Rutgers Jitney Fleet

Here are two great vehicles that hit it hard at Rutgers.   These sweet rigs are owned by Ken Forberger, Mike Green, Graig Fergusson, Justin Tellone, and Andre Tanskey.  Here's what they had to say:

  

Ken says: We have a Jitney Fleet of 2 tailgate vehicles.  The bus handles all of the people, and the support truck handles all of our equipment.  My family basically started tailgating at Rutgers more than 40 years ago before I was born.  I grew up attending all of the Rutgers Football, Men's & Women's Basketball games with my family.  

  

While attending Rutgers, I met Mike Green.  He was the Drum Captain of the Marching Band, and I was the Drum Major of the Marching Scarlet Knights: The Pride of New Jersey.  I had known Justin Tellone from HS, and when he started at Rutgers, we got back together.  I met Graig through Mike, and they were both engineering students at RU, and ended up working together for the same company.  At that company, Andrew Tanskey, was a member of the staff, and Graig and Mike brought him to our tailgate crew.  Andrew's father-in-law has a long history supporting Rutgers, and he was no stranger to Rutgers, but we were excited Andrew decided to officially join the Jitney Crew.  

  

 

You can find at at every Rutgers Football game this fall in the Scarlet Lot, which is directly attached to the west side of High Point Solutions Stadium.  The Jitney also makes its way to all Men's and Women's Basketball games.

Jitney Fleet Owners Group: (We refer to ourselves as the "Rutgers Jitney Motorcoach Builders of America")

   

   

Rutgers Jitney - Vehicle 1

Purchased: 02/26/2011 for $3400

Work Began: 06/01/2011

Work Complete: 08/31/2012 for $10,000

Vehicle Information: 1997 Champion CM2 - Coach Built on a GM P-30 Rolling Chassis with the 5.7L V8.

Atlantic City Jitney Association:  AC has had the same Jitney body design going back to the 50s, and this was the last of that kind when they switched over to natural gas.  No more of these exist, and it is a uniquely NJ item, so we had to use it as the base for our truck.  It's instantly recognized everywhere it goes.

Work Completed: (All work completed by us.  100%)

-Interior completely gutted and painted red, black, and white (Handi-Cap Lift removed)

-Custom built benches with full storage underneath were added

-Kegorator was installed with tap

-Cell phone charging station with caddy added to the shevling around kegorator

-Vehicle sound system was upgraded to ipod/iphone, and bluetooth capabiilty with navigation

-Entire front dash, floor, and steps were completely modified and painted black

-Invertor installed allowing us to use alternator, generator, or even house power.

-New brakes, rotors, ball joints

-Exterior was completely taken down as well.  We removed the windows in order to paint the vehicle.  We used a friend's shop in the area in order to paint the vehicle making a paint booth out of plastic sheets.  Windows and trim were painted black.  Bus was changed from sky blue to red and black,

-Custom block R out of aircraft grade aluminum was added to the front grille.

-Replaced all wheel well trim, body trim, and custom battery door.

-Finishing touches were added in the form of decals

2012 Recognition

-2012 Bold Tailgate Award Winner for Best Vehicle by the Roosevelts

-2012 Miller Lite Tailgater of the Game - Homecoming Game

-2012 Miller Lite Tailgater of the Year Participant

   

   

   

Rutgers Jitney: Special Operations - Tailgate Division Truck - Vehicle 2

Purchased: 03/15/2013 - $3400

Work Began: 03/16/2013

Work Complete: 04/26/2013 - $1500

Vehicle Information:  2003 Chevy Express 3500 - Utility Body - 6.0L Chevy V8

George Young & Co:  We were lucky enough to find this vehicle's utility body was already the right shade of red, and the cab just a black.  So, we decided to purchase it and go with a SWAT theme.  We debuted this on 04/27/2013 at the Rutgers Spring Football Game.

Work Completed:

-Sand and use bed-liner on all of the cabinet interiors, main body interior diamond plate, and various shelving. 

-2 new front tires, brakes, rotors, ball joints, all fluids changed

-Decal the exterior of the truck

Read more about the Rutgers Jitney Fleet on social media and articles:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rutgers.jitney

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Rutgers_Jitney

Rutgers University Article:  A Jitney Re-Done Rutgers Style

Roosevelts Bold Tailgate Award:  http://www.rsvlts.com/2012/12/09/2012-bold-tailgate-award-winners/

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Know of a great tailgating crew or tailgating rig?  Please let us know and Submit a Story!

Police: Stripper bus for Lions game may be illegal

Police may put the brakes on a party bus that was apparently operating as a Sunday strip club for reveling Lions fans at a popular tailgating spot in Detroit.

Investigators believe fans tailgating before a recent Lions home game were allowed onboard the "Booty Lounge," a large red and black bus replete with two stages, steel dancing poles, tinted windows and even a smoke machine, after forking over a $10 donation to its operators, Detroit Police spokeswoman Eren Stephens said Thursday.

