Many say the purest form of tailgating is packing up your regular, everyday vehicle and bringing it to the stadium. Going to the game in an RV with all the amenities and creature comforts of home would probably be the highest level of tailgating. But there is a “hybrid” form of tailgating that is in between pure tailgating and RV tailgating. That is utility trailer tailgating.
We recently received an email from Jeff, one of our readers, who just completed customizing his own tailgating trailer. As you can see from the photos below, he is a huge University of Florida fan and put in a lot of time and effort into customizing his tailgating trailer to the exact specifications he wanted. Take a look at the photos and then read his email that follows. (Click on the images to view full size)
Now here is his email explaining the trailer and the work he put into it.
Thanks again for all the work you do on your site, I love checking in to see what is going on at tailgatingideas. I wrote you back in January, trying to find guidance for help creating a tailgating trailer. The project officially began in March, and was finished the weekend before the first kickoff. I did the entire thing myself on free weekends, so it took a lot longer than planned. You had asked me to send you some pictures when the project was done, so I wanted to shoot these over to you.
I started off with an empty cargo trailer with an 8X4 concession window. The trailer is equipped with 2 TV’s, 30 amp power hookup, 10 powered outlets, 3 speakers, sub woofer, draft beer (quick disconnect lines and a keg cooler), the beer tap was a walking stick (found at Cracker Barrel), cargo management system, gator grill, and plenty of storage for all the tailgating essentials. The wrap was a collaboration of me, my fiancé’s dad (artist), and my buddy (graphic designer/wrap artist). Five games into the season and the tailgate has been a huge success! Again, thanks for all the great ideas I had gotten from your site over the past few years!
After reading his email and seeing the pictures I was quite impressed. I asked him to provide a ballpark cost estimate as to how much he thought the whole project costs. That way the rest of tailgate nation would get an idea of what they might expect to spend if they were to attempt customizing a trailer of their own. His response:
That is a common question, but I don’t really have any way to say for sure. The bare trailer with the concession door, reduced height (took 6 inches off to fit in the garage), LED lights upgrade, and the caster wheel jack was right around $2,800. The TV’s, grill, receiver, x-box, keg equipment was all stuff I already had at the house. My fiancé moved in and that big TV was hers. So I am not really sure how I would value that. I got the wrap at cost of materials $580. If you were to have done the same job it would have been $2,200 for the front and sides and an additional $3,000 for the artwork on the back (over 80 hours of design work done).
If you were to buy a trailer, all the required supplies (wood, nails, electrical, diamond plating, etc) I would say you could do the trailer for $5-7,000. A lot of that would depend on what supplies you use. That does not include electronics. All the little things add up, but Lowes really helped esp. when it came to electrical. Many times I would get things home and realize that it would not work, I needed something different, etc. and they will take anything back. I had never built a wall or an electrical system, so this whole thing was a great learning experience. Sorry I don’t really have any way to tell you exactly what this project cost.
So there you have it. Great looking trailer Jeff! If anyone else out there has a tailgating trailer that is customized up like this one, feel free to submit photos. We would love to share those with our readers as well.