WEBVTT - How Monster Trucks Work 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:14.080 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.040 and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant over there. Jerry's hanging 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:21.079 out in the ether again. Um, and this is stuff 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:29.280 you should know on a Sunday, Sunday Sunday. But it's not. 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:34.800 This will be out on a Thursday. That's true, true. True. 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:38.879 Is that guy I don't know, but he is an 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:42.919 American icon for those of you who live outside of 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:48.000 the United States and use the metric system. Um, there's 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:52.120 an announcer that is no one knows his name. He 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.520 may be living or dead. I'm not sure a lot 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.360 of people know his name, but we don't know his name. Well, yeah, 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.639 I'm just generalizing, but from my own experience, uh and 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.360 then uh, but he is a he's like a Monster 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:10.400 Truck ad announcer, guy who's always getting you hyped up 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.600 to want to go to a seat the Monster Truck rally. Yeah. 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.080 I think he is second. I mean, there have been 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.960 some great announcers in the history of this country. I 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:24.640 would put him up there with uh, Michael Buffer, So 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.919 let's get ready to rumble guy. Yeah, I put Triple 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:32.240 Sunday Man way ahead of him and Don Pardo to me, 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:36.680 is my all time favorite. Yeah, that's Sarah Live announcer. Yeah, 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:42.520 featuring Josh Clark. Oh, I've been waiting so long. And 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:49.360 musical guests, Chipo, boy, that'd be a double bill. Who 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:54.440 would be your favorite musical guest if you were the host? Oh, Boyton, 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.200 that's a good one. Sure. I was gonna say Gandhi 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:00.440 or Jesus Christ or something like that, but I got 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.800 my my fantasies confused. You know, our buddy Scott Ackerman 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.040 does a great Don Pardo. No, I didn't know that. Yeah, 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.880 he's he's good at that stuff. He is a brilliant comedian, 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.119 he is. It's great. I've been listening to his new 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.800 new Ish show with Lauren lap Kiss and Paula Tompkins 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:24.160 our other friend, uh called Freedom, and it's hysterical and great. Yeah, good, 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.760 nice plug, Chuck. Everything Ackerman does turns to gold. Can 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.200 I give you my brief rundown with off Roading as 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:36.040 we get into the Monster Truck episode. Yeah, I predicted 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:40.200 Dad's story coming. Yeah. Yeah, when I was and I 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:42.120 think we talked about this a little bit and when 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.639 we talked at some point about CB radios. But when 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.680 we were kids, you and I in the seventies and eighties, 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:53.440 CBS we're a big deal, the whole culture around it, 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.760 and it's hard to explain, but it's interesting. And my 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.200 dad got a CBE and he and one of his 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:03.840 better friends, Charlie, had a They both had jeeps. My 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:08.080 dad had a brown, uh brown Jeep Renegade and Charlie 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.640 had a green one, and we would go off roading. 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:12.560 And when I was a kid, so we would go 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.600 up into the mountains and literally cut roads where there 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.360 were no roads, and my dad was the mud slinger 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.920 that was a seat hand. Yeah, I don't remember what 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:25.920 Charlie's was, but we did quite a bit of it, 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:29.400 including a fully four wheels off the ground jump at 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.440 one point on this dirt road where they had been 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:34.520 I think they're going to pave the road. So they 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:39.160 had um bulldozed basically a ramp out of dirt and 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.880 rocks and left it there to come back the next 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.200 day to probably remove it. And my dad and Charlie 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.960 heard about it and they're like, let's go jump the jeeps. 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:49.080 And my dad jumped a jeep with my brother and 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.280 I en it. No seatbelts of course, oh my god, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:54.320 of course not. I don't think jeeps had back seat 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:58.280 belts back then. And uh I remember hitting the ground 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.560 and then bumping up been smashing my head on the 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.960 roll bar. I dude, I can imagine, and you still 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.600 have that divid Yeah, but it was the seventies, so 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:09.840 I don't even think he said, is everyone okay? I 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.400 think we just kept on trucking. He's like, take a 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:15.800 salt tablet. Yeah, exactly. That's a great story, man. I 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.159 had no idea that you've done any off roading. I've 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:22.320 done exactly zero off roading in my life. Um. I 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.360 do have a deeper appreciation for it after researching all 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.240 this stuff. But I have never been into monster trucks 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.320 and never gone to one of those, although I will 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:35.560 say the thought of you and uh Emily and me 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.240 and you me going to one of these had a 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.160 lot of appeal for some reason. Yeah. Well, I'll tell 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.239 you what. Out of the four people you just listed, 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:44.920 as far as I know, you mean's the only one 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:49.280 who's been to a I totally believe it. Yeah. Yeah, 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:53.160 she was into um Power Motorsports for a little while there, 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:57.120 that's great. And the one she said, it's really loud, 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.240 and it's pretty great, except she said, breathing all of 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.320 like the gas fumes, exhaust fumes is not super fun. 