Tailgating Ideas – Don't Just Tailgate, Tailgate Better

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), a sub-division of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), has issued an emergency order mandating a recall of cylinders manufactured by The Lite Cylinder Company, Inc. (Lite Cylinder). PHMSA also terminated the company’s authority to re-qualify and manufacture DOT cylinders.

U.S. Department of Transportation: PHMSA Orders Recall of Cylinders Manufactured by The Lite Cylinder Company

Lite Cylinder manufactures a number of composite fiberglass fuel tanks designed for the transportation of liquid propane gas (LPG). One of the main advantages that composite fiberglass LPG cylinders have over old fashioned steel tanks is the ability to see the level of propane inside through the translucent sides of the tank. Other advantages include they are lighter to carry and will not rust or corrode like steel tanks.

The emergency order was issued after a PHMSA investigation of Lite Cylinder of Franklin, Tennessee, revealed unsafe conditions and practices. The emergency order mandated more than 55,000 two-piece fully wrapped fiber composite cylinders be removed from service. If you own an LPG cylinder manufactured by Lite Cylinder, you may have already been contacted by the company alerting you to the recall. Lite Cylinder must immediately contact all cylinder owners and provide instructions about how to safely discharge, purge and remove the valve from the cylinder and how to safely return those cylinders to Lite Cylinder.

Cylinders manufactured by Lite Cylinder with any of the following markings are subject to this recall:

• DOT-SP 14562
• DOT-SP-13957
• DOT-SP 13105 (Only if manufactured by The Lite Cylinder Company. Cylinders manufactured by Composite Scandinavia [M0408] and marked with this number are not subject to the recall)
• Any cylinder requalified under requalification approval H706
• Any cylinder manufactured under M5729

Even though you may have a Lite Cylinder LPG tank that seems to be working fine, this is still a serious matter. Emergency orders are issued when PHMSA determines that the continued use of such an item would constitute an imminent hazard. Removal and recall of these composite cylinders is a serious safety matter that should be promptly addressed by cylinder owners, gas fillers, shippers and carriers of hazardous materials. And because we are dealing with a highly flammable and explosive liquid, this matter should be taken very seriously.

Although we here at Tailgating Idea have never used, tested or reviewed an LPG cylinder manufactured by the Lite Cylinder Company, we do know there are tailgaters out there that do use these types of propane tanks. We do have extensive experience with composite fiberglass tanks only our experience is with the Clear View Propane Tanks distributed by the Ragasco USA company.

We contacted the folks at Ragasco USA to ask about the recall of the Lite Cylinder tanks and to see if this would affect the manufacture and the distribution of Clear View Propane Tanks in the future. This was their response back to us:

There are a lot of questions surrounding the recent recall of Lite Cylinder LP tanks.

We are spreading the word about Clear View cylinders to RV and Marine Newsletters and through other avenues like TailgatingIdeas.com to help clear up the confusion that this issue with the Lite Cylinder recall has created for some people.

As you may have assumed, Ragasco cylinders have nothing to do with any recalled cylinders. If you read the DOT recall statement it goes into great detail about the reason for the recall. It was unfortunate that Lite did not react promptly and purposefully to correct the issues of concern to the DOT.

The Clear View LP cylinder by Ragasco marketed by RagascoUSA under DOT SP 12706 has an unblemished safety record and is a worthy replacement for the Lite Cylinder LP tank.

RagascoUSA, at this time offers a 17 lb cylinder that is 12″ in diameter and is 18″ tall and are now out of stock on the 11 lb cylinder. We do not expect to have the smaller size back in stock until towards the end of this year. We also have the 31lb Fork Lift cylinder available in stock.

The recall of Lite Cylinders does not affect any metal LP cylinders or composite cylinders manufactured by Ragasco and sold by RagascoUSA.

If you have an LPG cylinder manufactured by the Lite Cylinder Company, more than likely, yours is part of this massive recall. PHMSA’s Hazardous Materials Information Center is available to assist anyone who has questions. The Info Center can be reached toll free at 800-467-4922.

Super Bowl weekend in Philadelphia usually means one thing – drinking beer at 6 AM with 20,000 of your closest friends. While we would love for this to be in preparation for the Eagles march to an NFL Championship, in reality we are drowning the sorrows of another disappointing season at the most Philadelphian of events – the Wing Bowl.

The Wing Bowl – Philadelphia’s premier chicken wing eating contest – has been going strong for 21 years. After countless seasons of middling teams and disappointing playoff losses, the local sports radio station decided to take matters into their own hands and ensure that the die-hard Eagles fans would have something to celebrate every February. While we would love to be cheering our beloved football team to victory, we gladly settle for cheering for a bunch of fat guys to puke from eating too many chicken wings at 8 AM.

