Bigfoot - The First Monster Truck

 

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Monster truck shows are a popular sporting event, often appearing in arenas around the country delighting the young and old alike. Each event features several monster trucks competing in various events like mud races, car jumps and the ever popular car crush. There is even a monster truck called Truckzilla that eats other trucks and spits fire. So how did this all get started? What was the original monster truck? One word: Bigfoot.

Bigfoot - The First Monster Truck

Bigfoot - The First Monster Truck

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Bigfoot - The First Monster Truck

Bigfoot - The First Monster Truck

Bob Chandler was a construction worker in the St. Louis area back in the 70s. In 1975 he took his Ford F250 and created Bigfoot. His epiphany came when he heard about an idea that was proposed to the Army to give both axles of a truck steering capabilities. Bob tested the idea on his truck andcreated the worlds first 4 x 4 x 4. Bigfoot's large size came from the military axles that Bob equipped with Earth Tires that were typically used on farming equipMent.

Initially Bob would take his lifted truck out on the weekends to enjoy a little off-roading. He soon discovered that the auto parts stores in town weren't equipped with the parts he needed to continue repAiring his 4 x 4. That's when Bob, along with his wife and friend, opened up to 4 x 4 parts store in Hazelwood, MO. This location remains as Bigfoot's headquarters.

At first Bigfoot was used as a sort of billboard to promote his parts shop. In 1979 Bob introduced Bigfoot to the world when he appeared in a truck and tractor pull in Denver to show off his truck and promote his store.Bigfoot > grew rapidly in popularity and Bob continued to appear in truck and tractor pulls. But things really took off when Bob performed what is believed to be the first car crush in history.

The car crush started out as a joke when Bob got permission from a local farmer to film himself crushing two cars in the man's field. He would show the film in his shop and that's when a local motor sports event promoter happened in and saw the video. He requested Bigfoot to perform the stunt in front of a crowd and after some hesitation Bob agreed. After that event Bigfoot's popularity skyrocketed and a second truck had to be built to keep up with demand.

Bigfoot - The First Monster Truck