Monster Truck thread? Monster Truck thread.

In reply to pinchvalve 

Came here to post the Aerostar monster truck but you beat me to it and did a much better job. Growing up in a pair of Aerostar's made it a favorite.

Anyone else play Microsoft's Monster Truck Madness 1 and 2? The best part was running into the outhouses to hear "Hey, I'm still in here!"

In reply to slefain :

I've also met Jason and Lonny Childress through GCM and agree that they're awesome people. 

Just my opinion, but monster trucks seemed to get less cool when it went from actual racing to freestyle and every truck owned by the same organization.

Front flips!

I did a lot of work building the driveline on this mud truck. It has the "street" tires on it in the pic. Driving around on the streets was weird & kinda scary to say the least. I'd love to drive one of those really big trucks.

[URL=https://s240.photobucket.com/user/NOTATA/media/003-8.jpg.html][/URL]

In reply to pinchvalve :

Boogey Van was indeed awesome.

adam525i said:

In reply to pinchvalve 

Came here to post the Aerostar monster truck but you beat me to it and did a much better job. Growing up in a pair of Aerostar's made it a favorite.

Anyone else play Microsoft's Monster Truck Madness 1 and 2? The best part was running into the outhouses to hear "Hey, I'm still in here!"

 

Not on PC, although I've tried a couple times to get them working, but Monster Truck Madness 64 is basically a pretty good port of MTM2 for the N64. I loved it back in the day and still go back to it occasionally.

I do wish I could get the PC version working, because there's tons of cool user-made trucks for it.

My buddy and I just went to a monster truck...show? race? event?...whatever you want to call it about a month ago. It wasn't Monster Jam, but rather some minor league sanctioning body. It was definitely entertaining and well worth the $20, but if I ever go again (and we were already talking about doing another one this summer, but then Covid 19 happened...) I'd make sure that a) it was at a bigger venue and b) it was an actual Monster Jam event. The Farm Show Complex was about the smallest arena you could possibly cram these things into and really limited what they could set up in terms of jumps and stuff. There were also only about half a dozen trucks, one of which wasn't running right from the get go and kept breaking up at anything much above idle, and another seemed to have a heat related failure while doing donuts towards the end of the event. 

They also had a "tough trucks" race worked in between the monster trucks, which was possibly even more entertaining. About 20 or so XJs, one ZJ, and one Ranger going absolutely full send over jumps and stuff. Hell yea! 

In reply to Furious_E :

Aww man, I probably could have worked a road trip to see tough trucks. 

Couple years ago we got to ride in a monster truck at the fair, like in the cab. That was awesome. Last year they were doing donuts in a field with like a dozen seats in the back of a truck, I missed that one, but it also cost more than the ride in the cab did.

Fun fact: Bigfoot #9 was seized by Brazilian customs while on tour, and was never returned to the team.

slowbird said:

Fun fact: Bigfoot #9 was seized by Brazilian customs while on tour, and was never returned to the team.

Fun fact # 2 about Bigfoot- there were two bigfeets built with the 10' tall tires. Bob Chandler has one. The other one was sold to fun spot Kissimmee and resides there currently, named as "big fun". I believe the fun spot one was a display chassis only, and the one Chandler has still runs. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Fun fact # 3 - the one that's in Kissimmee now was previously displayed at the now defunct Race Rock restaurant on International Drive, Dave & Busters is now in that location.  Here's a picture of it back in the day

ThurdFerguson said:

I can remember going by the original Bigfoot in Hazelwood when I was a kid sometimes when we were going somewhere through north St Louis.

Now its out in Pacific, MO:

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/25494

 

Somewhere deep in the STM family archives there's a hard copy picture of young stm317 and some cousins standing in the wheel of this one. Had to be around 89-91. If I can track it down I'll post it.

Anybody else have the monster truck trading cards? Those might be stashed away somewhere too. Carolina Crusher and the Aerostars with the tracks were my favorites

If you've ever seen the Bigfoot home videos there is a great video of the Aerostar tank coming up to some cars to crush and just cutting through them instead. It wa so heavy it wouldn't go over them. Cool water videos also since those big wheel trucks float.

