The Birth of Monster Trucks: A Story of Innovation and Entertainment

Flag waved and the driver of Bigfoot, Andy Brass, mashed the throttle. The trucks were neck and neck around the turn, so whichever truck got to jump on the backstretch first would take the championship. The drivers gunned it and Bigfoot got a slightly better launch, taking him over the crushed cars and securing his win, mere inches ahead of Snake Bite. - Bigfoot wins, yes! Bigfoot defeats Snake Bite, in the Pontiac Silverdome.

It was a spectacular finish for the first-ever Monster Jam event. Finally, people who had never seen anything like this before were now fans. Kids at home picked their favorite truck like picking their favorite wrestler. Each truck had a unique personality, and at the center of it all, Bigfoot. For fans at home, this might have been their first exposure to Bigfoot, but for the last decade, this truck had been innovating at every turn. Going bigger, stronger, higher, and louder. And it was all because of one dude, Bob Chandler, the granddaddy of monster trucks.

One day, Bob had an idea that was a little crazy, okay. He wondered if Bigfoot could drive over other cars. There wasn't any intention behind it; he just wanted to see if it was possible. So Bob and his friends set up some junkers and a video camera, and filmed Bigfoot attempting to drive over these cars. Sure enough, it did so with ease. The first time, it drove straight over the cars, the second time, he stopped the truck on top, as if to say this feat had been conquered.

Like an early 80's version of YouTube, the video made the rounds, and at a certain point, a promoter saw it. He pleaded with Chandler to recreate the stunt in front of a crowd, but Chandler was hesitant, surprisingly. Why would anyone wanna come out and see a truck drive over cars? What if no one showed up? There were a lot of unknowns.

It took constant persuasion to convince Bob Chandler to agree to crush some cars, but finally, he relented and agreed to perform the stunt again. So Bob brought his truck to Columbia Missouri, where the promoter had lined up four dilapidated cars, in a square. A large crowd had gathered, with an effortless grip, Bob drove Bigfoot up and over the cars, crushing them in a spectacular fashion. The onlookers went nuts, all of Bob's worries and insecurities, were drowned out by the roar of the crowd.

He didn't realize what he had hit on, but he knew there was something special in this odd form of entertainment. In his own words, it was a fluke. From this point on, all Bob did with his trucks was crushed cars and raced at events. Obviously, Bob Chandler did more to develop and promote monster trucks than most people, but he wasn't the only one to thank for its success.

Everett Jasmer, builder of a truck called USA-1, built on a Chevy CK, that rivaled Bigfoot early on. Both trucks appeared in the show, That's Incredible, in 1983, competing against each other. This is actually the first official monster truck rivalry ever, and it drove innovations that helped the sport evolve.

Bob Chandler was very competitive and always strived to make Bigfoot the biggest, most powerful truck out there. After copycat trucks started claiming the title of biggest truck in the world, Chandler put 10-foot tires on Bigfoot and made sure no one could get closest to retaking that title, of the world's biggest truck.

I actually took 16 more years, but eventually, Bigfoot Five was recognized as being the world's tallest, widest, and heaviest monster truck at a staggering 20 foot five inches long, 15 feet six inches high, and an insane 38,000 pounds. A partnership with Ford in 1983 helped offset the massive cost associated with maintaining these vehicles and swapping out parts.

But more importantly, the partnership made everyone realize that there was room in the sport for big money sponsorships. It wasn't just a backyard hobby anymore; it was a full-blown industry, and Bob Chandler made that happen. And it wouldn't have been possible without that first show in Columbia, Missouri, back in 1982.

Let me know in the comments, what your monster truck would be. I wanna know what its name is, what the gimmick is. I want you to get creative. I think that hockey mascot, Gritty, would make a really good monster truck. Like the windshield could just be his huge eyes, and then you just have like giant pool noodles as his hair. I think that'd be pretty cool.