The actual format of the Wing Bowl is very straightforward – each contestant comes out on a float and takes their place on the stage, and then a three-round eating contest begins. (This year, the winner ate 287 wings, in case you are interested.) It may not seem like that big of a deal, but the beauty of Wing Bowl lies in the subtleties. Like the fact that local strip clubs sponsor the contestants, and each float usually has a handful of “Wingettes” provided by said strip clubs. Also, beer sales begin at 6 AM.

Another impressive aspect of Wing Bowl is the handiwork of the JumboTron cameraman. He seems to have a sixth sense for knowing which girls in the stands (for some reason there is a large contingent of normal women who attend this event) will be willing to flash the crowd, and for just how long he can remain focused on them before it becomes creepy.

The event is held at the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers. There are bars and parking lots surrounding the area, and plenty of public transportation. It is an interesting sight to see the parking lots as full as if the Eagles or Phillies had a game, but there is a reason for that. It is a big mistake to try to attend Wing Bowl sober. (I really think you have a better chance of puking if you are sober. Some things just can’t be unseen.) This is really the key to Wing Bowl. If you want to have a nice buzz on for a 6 AM eating contest, you are going to have to get up a lot earlier than that in order to start tailgating. Lots of people are up by 3, and many never go to bed the night before. It lends the event a certain type of camaraderie. Who would want to be standing in the freezing February cold, nursing a Bud Light at 4 in the morning, in order to see a bunch of grown men eat large amounts of meat? Great guys, that’s who!

I think that reasoning really allows everyone to get along, and the entire event turns into one giant tailgate. It’s like someone left the doors to the Wells Fargo Center unlocked, and a bunch of die-hard fans just stormed in. The orderliness you experience at a typical basketball game is gone. People are running across aisles, high-fiving strangers, and just getting along great. Except for that one guy from Dallas. Nobody liked him.

In talking with people to try to figure out why they would get up so early to drink, nobody had a really good answer. It is just a fun thing to do. But while people were lacking in answers for why they came, it certainly didn’t stop them from coming. The Wing Bowl has been growing every year. I attended back in 2001 and my friends and I just showed up the morning of and walked right in. The event was free and no tickets were required. This year, the event was sold out weeks in advance, and I paid $45 for my ticket.

I think the reason it has grown so much over the years is pretty simple – guys love taking off work and getting drunk early in the morning. The parade of scantily clad women doesn’t hurt either.

And the strip clubs offer a free breakfast afterwards, which is nice.

Today is New Year’s Day 2013. More than likely you spent the day binging on college football bowl games and drinking massive amount of water and sports drinks to rehydrate yourself from ringing in the new year with a few too many cocktails the night before. In between bowl games and watching over and over Jadeveon Clowney’s huge hit in the 2013 Outback Bowl, we spent the day looking back at the year that was 2012 for us here at TailgatingIdeas.com.

We started the year off by attending the Sports Licensing & Tailgate Show out in Las Vegas checking out some of the newest tailgating gear coming onto the market. Later that month we joined forces with Tailgating Digest to help that magazine get off the ground. Sadly, it was just not in the cards for Tailgating Digest to put out their inaugural issue as projected and the magazine cited a lack of advertisers for the reason they were unable to publish their first issue. In June, Tailgating Ideas reverted back to the look and theme prior to joining forces with Tailgating Digest and continued to publish articles and blog posts on product reviews, recipes, cartoons and humor pieces.

As in years past, Tailgating ideas was recognized in a number of mainstream publications. Regular readers of Tailgating Ideas have grown accustomed to some of our more significant posts getting picked up by Sports Illustrated in their Extra Mustard section. 2012 was no different with at least three or four mentions in Sports Illustrated last year. In addition to SI, Tailgating Ideas was also featured in the Costco Connection October 2012 edition. Most might not think of the magazine that promotes people to shop at Costco being a big deal but it is actually a really big deal. Costco Connection has over eight million subscribers so landing in a magazine of that size is quite significant.

In October 2012, Popular Mechanics relied heavily on information they pulled from Tailgating Ideas to put together their 7 Gameday Gadgets for Your Next Tailgate feature. With an average monthly circulation of over a million readers we were quite pleased to land on the pages of Popular Mechanics.

Although the results of our involvement in the Visa #MakeitEpic Super Bowl campaign won’t be seen until 2013, we did fly to New York, got to meet Hines Ward and they filmed me talking about how to make your Super Bowl party into an epic tailgate party themed party. The footage in this campaign will be released via the Visa online social media channels and we will keep you posted on when those come out.

