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
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