I wanna see what you guys can come up with. Be kind, see you next time, nailed the dits.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Columbia, Missouri, 1982.A crowd waits patiently as Bob Chandlersits in his 1974 Ford F-250.The massive, 460 cubic inchengine, gurgles and spitslike a hungry wolf,ready to devour its prey.It rides high on 48-inch wheels.The decal on the side ofthe truck reads, Bigfoot.The crowd is completelyconsumed by the spectacle.No one's ever seen atruck like this before.Suddenly, it's go time,he lurches forward.Little did Bob know, this moment,would set off a chainreaction that would snowballinto one of the most dramaticMotorsports to ever exist.Talking monster trucks today, baby.(upbeat music)A big old you to manscaped.comfor sponsoring today'sepisode of Wheelhouse.This holiday season Manscaped is making iteasier than ever, to give the giftof clean round ornamentswithout any nicks or cuts.The Lawn Mower 3.0 is a perfect giftfor yourself or that special someone,who let's be frank, may needto spend a little more timein Santa's downstairs workshop.The Lawn Mower 3.0 is not only greatbecause of its skin safe technology,helping to reduce cuts inthose oh so sensitive areas,but it also has a neat little LED lightfor those late night trim sessions.One of my favorite features of the thing,in fact, it's a game changer.And now the Lawn Mower 3.0 is includedin the performance package by Manscaped.This package comes with the Weed Whacker,for those pesky nose and ear hairs,or maybe even those toe hairsthat you were all sooffended by a few weeks ago.Simply visit manscaped.com/donutfor 20% off your order.Plus free internationalshipping, no promo code required.Just click the link in the descriptionand Manscaped will hook youup with those discounts.Thank you, Manscaped.Monster trucks are soingrained in our culture,that we sometimes forgethow insane they are.They've kind of becomethis entertainment on parwith professional wrestling or the circus.But if you think aboutit, these trucks are someof the most incredible machines ever made.Modern monster trucks havemethanol powered 1500 horsepower engines.They ride on 66 inch talltires and weigh 12,000 pounds.The tires themselvesweigh 650 pounds each.These trucks do flips,they ride on two wheelsand regularly fly 40 feet in the air.I can go on and on about theinsane specs of monster trucks.In fact, we actuallydid a bumper to bumperon Grave Digger, if youwanna check that out.But what we really wanna talk about today,is the unlikely rise of this niche sportand where it all started.We're gonna talk about the exact momentthat monster trucks wereborn, working backwardsthrough differentmilestones that helped shapethe modern monster trucks we see today.So what was the moment thatreally set this sport in motion?We're gonna find out.(upbeat music)March 25th, 2017, at theMonster Jam World Finalsin beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada.The 18th annual eventwas just getting startedand things were already getting crazy.In the freestyle event,Wildflower was blasting big airs.El Toro Loco was doing back flipsand Grave Digger was doingsomersaults, somehow.At one point the driverof Avenger, Jim Koehler,went full send and flew what must've been60 feet in the air, butAvenger's reign was short,as Neil Elliott in hisspike covered Max D truck,had a nearly flawless run,which included a reverse flip.But what came next shookeveryone to their cores.I seriously got chillswhen I saw this clip.No cap, as the kids say, Ifeel old just saying that.Lee O'Donnell, driver of VP Racing Fuel'sMad Scientist truck,was having a great run.He was using the entire courseand had a good smattering of tricksthat went off without a hitch.Towards the end of his run,he started blasting huge airsand it was clear that he wasgearing up for something big.With mere seconds left on the clock,Lee blasted over a tabletop gap,landing hard with a big bouncewhich sent his nose up in the air.Lee guns it, getting his truckinto what's called a slap wheelie.He then drives straightinto the next jump,with only his back wheelstouching the ground.This sends his truck into a front flip,spinning end over end and landingperfectly on the opposite ramp.This was the first successful front flipever performed in Monster Jam history.- What, he did a front flipRyan, that was insane!