Monster Jam And It's Origins

Aside from drag racing and NASCAR, Monster Jam is one of the most American motorsports ever created. Monster Jam is focused more about entertaining fans with wicked stunts than serious competition like Formula One. I’ll talk about the origins of the monster truck and my personal experience seeing them in action.

Bigfoot

If you’re going to talk about the origin of the monster truck, you have to talk about Bigfoot. For some backstory, Bigfoot in American folklore is a mythical ape man that is said to rome the woods of western Washington state. In 1975, Bob Chandler built a 1974 Ford pickup with four wheel steering named Bigfoot and started to use it in tractor pulls in 1979. Come 1981, he used his truck to crush 2 cars and videotaped it, it was this stunt that made Bigfoot famous. Event promoters noticed him and got him to crush cars at events across the country. Chandler even got a sponsorship by Ford from 1983 until 2005. There are now several Bigfoot monster trucks of varying age and size that are made in the Saint Louis, Missouri area. Major League Baseball sponsored Bigfoot in 2010 so another truck was built using a Silverado body instead of the usual Ford bones. Hot Rod Magazine named Bigfoot one of the most influential vehicles in hot rodding history in 2009; it placed 69th in a list of 100 vehicles.

Fun Fact: Bigfoot got its name when Bob Chandler asked friend Ron Magruder why he was breaking so many parts on his truck. Magruder responded, “It’s because of your big foot.”

Bigfoot 5 has 10 feet tall tires and weighs almost 28,000 pounds

Grave Digger

Another famous monster truck in the Monster Jam world is Grave Digger. Dennis Anderson originally built a 1952 Ford pickup for mud bogging in 1982 and that’s where it all began.

“At one show, a scheduled monster truck failed to show up and Anderson, who already had large tractor tires on the truck, offered to crush cars in the absence of the full-size monster. The promoter accepted and Grave Digger was an instant success as a car crusher and led Anderson to leave mud bogging and pursue monster trucks instead.”

“In the late 1980s Anderson gained the nickname “One Run Anderson” for his spectacular but often destructive qualifying passes which entertained the crowd but put the truck out of competition for the rest of the event. With the advent of freestyle, Anderson gained a means by which he could entertain the crowd with wild stunts while also focusing on winning races. Today, Grave Digger, no matter which driver is appearing, is traditionally the last truck to freestyle at most events, providing the “grand finale” which caps off the show. These freestyles often end up in rollover crashes, at much higher rates than other trucks.
The immense popularity of Grave Digger has made it the poster child for Monster Jam, and in some cases monster trucks in general. There is much debate over whether Grave Digger has taken over the title of “Most Popular Monster Truck” from Bigfoot. As a result, the Grave Digger vs. Bigfoot rivalry is one of the strongest in the sport, despite the fact the trucks only race each other a few times each year.”

Since then over a dozen Grave Digger monster trucks have been built and several are currently operating piloted by many drivers other than Dennis so more people can see the Grave Digger truck in the flesh.

Monster Jam As A Motorsport

Monster Jam isn’t a solely United States based event series, monster trucks have performed all over the world in places like Canada, Europe, Australia, Mexico, Costa Rica, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Japan. There are sometimes side events at Monster Jam shows that don’t involve monster trucks like dirt bike or ATV racing. When it comes to the main event, there are two types of competition, racing and freestyle. Racing involves the trucks completing laps of a course set out in the arena with various obstacles (I know this from watching Monster Jam personally). Freestyle is where the fun really starts; monster trucks will complete dizzying donuts, jumps and sometimes even double backflips. The crowd’s cheering and official judges both weigh in on which truck performed the best in the freestyle events.

“Each Monster Jam truck is approximately 10.5 feet tall, 12 feet wide, 17 feet long and weighs 10,000 pounds. A Monster Jam engine will generate 1,500 horsepower, thanks to a blower that forces air and fuel into the engine. It is powered by methanol fuel, consumed at the rates of three gallons a minute from a specially constructed safety cell. The truck utilizes a four-link racing suspension with four main bars that link the front and rear axles to the frame. It rides on clusters of nitrogen charged shocks that offer 30 inches of travel in the suspension. The BKT tires are 66 inches in diameter and 43 inches wide, inflated to 16-20 psi pressure and (with wheel) weigh 800 pounds each. The driver’s compartment is a steel safety structure, built from tubing and mounted to the truck frame. The truck bodies are custom-built and constructed of fiberglass. Each truck is transported in specially prepared trailers, which can include spare parts and as many as two trucks.” The V8 engines used are usually about 540 cubic inches or sometimes bigger and are mated to 2 and 3 speed transmissions.

My Experience With Monster Jam

Several monster trucks decided to stop by my hometown of Spokane to do a show for people in the Inland Northwest, this was about 6 years ago. I remember that the event was in late winter, the ridiculously loud V8’s echoed throughout the stadium and there was a semi sweet smell in the air of burnt racing fuel. Spokane Arena isn’t the biggest of venues so the shenanigans put on weren’t as grandiose as they are at the Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas.

I have owned mini monster trucks and played two Monster Jam video games as well. There have been monster trucks that have performed at the county fair in my area but it wasn’t as awe inducing as the Monster Jam events.

Overall, it was a good experience, I highly recommend petrolheads from all walks of life go to an event if they’re able to.

Sources

Wikipedia Grave Digger (truck)
“ “ Bigfoot (truck)
“ “ Monster Jam
bigfoot4x4.com/blog/bigfoot-5/
monsterjam.com