Gear
How to pick the gear that fits your tailgate best. Setup guides first, then gear by category.
Setup guides
- Your first lot kit Shade, a surface, cold, fire, cleanup — start there, add flex gear later.
- Setup order Arrive, claim the footprint, shade, table, grill — Tailgating 101 Setup.
- Weather kit Sides, weights, heat play, cold play — when the forecast flips.
- Power plan Name what has to run. Battery first, generator only if the lot allows.
Gear Category
Canopy to cornhole — pick what fits how you haul it and what your lot allows. Games live under the four footprint guides; open a guide for links to each game.
- Canopies Start with how much shade the crew actually stands under, then stakes, weights, and a side wall if wind or rain is in the forecast.
- Tailgate Kit The full lot kit — eat, cook, clean, fix, power, weather — so Saturday isn’t a scavenger hunt.
- Customize YOUR Tailgate Tablecloths, inflatables, flags & banners, canopy lights — make the spot yours.
- Fans If the asphalt is doing the cooking, pick a fan that moves air across people — not a blast aimed at the coals.
- Heaters Cold-lot heat is about placement and clearance, not the biggest unit that fits in the trunk.
- Power Sources Decide what has to run — phones, a fan, a screen — before you buy another battery or talk yourself into a generator.
- Portable Grills Propane or charcoal is a crew-size and lot-rules question. Match the cooker to how many people you actually feed.
- Coolers The right cooler is the one that stays cold until the last plate, packed so the ice isn’t doing two jobs.
- Seating Folding chairs, camp chairs, and inflatable seats — pick what folds small and stacks in the car, not what looks best in a catalog.
- Tables A folding table holds the spread. A card table is the extra. A high-top is for standing. The grill shelf is only for the cook.
- Tailgate TVs A screen only earns the haul if you can power it, set the height, and keep the sun off it.
- Music & speakers Loud enough for your canopy, quiet enough that the next spot doesn’t have to hear your playlist.
- Connectivity One decision: how the game and the music get to you — hotspot, antenna, satellite, or Bluetooth — without three tangled kits.
- Tight-spot toss Cornhole, washers, bocce, ladder toss, Kan Jam. Games you can shorten into one stall or the space in front of the truck.
- Open-grass throw Catch, track/scoop ball, yard dice, frisbee, spikeball, whiffle. Need a clear lane or grass — not a parking stall.
- Table & hands Cards, dice (incl. Farkle), stack games. No throwing lane — just a surface and a few people who can hear each other.
- Drinking games Beer pong, beer darts, flip cup, forbidden words, Chugger Knights — only if age + lot rules allow. Responsible drinking first.
Pick for your lot: how you haul it, and what that school allows. When we stand behind a product, it lives in Tailgate Finds.