- That seems insane to me,sending a 12,000 pound vehicleend over end and actually landing it.Like how do you practice that?It feels like you'd have to havea great understanding of your vehicle,know how to do it theoretically,and then just go for it.It's a leap of faith, but this momentwouldn't have beenpossible, had it not beenfor another leap of faith,a few years earlier.March, 2010 in beautifulJacksonville Florida.Nitro Circus monstertruck driver Cam McQueen,is competing in a freestyle eventin front of a sold outcrowd of over 72,000screaming monster truck fans.Nearing the end of hisrun, he blasts this trucktowards the side of a jump,sending it straight up into a back flip.He lands all four wheels on the ground.This is the first evermonster truck backflip,in competition, but drivers had beenattempting them for quite some time.More than a year earlier,none other than Travis Bay Boy Pastrana,tried one in his backyardwith his boy Street BikeTommy, watching from the wings.His attempt was an unsuccessful onebut it's pretty rad thathe had the extra tryin a vehicle he's not knownfor being an expert in.That's pretty typical of Travis Pastrana.It is actually very scary,as Travis is going so fast,the jump sends his trucksuper far up into the airand comes down on the roof of the truck.Luckily though, Travis wiggledout of it, relatively unharmed.Back flip attempts to go allthe way back to the year 2000,where Lyle Hancock attempteda reverse back flipin the very firstMonster Jam World Finals,but was unsuccessful.Sure, Cam McQueen holds the recordfor the first everbackflip in a competition,but if you really wannabe a stickler about it,the very first backflip was landedby Larry Quick in his ghost rider truck,in 2009 at a Monster Jam in Vermont.But since it was doneduring Larry's Encore,it wasn't counted inhis run, unfortunately.I was surprised to learnthat there are actuallya bunch of different types of backflipsperformed by monster trucks,many of which were pioneeredby the dude who first landed onein competition, Cam McQueen.I just have to say man,that's an amazing name.These backflips includeyour standard backflip,a reverse backflip, Mcflip,which is a corkscrew backflip,and the 360 flare, whichwas invented just last yearby Scott Bluto in El ToroLoco, which is differentthan when Chris Joslin360 flipped El Toro.(banging)(shouting)None of these trickswould've been possiblewithout advancements inmonster truck technology,specifically, their suspension.Think about the insane forcesa truck has to deal with.Not only just driving around,but how much compressionit has to survive after droppingfrom 50 feet in the air.Had it not been for this innovation,who knows if Monster Jamwould even exist today.I'm gonna put on my Jeremiah hatand talk about some of this innovation.The way these trucks areable to do such big jumps,is because of these big,burly bypass tube shocks,which are much stronger than anythingyou need for your average truck.But then again, you aren'tflying through the airnearly as much as Monster Jam drivers.Jim Vaders was the first driverto have this type of shock in his truck,The Black Stallion Two,but like everything inthe monster truck worldit wasn't an overnight development.Jim's 1982 Ford F350, started its lifeas a bone stock truck.First, he put a 12 inch lift kit on it,because that was thebiggest kit he could find.Then he dropped in a Ford, big block460 engine in it, put someplanetary gears in there.Then 66 inch tires and soon,it was one of the biggest trucks around.But, as the jumps got biggerand the drops became more violent,he was gonna need to beefup that suspension as well.That's a lot of stressyou're putting on your butt.He ripped out the leaf springsand replaced them with air suspension.During a show in Bloomberg,Pennsylvania in 1991,Jim's truck experienceda disturbing rolloverwhich left him pretty shook.It dawned on him that the airbagsjust weren't gonna cut it.So that's when he turned tohis friends at King Shocks,known for making beefy, off-road shocks.Together, they developedspecial bypass tube shocks,that could absorb tons of impactwith an incredible 26inches of travel possible.This is the first time this kind of shockwas used in the monster truck circuit,but after other driverssaw how well it workedwith what they were doing,it soon became the standard.The technology keptgetting better and better,and by the late 90's,Vaders' Black Stallion truckhad shocks with 36 inchesof vertical travel, insane.Nowadays, monster trucks have fournitrogen filled shocks per wheel,which allows the jumps to be biggerand the compression to bemore intense than ever before.But it's not just the shocksthat help dampen the drops.The tires are inflated to only20 pounds per square inch,to provide an extra dab ofcushion for the landing.The moment, Jim Vaders put these shockson his truck in the early90's, there was no going back.Everything from there on outwas only gonna get more insane.Another thing happened in1992, that could be viewedas possibly the mostimportant thing to happenin monster truck history.The first televised monstertruck race, The Monster Jam.