All in all, 2012 was a good year for Tailgating Ideas. In looking at our traffic statistics, our number of visitors in 2012 increased over those from 2011 and the years prior. Steady growth is always what we are striving for and that includes increasing the number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers as well. So now that we have gotten enough of the chest thumping and back patting out of the way, let’s list the Top 10 Blog Posts from 2012 that appeared on TailgatingIdeas.com.

10. Frost Boss – Coming in at number 10 was our product review of the Frost Boss. Admittedly, we were a bit skeptical of a device that spins a canned beverage in ice and takes it from room temperature to ice cold in two minutes without making it fizz or explode upon opening. We were sent a sample during the summer and ran it through it’s paces thoroughly. Needless to say it passed the tests with flying colors. Apparently a lot of you were also equally impressed and made it our No. 10 most popular post of the year.

9. Conversion Vans – Surprising to us was that a guest post, written by Blake Arbogast on tailgating with a Conversion Van made it into the Top 10. But after re-reading it, it was sharply written and included a lot of great information for those not quite ready to make the leap to RV tailgating but wanted something more than tailgating out of the back of your pick-up truck.

BasketPong angled

8. BasketPong – It takes a lot for a new tailgating product to make us take a step back and say “wow”. While out in Las Vegas for the Sports Licensing & Tailgate Show, Basketpong did just that. Basically what it is is a game that has taken the game play and fun of beer pong, taken it vertical and implemented elements of the game of basketball. Did we also mention that on top of all that it can float in water? Just remove the bottom and middle posts, plug the base with the included plug, take the top post and insert it into the base and it can float in water. By making it the eighth most popular post on the website in 2012, apparently you readers were as impressed with it as we were.

7. Krewe of Monroeaux Tailgating Trailer – From time to time we feature what we call “Righteous Rigs”. Those are either tailgating trailers, RVs, converted ambulances or other vehicles specifically outfitted for one thing; tailgating. The Krewe of Monroeaux, an LSU tailgating group submitted photos and a description of their tailgating trailer and we shared them with all of you. Our feature of their righteous rig got a lot of attention and ended up getting passed around on social media and ended up on a few LSU message boards.

6. Tailgating Intervention – Back in July before football season started, we found this clever video on YouTube that spoofed the popular TV show on A&E “Intervention”. Instead of the addict being addicted to something like drugs, alcohol or gambling, this spoof featured a guy that had an addiction to tailgating outside of football season.

5. Margaritaville Tailgating Grill Eulogy – Any long time reader of this tailgating blog knows how we felt about the Freedom Grill FG-50 and the Margaritaville Tailgating grill. It pained us dearly in March of this past year when we had to publish the Margaritaville Tailgating Grill Eulogy. In order to tell the complete story of the Margaritaville Tailgating Grill we had to tell the story of the Freedom Grill FG-50 as their history and stories were intertwined. The writing was on the wall in the spring of 2012 as these grills become more and more scarce and nearly impossible to buy. The FG-50 and Margaritaville were never given a proper burial but we hope our eulogy provided adequate closure to those who loved these tailgating grills as much as we did.

4. Red Solo Cup Koozies – Red Solo party cups are as common at tailgate parties as 40 year-old virgins are at comic book conventions. Although country music artist Toby Keith sang the praises of the Red Solo Cup in 2012, the main drawback is they do not insulate your beverage very well. We had the opportunity to test out and review a fun new drink koozie that not only keeps your beverage can cold but resembles a Red Solo Cup. Little did we know that our Red Solo Cup Koozie Review would become the fourth most popular blog post in 2012.

3. Holiday Gift Guide 2012 – Every year it seems as though people are stumped to find gifts for the tailgaters in your life. After all, what do you get the tailgater who already has everything. Hopefully each year we put out our Holiday Gift Guide for tailgaters it provides a little bit of help and a possible suggestion to make someone’s holiday gift giving experience a little easier. This year’s guide was picked up by Sports Illustrated which gave it a boost in visitors despite only having been published on the site with two weeks to go before the end of the year.

2. Father’s Day Gift Guide – Based on the past successes of our holiday gift giving guides we thought we would introduce the Father’s Day Gift Guide. Our suspicions proved to be right on in that Sports Illustrated picked up on this gift guide and posted it in the June 11, 2012 edition of Hot Clicks. They even gave it a shout out and made a comment that the iPhone case that is a bottle opener was quite intriguing. On the strength of the visitors coming in from Sports Illustrated plus the overall interest, vaulted the Father’s Day Gift Guide to the No. 2 most popular post in 2012.