I remember when Monster Jam came to my small city in Idaho around '92-'93. I got to meet Dennis Anderson in the pits and he signed my Gravedigger t-shirt. Somewhere there is a picture of 11 year old stanger_missle standing in front of Gravedigger, next to Dennis with a giant grin on my face. I wore that t-shirt until the graphic was completely flaked off. I was also a huge Bigfoot fan when I was in elementary school. I had a few awesome Bigfoot t-shirts.

I also remember playing the crap out of Monster Truck Wars on my Gameboy.

In 2013, my co-worker, Artur, asked if I wanted to go to Monster Jam with him. He had scored two tickets from our unit family support coordinator and his girlfriend was unable to go. Of course I said yes. Artur was a first generation Polish-American and had immigrated to the states when he was 6. He loved the American culture. What is more American that monster trucks and overpriced Budweiser? We had an absolute blast. I don't think anybody in the stadium enjoyed themselves more than Artur. He would yell in Polish when he got excited when a truck would wreck or make an amazing recovery. I was laughing so hard watching his reactions.

Monster trucks transcend all cultures and walks of life

also good were the side shows. I haven't looked, so I don't really know where it is, but this thing was legendary when I was a kid. I got to see it once too. 

Oh, finally a thread for me.

I've been a huge monster truck fan, ever since I was three. Growing up, it was all I wanted to do. Nothing else mattered. I didn't give a rip about sports, music, movies, nothing. Only Monster Trucks.

Fast forward to 2007, and a 20 year old me gets the opportunity of a lifetime.

Bill Payne of Straight Up Racing posted on a message board that he needed a driver, and of all the dorks he talked to, I got the job. I was living the dream!

for all of about six weeks.

You see, I was told that when we were close to home, I could go home for a week or so and visit family for a bit. My folks and then girlfriend came down to see us at Starkville, MS. She wanted me to come home for valentine's day. I (naively) thought I could go see them and catch a bus in a couple days to catch back up with bill in Oklahoma in a few days.

On the car ride back to Kentucky I get a phone call from Bill saying that I was fired.

And that was it. Dream over. I spent months sulking. I held it against my girlfriend for years. We eventually had kids, got married, and then divorced. I thought about getting back into it afterward, but I decided that my kids deserved a dad who was there. Not off chasing his dreams like a kid, putting everything else behind it.

Yes, it is absolutely as cool as it looks.

It took several years to go to a show after that. It still isn't the same. Knowing what it's like to strap in, watch the seats fill up, sign autographs. Getting butterflies before the show starts.

I never ever thought that people would cheer when my name was called.

Looking back I'm glad I did it, but I can't help but wonder what could have been. I get job offers from time to time. It's tempting, but I like my life pretty good how it is now.

Maybe when I retire.

In reply to BoostedBrandon :

It's been a dream of mine to be a driver, but at this age I suspect I am well past useful to most. 

TIL someone here got to drive a monster truck-in anger!

In reply to Mndsm :

Well, there's lots of independent teams that are usually hiring, but because of Covid19, there are no events going on in what should be the busiest time of the year for the sport.

Feld entertainment (parent company of Monster Jam) recently laid off 90% of it's workforce. Including my friend Coty who over 16 years worked his way up from crew guy to driver.

BoostedBrandon said:

In reply to Mndsm :

Well, there's lots of independent teams that are usually hiring, but because of Covid19, there are no events going on in what should be the busiest time of the year for the sport.

Feld entertainment (parent company of Monster Jam) recently laid off 90% of it's workforce. Including my friend Coty who over 16 years worked his way up from crew guy to driver.

You know coty saucier? I've known about that guy for a while. Seems like a good dude. 

I'm very active in the various monster truck Facebook groups, and I like to learn as much as I can about the history.

Marty Garza's book chronicles everything from the beginning to now. My wife got it for me for Valentine's day and I've loved it, whenever I get quiet time enough to read it.

I've known Coty since we were both just high school kids on a message board. All the way back to 2001 or 2002. Kept up with him all during his career, of anyone in the sport that has earned their seat, it's that guy.

In reply to BoostedBrandon :

I remember him being a mechanic for a long time, and then after not following for a couple years suddenly seeing him in a seat. He definitely earned it.