Many of us tailgaters have some sort of a canopy tent that we take to the parking lots. No matter what tailgating climate you tailgate in, whether it be hot and sunny in the early part of football season or rainy and snowy in the winter months, some sort of shelter tent is always needed. Four-legged pop-up tents are the standard in tailgating parking lots but they can be big, bulky, cumbersome, take two people to set up and take up entirely too much room in your vehicle. I recently discovered the Retractable Awning Canopy Company (RACC) and their new tailgating canopy eliminates a lot of the hassles associated with standard, four leg tailgating tents.
The first thing you will notice is that the RACC never makes contact with the ground. It appears as if it is “floating” off the back of your tailgating vehicle. How it achieves this is by attaching itself to the roof rack system on the top of your car. It requires no legs or guy wires and can be deployed by a single person in about two minutes. Another benefit to tailgaters is that the RACC rides to and from the game on top of your your car, freeing up valuable space on the inside for a bigger cooler, more chairs for friends, etc. You can see from the accompanying photos that the coverage area of the RACC is comparable to the other 9′ x 9′ pop-up tents you see in tailgating lots.
Have you ever struggled putting up a four-legged pop-up tent all by yourself? It is especially difficult setting it up by yourself on grass because the legs tend to dig into and do not slide very easily. I was sent a sample RACC and tried it out on my Lincoln Navigator. I was able to deploy the RACC all by myself and was very pleased with how easy it was. I will admit that after years of using regular pop-up tent it did take me a few minutes to get my mind around the concept of a tailgating tent and not having to walk around tent legs. To get an idea of how the RACC goes on your tailgating vehicle, how it is deployed and how to pack it back up, I highly encourage you to see these two demo videos.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulk1enX_HuY
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha9KQMAbDEQ
So now that you have seen the set up and take down of the RACC, you’re probably asking what colors and teams are they available in. You have two options, either solid colors or collegiate licensed RACC canopies from select ACC and SEC schools. The standard color options include, Red, Kelly Green, Royal Blue, White, Black or Orange. SEC schools available are Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Florida and South Carolina. ACC schools available are Florida State and Clemson. More schools are scheduled to come on board and become available in the future. Here are some more photos of the RACC in use and some of the schools available. (Click images for larger view)
Cost of a RACC will run you $299.95 for collegiate licensed canopies and $259.95 for standard solid colors.
To learn more and to see more photos of the RACC system, join RACC on their Facebook page. To get your own RACC canopy before the football season comes to a close, visit raccstore.com.