(upbeat music)This event held in the nowdemolished Pontiac Silverdome,was put on by the USHRA,the US Hot Rod Association,and featured trucks like Hammer Time,Bad Medicine and King Crunch,Captain Crunch's older brother.But the star of the show was a truckthat was already a household name,and that name was Bigfoot.The event featured a race that wastwo straights with one hairpin turn.Bigfoot had been dominatingin the preliminary roundswhich culminated in a finalheat against Snake Bite.The final flag waved andthe driver of Bigfoot,Andy Brass, mashed the throttle.The trucks were neck andneck around the turn,so whichever truck got to jumpon the backstretch first,would take the championship.The drivers gunned it and Bigfootgot a slightly betterlaunch, taking him overthe crushed cars and securing his win,mere inches ahead of Snake Bite.- Bigfoot wins, yesBigfoot defeats Snake Bite,in the Pontiac Silverdome.- It was a spectacular finishfor the first ever Monster Jam event.Finally, people whohad never seen anythinglike this before, were now fans.Kids at home picked their favorite trucklike picking their favorite wrestler.Each truck had a unique personalityand at the center of it all, Bigfoot.For fans at home, this might've beentheir first exposure to Bigfoot,but for the last decade, this truckhad been innovating at every turn.Going bigger, stronger,higher, and louder.And it was all because of one dude,Bob Chandler, the granddaddyof monster trucks.One day, Bob had an idea thatwas a little crazy, okay.He wondered if Bigfootcould drive over other cars.There wasn't any intention behind it,he just wanted to see if it was possible.So Bob and his friends set up some junkersand a video camera, and filmed Bigfootattempting to drive over these cars.Sure enough, it did so with ease.The first time, it drovestraight over the cars,the second time, hestopped the truck on top,as if to say this feat had been conquered.Like an early 80's version of YouTube,the video made the rounds.And at a certain point, a promoter saw it.He pleaded with Chandler to recreatethe stunt in front of a crowd,but Chandler was hesitant, surprisingly.Why would anyone wanna come outand see a truck drive over cars?What if no one showed up?There were a lot of unknowns.It took constant persuasionto convince Bob Chandlerto agree to crush some cars,but finally he relentedand agreed to perform the stunt again.So Bob brought his truckto Columbia Missouri,where the promoter had lined upfour dilapidated cars, in a square.A large crowd had gathered,with an effortless grip,Bob drove Bigfoot up and over the cars,crushing them in a spectacular fashion.The onlookers went nuts,all of Bob's worriesand insecurities, were drownedout by the roar of the crowd.He didn't realize what he had hit on,but he knew there was something specialin this odd form of entertainment.In his own words, it was a fluke.From this point on, allBob did with his truckswas crushed cars and raced at events.Obviously Bob Chandler did more to developand promote monstertrucks than most people,but he wasn't the only oneto thank for its success.Everett Jasmer, builta truck called USA-1,built on a Chevy CK, thatrivaled Bigfoot early on.Both trucks appeared in theshow, That's Incredible,in 1983, competing against each other.This is actually the first officialmonster truck rivalry ever,and it drove innovationsthat helped the sport evolve.Bob Chandler was very competitiveand always strived to make Bigfootthe biggest, mostpowerful truck out there.After copycat trucks started claimingthe title of biggest truck in the world,Chandler put 10 foot tires on Bigfootand made sure no one could get closeto retaking that title, ofthe world's biggest truck.I actually took 16 more years,but eventually Bigfoot Five was recognizedas being the world's tallest, widestand heaviest monster truck at a staggering20 foot five inches long, 15 feet,six inches high and aninsane 38,000 pounds.A partnership with Ford in 1983,helped offset the massive cost associatedwith maintaining these vehiclesand swapping out parts.But more importantly, thepartnership made everyone realizethat there was room in the sportfor big money sponsorships.It wasn't just a backyard hobby anymore.It was a full-blown industry,and Bob Chandler made that happen.And it wouldn't have been possiblewithout that first show inColumbia, Missouri, back in 1982.Let me know in the comments,what your monster truck would be.I wanna know what it's nameis, what the gimmick is.I want you to get creative.I think that hockey mascot, Gritty,would make a really good monster truck.Like the windshield couldjust be his huge eyes,and then you just have likegiant pool noodles as his hair.I think that'd be pretty cool.I wanna see what youguys can come up with.Be kind, see you nexttime, nailed the dits.