How to Watch TV at the Tailgate
Nothing quite adds to the social hour like setting up a tailgate TV to watch other games before game time. We get a lot more traffic to our tailgate spot when we have the TV hooked up. Luckily, you only need three things to watch TV at tailgating. We have added a bonus 4th item for mounting your TV with ease!
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- Television: This is the obvious must-have for watching TV at tailgating. One tip for deciding on your TV for tailgating is how easily you can transport it from home to the game. We know that we if we get a TV too large it will not fit in our backseat. Another tip, we don’t recommend buying a high end television. Accidents can happen. Don’t buy a TV that would make you cry if it gets damaged. No one likes to be sad before the game even starts. Click here to see our 2020 List of Tailgate TVs.
- Power Source: If you are not tailgating nearby an outlet, invest in a small generator. The power source we use for our tailgate is the Honda EU1000i Inverter Generator. This generator is popular because it is easy to transport and extremely quiet. While there are many sizes to choose from, this size can easily run a TV and satellite dish.
- A Satellite Dish or Antenna: If you have DISH or DirectTV as your regular service provider, adding a dish to your account is easy and often extremely inexpensive. For us, adding to our DISH account is $7 per month. The KING Tailgater Bundle includes Portable Satellite TV Antenna and DISH Wally HD Receiver has all you need to start tailgating with Dish Network at your tailgate. “Bunny Ears” have come a long way and another option to watch TV at your tailgate is a TV Antenna. This will give you local channels but we also recommend checking out the FCC DTV Reception Maps to check regional availability ahead of time.
- A Tailgate TV Mount: While it isn’t necessary we will file this under a bonus item. One of the items we love is our Tailgate TV Mount. This freed up our table space allows us to make much more efficient uses of our space. We opted to choose a mount that allows for us to open and close the tailgate of our truck.
For even more from Tailgate Winners:
Guide to Tailgate TVs and Tailgate TV Mounts.