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.760 You need to get one of those stadium ones outdoors. Yeah, 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:08.640 I saw. I saw a footage of one at the 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.400 in Anaheim where the Angels play. I'm like, oh, yeah, 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:13.960 that's an outdoor baseball stadium. That's that's the place to 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.400 go see a monster truck rally for sure, not like 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:20.280 enclosed sports arena hockey rink and I've heard of the 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.039 noise is really I've been to one drag race and 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.080 the noise was really bad there, so I can't imagine 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.360 what it's like for a monster truck jam. Yes, but 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.320 there's something about it, like even just watching like clips 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:36.800 on YouTube like I've done the last few days, it's 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.560 like I saw a couple of things that I'm going 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.960 to admit gave me goose bumps a little bit. I was. 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.240 I was that impressed with it. But part of it 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:49.000 was the noise from the engine, but also the noise 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:53.480 of like twenty five year old guys screaming like little 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:58.279 boys because somebody like did a wheelie, like a giant 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.640 monster truck that fully adds to the sound as well, 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:06.480 and little boys and girls screaming like grown men. Right exactly, 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.160 it's weird. It's a weird scene. It's a big crisscross. 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.719 So so yes, I think it's good that we fessed 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.240 up out of the gate that we're we We have 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.920 not been to a monster truck rally, um, and we're 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.600 not huge as far as our understanding of say, like 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:27.640 motorized engines go that kind of thing. I feel like 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:31.000 we could still do one on this like pretty well, um, 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.479 because there's just so much to it. There's a lot 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.640 of really interesting stuff to it. You don't actually have 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:38.640 to have gone to see a monster truck rally to 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.279 appreciate it, especially if you watch some clips on YouTube. Yeah, 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.200 and you know the reason I mentioned the off roading 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:48.520 is because that is where monster truck rallies is that 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.960 what they're still called munster truck jams. They're called monster 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.880 jam but that's like a specific uh a specific brand 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.520 of of show that you go to. Well, the monster 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:02.960 jam wrecked I'm calling them rallies. I'm gonna call the 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:11.640 monster truck promenades. Okay, so the prom I love it. 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.680 The cotillion started with off roading in with people like 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.560 my dad in the seventies and eighties getting off road, 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.520 and you know before that, even uh off roading in 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.960 these pickup trucks that eventually we're like, hey, let's get 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:27.400 some bigger tires, let's lift it up a little bit, 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:32.200 let's get some more ground clearance. And before you know it, 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.320 trucks are just a little bit bigger and taller than 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:39.480 they were before. And a man named Bob Chandler said 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.080 from St. Louis, said, I've got a great idea. Too 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.160 bad he didn't like have some sort of I P 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.000 around this, but he did come up with a great idea, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.800 which was the very first big Foot. Yeah yeah, he 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:56.800 he's very widely credited as basically the inventor of monster 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:00.800 trucks just just from it was basically born out of necessity, 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.040 like he drove his car really hard. The reason his first, uh, 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.920 the first monster truck was named Bigfoot was because that 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.600 was his nickname. He was well known as a very 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:13.560 aggressive off roading driver. Um. But because of that, he 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.080 would break axels, he would get stuck in the mud, um, 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.920 he would find himself in his truck more importantly in 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.400 places that your average truck driver would not would not 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.000 find themselves, so um, to kind of get out of 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.120 those sticky situations or never get into him in the 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:31.600 first place, he started to try to upgrade his truck 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:36.480 well beyond anything you would buy from like a dealership. Uh. 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.520 And he was a tinkerer, uh so much so, and 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:41.760 he got like so into it. He actually opened his 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.000 own four by four parts store. Um. In part I 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.400 get the very strong impression to probably get a discount 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.480 on the parts that he was needing to use on 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.200 his own truck that he was breaking with regularity. Yeah. Yeah. 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.800 It was called the Midwest Four Wheel Drive Center h. 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:01.760 And the initial truck was a F to f fifty 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.160 and he dressed it all up and he got those 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:09.000 bigger axles and bigger tires and uh, he actually did 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:14.080 invent a technology, um, which was I'm not sure if 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:17.680 he completely invented this, but he at least installed four 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.320 wheel steering on his truck, which is when the back 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:23.640 wheels turn and the front wheels turn so you can 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.880 turn tighter. This was I don't know about a rage, 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.920 but this was a thing for a while because my 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.120 good buddy and your pal John Findell from New Jersey. 