1. Bacon Roses – It is no secret here that our love for bacon runs deep. And seeing how Valentine’s Day is typically not a holiday for tailgating seeing how football season is done and baseball spring training hasn’t even started, we thought this would be a fun way to bring a little bit of tailgate flavor to an otherwise boring holiday. The step-by-step instructions are right there so if you need a Tailgating Valentine’s Day Idea, you are good to go.

That wraps another year of tailgating fun and instruction. This past August marked the five year anniversary of this tailgating blog after starting it in 2007. We hope to do many of more of these yearly wrap-ups and hope that 2013 is our best year yet. If current trends keep up by improving on the previous years, that is one new year’s resolution we can keep.

Most people are afraid of frying a turkey on special occasions like Thanksgiving or Christmas or while out tailgating because, quite frankly, it can be a bit intimidating. After all, a big vat of boiling oil at 350 degrees can be a bit scary to some people and they would just rather bake the turkey the old fashioned way. But we are here to tell you that deep frying a turkey is a great way to have moist and juicy turkey and by frying it, it will cut your cooking time in half and sometimes more. Also, most think frying a turkey will turn it greasy and it will be akin to eating a bucket of KFC. That’s not true at all in our experiences.

So in order to reduce the anxiety that some tailgaters may have surrounding frying a turkey, we filmed this “How to Fry a Turkey” video on Thanksgiving 2011. You can see we filmed it in our backyard but you can pretty much take these hints and tips on frying a turkey and apply them to your own home or even out in the tailgating parking lot. With holidays upon us and turkey being one of the more popular meats to serve those days, we thought it a good idea to put together a “How to Fry a Turkey” tutorial for those that may want to try something a bit different.

Here is a rundown of some of the more important hints and tips on how to fry a turkey.

1) Frying time is normally 3 to 4 minutes per pound. A 16 pound turkey should take just about an hour to fry to perfection.
2) Always fry a turkey outdoors in an open area away from overhangs and walls. Even if it is cold outside, frying a turkey indoors, even in the garage with the door open, is dangerous. The potential fire danger could be catastrophic in case there is a fire.
3) NEVER attempt to fry a turkey that is frozen, partially frozen or not completely thawed out. This is not a joke. There are plenty of videos on YouTube of people trying to fry a frozen turkey and the results look like outtakes from the movie Backdraft. Don’t be that guy.
4) Make sure your turkey is patted dry before putting it in the oil. The water on the turkey will instantly boil and cause your oil to overflow. Same goes for trying to fry a turkey in any type of precipitation. The water from the sky will cause the oil to pop and boil over.
5) Have a fire extinguisher on hand. Hopefully you won’t need it is but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have one close by.
6) If you do have a grease fire as a result of frying your turkey, NEVER attempt to put it out by spraying water on it. It will only make it worse. A lot worse.
7) To gauge the level of oil you need for the size turkey you are going to fry, place the turkey in the pot and fill it with water until the top of the legs are under water. Remove the bird from the water and make note of where the water level now is. That is the exact same level you will need to fill your pot with oil in order to have your turkey completely covered but not too much oil that your pot will overflow.
8) When first placing the bird in the fryer, lower it slowly in increments of 25%, 50%, 75% and then all the way in. Don’t just drop the whole thing in there at once. This will cause a big splash and a possible fire.
9) The oil should be heated to and maintained between 300 and 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 325 is ideal to keep your oil at throughout the process but it is just something you will need to keep an eye on.
10) When first placing your turkey in the oil, you want the oil to be at the top end of the temperature range. You can even get your oil to about 375 because when you place in the bird at first, the temperature differential will bring your oil’s heat down by about 25 to 35 degrees. So make sure your oil is really hot in order to counterbalance the cold turkey bringing down the oil’s temperature.
11) Frying a turkey is not a “set it and forget it” type of cooking. It is not like putting it in the oven and taking it out hours later. When frying a turkey you will need to periodically adjust the amount of propane you are sending to the burner. Because the turkey will be cooking and will be absorbing the oil’s heat, you will need to turn it down every now and then so the oil does not get too hot. We suggest pulling out a tailgating chair, grabbing a cooler full of beers and have a friend join you outside while the turkey cooks. Depending on the size of your bird, it should only be an hour to an hour and a half.
12) Once your turkey has cooked for the total time (remember 3 to 4 minutes per pound) check it with a meat thermometer. Poultry is cooked thoroughly when it reaches 165 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit.

Enjoy frying your turkey.

