spend $150 dollars just for bits here locally to finish. The days of cheap maintenance are just gone, and that’s on a 26 year old V8. Magnum V8’s aren’t exactly state of the art in 2024. I’m about ready to go full metrosexual and get 125cc scooter just for work.

 

[Blade1668]

Last job I had a 35 mile drive one way via I-80. Set the cruise on 70 and squeeze 20 ish out of it. I been riding wheelers forever it seems, I’ve found 500-700 is where it’s at. When time to upgrade the fleet almost got an 850 or XP1000 knowing would be riding one more often and looked at the big Can Ams. Great thing about where I live you can literally travel hundreds of miles on dirt so I go off on these mini overlanding trips the larger power plants have an advantage for the amount stuff I end up carrying, 850 wasn’t bad but the XP1000 I tested was just a death trap. Took all of about 60ft of that and was done with it, for the terrain I can encounter it’s just asking to wear it like a bedspread, no thanks. I did really dig on v twin action, the power on tap was nice. The hard part is transitioning from ATV to a Jeep. I’ll go out in my ZJ and can’t see shit out front, of the corners or just about anywhere, it’s miserable. Literally takes most of the winter to get used them again. Cost to operate is the biggest reason now to keep with ATVs, cheap to feed and cheap to maintain, so long as you don’t beat the hell out of them anyway. I just got done doing plenum reseal and cover update on my 5.9 Limited. Mind you have had the plenum plate, all the gasket, and new 4 hole injectors for two years, and still managed to spend $150 dollars just for bits here locally to finish. The days of cheap maintenance are just gone, and that’s on a 26 year old V8. Magnum V8’s aren’t exactly state of the art in 2024. I’m about ready to go full metrosexual and get 125cc scooter just for work.

Yes the low price maintenance is a thing of the past now. I remember buying u-joints for less than $10.°° a set of ball joints for under $30.°° fortunately I have a set of ball joints and few u-joints stashed away along with few oil filter for 4.0 engines. I jumped in with 4wheeler as a better choice for trail riding years back where I lived then had a lot more places available to ride vs Jeeps.
Funny, looked at a Honda 125 Trail bike today. Not in my budget though now, Wrangler needs new shocks and some other TLC, the JT will be wanting a new set of tires soon too. Vs limited use I'd get with it. But a road trip with one could be interesting.

 

[ZeeJay]

Yes the low price maintenance is a thing of the past now. I remember buying u-joints for less than $10.°° a set of ball joints for under $30.°° fortunately I have a set of ball joints and few u-joints stashed away along with few oil filter for 4.0 engines. I jumped in with 4wheeler as a better choice for trail riding years back where I lived then had a lot more places available to ride vs Jeeps.
Funny, looked at a Honda 125 Trail bike today. Not in my budget though now, Wrangler needs new shocks and some other TLC, the JT will be wanting a new set of tires soon too. Vs limited use I'd get with it. But a road trip with one could be interesting.

That’s looks fun! I’m looking at motorcicles again. Something more roadish this time. Mostly just work commute and small little errands. Reason is simpler and stupid cheap maintenance and 50 mpg. I’m eyeballing the Kawi Versys pretty hard. Did the dual sport and moved into adventure but found never used the “adventure” part. Maintaining anything is awful for sure. I have another ZJ project I started but it now as of first of July went on indefinite hold, likely will just sell it off, it be a great launch pad for somebody with the work so far. As it is now out of the 5 ATVs only one the uses odd ball oil which is the Polaris and that weird ass 5/50 synthetic. So I’ve switched my 4.0, 5.9 Limited ZJs to 10/40 so can keep piles of that around which covers two Jeeps and 4 ATVs. My wife’s Highlander is 0/20 fortunately so that works out. My wife and I have been seeking any loophole or deal anywhere we can anymore. I’m still not 100% sure how much longer I’ll have this JT, there still some odds it goes away too, which is shitty because the truck is finally growing on me but is what it is. This economy things is just ass right now, so sketchy.

 

[Minty JL]

Embrace the ducks duder.

It is what, it is. If the kiddos are happy.........just means they'll be the next generation and slinging ducks and not crack.

It's all about perspective. Plus now, everytime to look at the ducks you despise........you'll think of your son.........seems like a win, win to me...... respectfully

 

[whiteglad]

After a long dry spell, I got ducked twice this week! I looked around the parking lot after each "incident" and in one case saw a suspicious Jeep with ducks on its dash, so I had to duck it back.

 

[Blade1668]

That’s looks fun! I’m looking at motorcicles again. Something more roadish this time. Mostly just work commute and small little errands. Reason is simpler and stupid cheap maintenance and 50 mpg. I’m eyeballing the Kawi Versys pretty hard. Did the dual sport and moved into adventure but found never used the “adventure” part. Maintaining anything is awful for sure. I have another ZJ project I started but it now as of first of July went on indefinite hold, likely will just sell it off, it be a great launch pad for somebody with the work so far. As it is now out of the 5 ATVs only one the uses odd ball oil which is the Polaris and that weird ass 5/50 synthetic. So I’ve switched my 4.0, 5.9 Limited ZJs to 10/40 so can keep piles of that around which covers two Jeeps and 4 ATVs. My wife’s Highlander is 0/20 fortunately so that works out. My wife and I have been seeking any loophole or deal anywhere we can anymore. I’m still not 100% sure how much longer I’ll have this JT, there still some odds it goes away too, which is shitty because the truck is finally growing on me but is what it is. This economy things is just ass right now, so sketchy.

Before I moved to AL and sold my house I started looking into ordering 10w30, ATF, and gear oil by the barrel. It was bad enough going to check out with 6 plus gallons and half dozen oil filters. 3 gallon ATF, and gear oil each. Part of reason I have sso many grease guns too. Yeah, that Polaris oil is a odd duck, I've got 2 of them. One I'm going to have to tear into the drive belt assembly before long for some maintenance. Unfortunately it's a orphan model now no more parts from Polaris available really.

Back with the ducks theme, I'm out camping and someone else has a JT a few sites over. Hmmm, time to spread around a few ducks maybe.

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