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.480 He had one of those four wheels steering Honda Preludes 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.640 that he just it was like his baby. He loved 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:42.880 this car more than anything. I remember that. They were 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:44.320 always like, you can get in and out of a 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.720 parking spot at the grocery store like you would not believe. Yeah, 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:49.880 you should have seen him park at the grocery store. 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.600 I forgot about the effortless. But yeah, so that makes 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:56.439 you know, and especially in a big monster truck when 0:09:56.480 --> 0:10:00.000 you're gonna need that turning radius. Uh. And the tires 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.080 got bigger and bigger. I think he landed at forty 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:06.560 four inches, which was like a tractor tire. Yeah, initially, 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:09.280 and that was in nineteen seventy nine, and that was 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.600 sort of the very first monster truck. Yeah. And nowadays, 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.520 if you were riding around on forty four inch tires, 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:19.480 other monster truck enthusiasts would be like, what's wrong with 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:24.520 your tires? But at the time you could you could, 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.920 like people would ask you to pull over so they 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:28.480 could talk to you about your car when you were 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.320 driving down the road with tires like that. And he 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.520 actually used it to great effect. He he advertised um 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.640 his businesses parts but four by four parts business on 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.280 the car um when he was driving around town, and 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.400 he ended up adding the word Bigfoot, the name Bigfoot 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.480 onto it. And again, at first, I believe he was 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.120 basically saying, you know, like a long haul trucker will 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:53.920 put their name or nickname or CB handle on their 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.640 on their rig, That's what he was doing. But in 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.480 very short order that became the name of the car 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:03.280 or the truck, and then in in Um and the 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:08.480 successive trucks that came after that, there's I think iterations 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:13.920 of Bigfoot or some offshoot of Bigfoot. Now, yeah, he 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.400 you know, he made one very famous initial video, uh, 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:21.160 sort of as a promotion like a local TV commercial 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:25.959 basically for his business of Bigfoot riding over some other cars. 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:31.959 And that was it. Man. After that, people went berserk. Uh. 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.400 There is one sort of I don't know if it's apocryphal, 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.480 but at least we can't find the original source, but 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.760 that he did get pulled over once in Bigfoot and 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:43.240 because he would drive this thing on the road, it 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:47.080 was just crazy, and he was ticketed because the only 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.840 violation that they found was the headlights were too high 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.440 off the ground. Yeah, which I mean, like I was 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.400 looking at what makes monster trucks not street legal, and 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:58.360 that's definitely one of them. But some other ones are, 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.000 like you know, usually they don't have winchaw wipers or 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.000 horns or things like that. Um, it's not stuff you 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.400 would think of. Another one, though, is like that, the 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.960 tires can't be like too wide beyond the body, and 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.040 if they do, you have to have mud flaps to 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.960 cover it up. Um. There's a lot of different like 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.280 laws state by state, but for the most part, yeah, 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.240 you're not allowed to drive those things on the road 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.720 for a number of reasons. But yes, the height of 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:27.400 the headlights is definitely one of them. So he takes 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:32.240 off around the country and starts doing some promotional events. 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:34.960 He would go to exhibitions, he would drive over a 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.520 car or pull a weighted sled that looks like a 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.360 giant six pack of Budweiser. Did you see some of 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:45.280 the early Bigfoot videos, the very first one and a 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.160 lot of them after that. Yeah, yeah, they were like 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.480 slow motion. They weren't like hyped up. It was just 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.000 basically like, Okay, for my next trick, I'm going to 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:57.880 start in about ninety or a hundred and twenty seconds. 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.360 I'm gonna roll over this one are very slowly. Yeah, 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.280 it wasn't that's what it was like. It wasn't like, yes, 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.280 but no one had seen anything like it though, you 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:08.920 know what I mean, Which so at the time what 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.600 seemed boring to us now was like just mind blowing 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.440 to the people. Oh yeah, So he was he was 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.640 doing pretty well, especially as far as business promotion goes, 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:23.120 and realized that he needed a second Bigfoot because people 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:25.200 wanted him in movies and they wanted him at their 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:29.160 county fair. And so in eight two, Bigfoot two debut 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:33.400 at the Pontiac's Silver Dome, this time with sixty six 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:39.040 inch tires, which kind of ended up being the industry norm. Yes, 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:43.920 apparently they get um or they started out with agricultural tires, 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:46.719 the kind of tires that you put on tractors, are 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.439 huge combines, like just giant tires. And then to save 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.960 some of the weight, because these tires can be eight 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.960 hundred plus pounds each fully inflated like mounted to wheels, 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:02.440 they'll actually shave all a lot of the tread, real 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:06.040 deep tread, the lugs I think they're called um they'll 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.600 shave off a substantial portion, so they still have lots 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:11.920 of traction because you know, at these monster truck cotillions, 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.719 they're driving over like mud and dirt and everything. I 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.240 don't think those are lugs, are they? I saw somewhere 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.480 somebody referred to him as lugs huge treads. I thought 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.080 the lug was the thing that came out that you 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:26.960 put the lug nut on when you change a tire. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.720 I they may have. I mean, this is a very 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.160 confusing world we live in. It's it's possible that they're 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.080 both called lugs. There's a lot of people laughing in 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.520 us right now, which is fine. They're gonna pat us 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:40.440 on our heads when they will probably be nicer than 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.960 soccer and chess enthusiasts. I certainly hope so, because I've 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:45.960 seen these people get up and yell, and I don't 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.840 want to be yelled at by a monster truck enthusiasts. 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.960 Should we take a break and look up what a 0:14:52.000 --> 0:15:16.000 lug is and come back? Sure, Chuck, So, Chuck, where 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.880 we left off? Bigfoot had really kind of established this 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.880 whole thing um in the very early eighties. It appeared 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:27.280 in Take This Job and Shove It. Did you ever 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.640 see that movie? I'm sure your dad probably made you 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:31.880 watch it like all the time. That was an HBO 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.480 special for sure. Okay, I never saw it, and I 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.720 was very surprised to learn that Robert Hayes, the um, 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.320 the guy from Airplane was in it, like the main guy. 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:44.800 I would not have cast him. I'm surprised no one 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:50.560 has reinvigorated his career, you know, like Tarantino style. Sure, 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:57.960 sure come back, he really did. But so it was 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.920 in that it was in Police Academy to six. It 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:03.840 just it was part of like the pop culture zeitgeist 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.600 for sure. But at the same time, um, it's success 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.600 and like it's popularity spawned imitators is not the right word. 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:18.600 Um uhi mates, Yeah, fellow cotillion go or something like that. 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.360 Like other people are like, yes, this is what we 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.280 should be doing with our lives. And they actually, um 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:26.760 were able to make a livelihood by appearing at some 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:30.480 of those early like hot rod shows or um like 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:34.320 car exhibitions or um you know, like a drag races 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:36.400 things like that. They would just be there to entertain 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:37.880 the crowds, and then all of a sudden they're like, 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.960 well maybe we should you know, match these things against 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:44.880 one another, and so from that monster truck rally started 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.120 to grow on their own. Yeah, I get the feeling. 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.880 It was kind of like the Rodeo clown for a 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.320 little while. Like you said, there would be drag races, 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.480 and they said, and now you know, Bigfoot will make 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.000 it a special appearance. And it's interesting in that it's 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.320 sort of started it. It kind of followed NASCAR's footprint 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.879 a little bit, or stock car racing in general, because 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.040 the name is right there stock cars. Like initially those 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.920 cars were just juiced up cars that they would race. 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.120 And initially these trucks were we're four f two fifties 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.480 and Chevrolets, and they were just trucks that people built 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:26.520 bigger and heavier and more rugged and just made them huge. Uh. 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.679 They got to a point though, where they were, like, 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:32.600 you know, they were using military axles and stuff like 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.680 that on their their big equipment because everything was breaking. 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:39.600 But they found that those were even breaking, and as 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.240 they got bigger and bigger, they said, you know what, 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.480 we need to start over everybody. This is a real 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.800 thing and we can't just modify these pickup trucks. We 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.880 gotta build these things from the ground up. Like NASCAR 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:55.720 eventually ended up doing that. Yeah, and that's exactly what 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.760 they did. And apparently Bob Chandler led the the the 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.240 way on that as well, really tinkered around with UM 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:06.520 CAD designs, computer assisted designs UM and one of the 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.000 things he came up with. And it wasn't him specific, 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.000 or it wasn't just him. They were like a group 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:13.879 of people working on this by this time. This is 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:18.359 the I believe the late eighties so so, like monster 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:22.240 trucks were a thing by now, UM, but they revolutionized 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.199 it by basically saying, how about instead of these like 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.359 super heavy, brittle things where the truck itself weighs a 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.720 total of like fifteen thousand pounds UM and we break 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.160 axles because you know they're really strong, but they're really 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.200 brittle too, Let's start using tubes instead. And they created 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:45.240 a revolution by by by creating and welding these cages 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:50.120 these frames out of very strong but very lightweight tubes. 