As a season ticket holder to the San Diego Chargers, I tend to get my fair share of emails from the team. Most of them are emails promoting the latest merchandise or sale going on in their online store but one in particular caught my eye. It said “Chargers Fan Code of Conduct Update” in the subject line so it automatically piqued my interest. I opened the email and this is what I read.

Dear David,

As a Chargers Season Ticket Holder, our most loyal fans, the Chargers and the National Football League want you to be the first to know of additional steps being taken to create the most enjoyable and safe environment possible.

The NFL has initiated a policy that fans who violate the team’s Fan Code of Conduct may be required to complete the NFL’s four-hour online Fan Conduct Class and may be prohibited from attending future Chargers games at Qualcomm Stadium until they have completed the class and produced the Certificate of Completion.

The four-hour class focuses on, but is not limited to, fans with alcohol-related violations. The course is completely educational and meant to be a positive learning experience. It costs $75, including $20 that is donated to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). The remaining fee is paid to the course administrator.

Thank you for your continued support and cooperation in helping make Chargers games a positive experience for everyone.

Sincerely,

Todd Poulsen
Senior Director of Ticket Sales and Services

To anyone who has gotten a speeding ticket or rolled a stop sign, this “Fan Conduct Class” sounds a lot like traffic school. I wonder if they have the stand-up comedy version of the NFL Conduct Class like many traffic schools offer?

In all seriousness, this addition to the fan code of conduct seems like a bit overkill in my opinion. The major motivating factor to complete this conduct course is that you will not be allowed back to another game unless you show your certificate of completion. Basically, the season ticket holders are the only ones affected by this new policy because the bar codes on their tickets could get flagged at the gate. But what about the drunken idiots that buy their tickets from third party vendors or just a scalper wandering around the tailgate party lots? Those fans can act like idiots and there is no way of tracking down where they got their tickets. I have never seen anyone get checked for an ID either in the security pat down or at the ticket scanning sections of the stadium gates. So how does the NFL plan to rid itself of these unsavory characters that are not season ticket holders?

Let’s face it, the NFL is not terribly concerned with the fan that drinks too much, nudes up and runs out on the field. Although that is a security and a safety concern we can all pretty much agree that the NFL is concerned with the foul language and more importantly the violent altercations that occur in the stands. Dropping numerous F-bombs and cursing out the opposing team’s best player because the home team’s quarterback just was sacked for the fifth time is annoying and a product of bad manners. Typically this behavior does not get one ejected from the stadium. Two fans engaging in fisticuffs, that’s immediate cause for an arrest and ejection. And this my fellow tailgaters is what the NFL is trying to nip in the bud.

Being a Chargers season ticket holder since 2004, I have attended my fair share of NFL games. In that time, I have seen a few fights break out in the stands. Luckily, no fights have happened in my particular section where my seats are located but I have been privy to a seeing a few fights occur one or two sections over. Of course this is my personal observation but rarely have I seen a fight break out between fans of the same team. Normally fights happen when an opposing fan gets a little too mouthy and a home team fan has had enough and it escalates into violence.

Assuming that the home team fan is a season ticket holder, what about the other combatant? Surely we are not to believe he too is a season ticket holder and attended this one game and sold off the remaining bulk of his tickets. Of course not. The opposing fan must have bought his seat online or from a scalper. By making the season ticket holder take a conduct course as his punishment is not solving the problem. The other fan gets ejected and possibly arrested but the punitive aspect of making the fans complete a code of conduct course before they can attend another game only punishes the season ticket holder. The visiting team fan can attend another game in the future by merely purchasing a ticket elsewhere.

This may backfire on the NFL and this code of conduct course requirement may embolden visiting fans to antagonize home fans even more. The threat of being ejected and possibly arrested for engaging in a fight at an NFL game was apparently not discouraging fans from fighting. Why else would have thought up and implemented this conduct course?

Look at it this way. You are a visiting fan who is complete jackass and wants to antagonize the home fans. Knowing full well that season ticket holders will get their tickets flagged and will not be able to enter the stadium for a future game unless this course is completed, do you think the home fans will be more or less inclined to engage in a possible altercation? I would compare it to a dog fight where one dog can harass the other one while the original dog is on a leash. Now NFL stadiums may be full of visiting fans who feel they can mouth off knowing the season ticket holders may not solve the problems on their own before calling the ushers.

Let me be clear, I am not in favor of fights in the stands and violence at football games. It just seems a bit unfair that the fans who are typically not the ones that start these altercations are the ones who are getting the additional punishment. I am not suggesting mob rule and that the home team fans should “protect their turf” but there is something to be said about not giving the visiting team’s fans more of an incentive to mouth off.

There has to be a better way but unfortunately the NFL has already implemented this policy and it looks as though it is here to stay.