Read More: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/09/29/business-us-mobile-strip-club-detroit_8707297.html

Notre Dame Tailgate Bus

This sweet tailgate rig is a 1997 former school bus for the city of South Bend.  Dale Luers, Steve Lindhorn and Larry Knefely took this bus from start to finish in 7 weeks, 10 days of which was at paint.  This work was done for Mark Smith, owner of Great Lakes Forest Products.  They have all been tailgating at Notre Dame for many years.

The exterior of this bus sports a custom paint job as well as 2 Margaritaville bumper grills welded together, an 18’ blue and gold awning, a 46” LED TV on a custom swing arm bracket and a TwinVision Mobile Light sign.  

The interior is completely loaded with 2 15” LED TVs over the bar in back and a flip down 26” LED TV at the front.  It has an Astroturf floor with blue and gold vinyl from floor to ceiling.  There are 2 flip sofas, 2 reclining euro chairs and three bar stools in blue and gold vinyl.  The bar and coffee tables are topped with LG solid surface countertops.  The bar is equipped with a Kegerator, a microwave and wall mounted stereo / DVD player.  The bus is satellite ready and has a powered digital roof mount antenna for local TV coverage.

All of this is powered by a Yamaha 6300w inverter generator.

This bus can be seen at All Notre Dame home games and look for it at the Notre Dame vs. Michigan game this year tailgating at "The Big House"......."GO IRISH"!!!!!!!!!!

Double Feature of Oklahoma Sooner Tailgating Machines

Feature 1: Check out this old Greyhound bus found in Oklahoma by Gameday Rivals.

Feature 2: Gameday Rivals also found a 1940's era fire truck, re-purposed as an ultimate Sooners tailgate ride.

"Silent Willie" Made Debut For Rutgers Last Night

Over the last couple of years, we’ve been able to share plenty of Tailgating Rigs with you. We’ve seen owners turn old school buses into insane tailgating machines, and we’ve seen them turn RV’s into elaborate party palaces. However, we’ve never seen an old school bus get converted into a tailgating RV. Meet “Silent Willie,” an old school bus turned tailgating RV by a couple of Rutgers fans that wanted a vehicle that not only tailgated for home games, but away games as well.

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The Extreme Tailgating Bus by Imagi-Motive

The word extreme gets tossed around a little too liberally these days. It’s been overused to the point where it’s meaning is totally lost. If you don’t believe me, just think back and remember the band Extreme.

Well, our good friends at Imagi-Motive are ready to bring back the true meaning of the word extreme with their Extreme Tailgating Bus. If you can find another bus with electric gull doors on the back of it, you’re getting a free keg on us. This bus has been redone from the ground up, and no expense was spared. Besides the gull doors, which provide open air grilling for its high tech kitchen, features include a two keg system with interior and exterior taps and a total of 3 giant flat screen TV’s.

There is no real way of doing this bus justice without a long list of its features along with some pictures, see the full story to check them out.

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Tennessee Titans: Tailgating "First Class"

If owning and operating a tailgating vehicle is the equivalent of running a company, then The First Class Tailgaters, a tailgating group backing the Tennessee Titans, are the equivalent of a conglomerate. They aren’t just equipped with a simple tailgating van. They operate a tailgating van, trailer, mobile bar, rolling gadgets, and a container kitchen. Yes, they converted an old ocean-shipping container into a complete commercial kitchen.

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Master Gator Takes Gainesville Tailgating to the Next Level

There are weekend projects, and then there are weekend projects that take 6 months and over 1000 man-hours to complete. This one is the latter, and it is appropriately named the “Master Gator.”

Created by Keith Moody, the “Master Gator” began as a 1992 Ford B700 with a 5.9 Cummins and Thomas Body, which was picked up in an auction down in Broward County. Working with some of his friends, Keith began by gutting the inside of the bus including seats, rubber floor, plywood subfloor, heaters, driver's seat, and windows. Then using the help of his friend Martin from Master Blaster in Fort Pierce, they sandblasted the inside before priming and painting the complete interior portion of this tailgate machine. Keith even stripped down the windows to their raw aluminum state, and took them to a machine shop where he was able to anodized the frames black. As he would put it, “Not one part of this bus is half assed, all wiring, plumbing paint etc was done right.”

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Jim Knox Takes a Spill Off a Texas Tailgating Bus

I have to give credit to Gameday Rivals for even posting their boy Jim Knox taking a dive off this Texas tailgate bus.

Looking to Buy a Tailgate Bus?

For those of you looking to set up your own tailgate rig, check out this 1979 35’ Wanderlodge by Bluebird currently located in Ohio. The owner, Terri Church, has informed us that he has just put it up for sale, and is asking $9,000. The interior of the bus is almost completed with beautiful maple/oak floor. This potential tailgating machine has ivory couches that fold down into beds, which is great for those 2 to 3 day road game trips.

Below are some of its other features:

• 3208 Caterpillar Engine
• 4 Speed, Allison Automatic
• 7.25kw Kohler Generator
• 2 13.5 Roof ACs

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