Truck Games - Monster Trucks

Monster trucks have the typical style and built of pickup trucks. They are either modified or are built with huge wheels. Their main use is in competitions and popular entertaining sports such as stunt performances. The history of such monster trucks goes back to 1970s. During those years pickup trucks and the sports like mud bogging and truck pulling became popular. People started modifying their trucks to create huge lifted trucks to participate in such sports events. Eventually this gave way to a competition to own the biggest truck.

It is believed that the first truck to crush cars was Bob Chandler's truck, BigFoot which he drove across fields in 1981. In 1982 he used a new version of Bigfoot which had tires with a diameter of 1.7m. The term 'monster truck' was coined by Bob George, he was the owner of a motorsports promotion company Truck-a-rama which is now known as USHRA. Since then this term has become a generic name for all trucks with extremely large terra tires.

The modern monster trucks are not actually trucks and only have bodies made of fiber glass like other vehicles. They have customized tube shaped chassis, and a suspension of four links which provides a clearance of about four feet. The engine is stationed just behind the driver's seat, the engine runs on alcohol, is supercharged and the piston displacement is about 9.42 liters. The wheel axes are like those of heavy military trucks or school buses and are modified with planetary gear reduction which helps in turning of the tires. The steering system utilized is hydraulic four wheel steering; the front wheels are controlled by steering wheel and the rear ones by toggle switch. The tires are terra tires which are used on fertilizer spreaders. These monster trucks employ a customized automatic transmission system.

The monster trucks are enabled with many safety measures which are required while the trucks are used on the arenas in competitions. There are three kill switches, namely one RII (remote ignition interrupt), one near driver and another at the rear end. The purpose of these kill switches is to cut off the power supply in case a rollover occurs. Lexan is used to provide a shield, it protects the driver from track debris and also provides better visibility. Drivers are also completely geared up for safety, they wear suits made of materials which do not catch fire, safety harnesses, helmets, etc.

Monster truck sports involve the crushing of smaller vehicles which come under its huge tires. In some events one truck runs on one course and in other events two drivers compete with each other on tracks that are symmetrical and the one who loses is eliminated like in a knock out game. In recent years the sport has developed and the end is of free style type where the truck drivers have the freedom to choose the track and also the obstacles. Though all safety measures are employed in monster trucks, still an accident occurred on January 16, 2009, when at Monster Jam event a spectator who was 6 years old was killed when a driveshaft loop struck him.