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:53.560 And you're never going to guess one of the components 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:59.120 that they use that they make these tubes out of molybdenum. 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:03.440 No way, way. It's funny. We heard from people about 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.119 to pronounce that and someone said, every I don't know 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:07.920 if you saw this, and they said, in the industry, 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.720 we just call it molly. Yes, I saw that too. Yeah, Yeah, 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:16.640 there's a They use a chromium malebdumum molebden um alloy 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:21.080 and they call it chrome molly. Wow. Yeah. So that's 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.520 that's what your average monster truck is made out of. 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.920 And you don't need like a like a the same 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.119 amount of stuff that like a passenger vehicle needs. You 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.119 need just the bare minimum amount of stuff that's gonna 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.320 make this thing wrong, keep it together, and then most importantly, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.199 protect the driver inside. Because when you strip everything away 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.879 from the monster truck of today that Bob Chandler and 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.119 his friends revolutionized in the late eighties, you basically have 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:51.080 a roll cage, is what you're what you're dealing with, 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.400 a giant tubular roll cage. That's what a monster truck 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.520 is at its core. Yeah. And one of the other 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:00.440 big improvements and advancements they made was moving the engine 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.119 behind the driver, so it's a mid engine layout. Uh 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:06.480 no more, you know what's in front of you under 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.840 the hood. Uh. The bodies of these things now and 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.000 since the you know, late eighties, early nineties or fiberglass 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:18.639 and they're just I mean, if you watch any videos 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.879 of this stuff online of like current Monster Truck Rally 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:27.399 or contillions, excuse me, Um, these fiberglass bodies are just 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:31.080 they're just show pieces. They're made to just tear apart 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:34.479 and break away. Like very few of them end up 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.080 end up in one piece at the end of these Yes, um, 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.919 but they still cost like ten thousand dollars apiece. But 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:45.960 they're super modular, super interchangeable, so that you might see 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.760 the same truck a couple of times during a rally. 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.800 But they just oh, sorry forget what I just said 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.040 for another twenty minutes. No, I mean spoil it for 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.960 the people that think they're watching different trucks. So I 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:01.480 am sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:05.320 there are more bodies than there are actual trucks at 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:10.080 any given Monster Truck Contillion. They're just swapping out the 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:13.880 actual shells the fibery last body. Um, there's a crew there. 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.359 I was reading about them. They're the unsung heroes of 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:22.240 any cotillion where in between you know, um, appearances in 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.320 between shows. Like a lot of times those Monster Truck 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.200 jams will be you know, a couple of shows a 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:31.960 day on a Sunday in a certain city. Um, they're 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.760 working feverishly to fix everything that's gone wrong from the 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:38.919 abuse that that core truck took, you know, for the 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.920 last couple of hours and during the show. But one 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:43.880 of the things they do is switch out the bodies 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:46.879 real quick so that you have you have to transport 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:49.400 far fewer trucks. It's a lot easier to transport a lighter, 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:52.800 fiberglass body than a big, heavy truck. Yeah. I thought 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:55.600 it was funny. Ed the grabster help us put this together. 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:58.159 And at one point when he was talking about switching 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:00.840 out the shells, he said, you know, this kind of 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.280 started because multiple big foots would show up at an event, 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:06.440 and you can't have a big foot racing a big foot. 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:08.800 I was just like, I bet you no one would care. 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.080 They probably just think it was some twelve year old 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:15.399 boy would be like that, that ain't right right, keep 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:20.000 put my finger on it. Something's been violated here. Uh. 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:24.120 I don't know who knows, um, but they did. Uh uh. 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:26.919 They did start switching them out with regularity, and like 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.000 I said, they just tear apart. If you watch any video, 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.080 these drums are pretty insane. I mean they're doing like 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:37.760 double backflips. Now, I know it's crazy, so you have 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:40.119 to make a distinction whether you're talking about the double 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:44.840 backflip where the truck just follow us everybody, a giant 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:48.760 monster truck hits a ramp and does a backflip, and 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:52.320 then before it touches the ground, it does another backflip 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:54.680 in mid air. It looks hard to do. I didn't 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:57.760 see a lot of successful ones. You could also be 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:00.920 talking about a consecutive backflip where the U does a backflip, 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:04.600 lands and does another immediately does goes into another backflip. 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:09.760 Both are equally impressive, but this, the single double backflip, 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.480 is the harder of the two to do. Um and 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:14.800 it's fun to watch people try and fail at but 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:17.680 it's also pretty great to see somebody land. Yeah, And 0:23:17.800 --> 0:23:20.359