You
The automotive world has seen a lot of wild things in the past few years
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Really, girl, such a stupid, stupid boy.
Such a crazy piece of world, and you're so hard to avoid.
Upside down, inside out, fucking love all about.
I don't know what you say, but still I don't know what you do.
I don't know what you need, as long as I'm just feeling home.
Upside down, inside out, fucking love all about.
What is love all about? What is love all about?
But nothing compares to the explosion created by monster trucks in arenas and racetracks
all over America. Power, power, power! On TV, in Dome stadiums, playing to huge crowds.
They came out of nowhere, breathing fire, crushing cars, leaping high in the air, and
riding on tires most people had never seen before. Everyone was fascinated. Nothing like
monster trucks had ever been seen before. People had a million questions, especially
kids. They're not afraid to ask. What do they burn in there? How do they make them
run? How do they get so much horsepower into such little motors? What makes the chassis
so friendly? I want to know where they get the tires. What are you supposed to be when
you, if you've got the monster truck? What? How they steer them. Where do they come from?
Like who makes them? How much back air does it take in a tire? How do they determine for
where? Where the drivers get the money to afford these vehicles. How can they afford
them? How many jobs do they take to pay for them? How do they control those big monster
trucks like that? And that's what this video is all about. In the next few minutes, we'll
try to answer all your questions about monster trucks. We'll show you the inside secrets
of monster trucks, from how they're made to how they're steered. We'll start with the
thing you notice first about a monster truck, the tires. Then we'll cover the overall specs,
like size, weight, horsepower, and cost. Next is steering and the hydraulic systems that
move the huge tires. Most monster trucks have four wheel steering. Without superior
suspension, you can't steer. So we'll look at more shocks and springs than you've ever
seen on any truck. Monster trucks have to stop on a dime, especially indoors. With tires
that big, it's a Herculean test, solved with some very clever engineering. The body and
especially the frame may appear to be built from scratch, but in fact, they may be the
most standard part of the monster. Then we'll crawl inside monster truck engines. The engines
come in the widest variety of any part of a monster truck. They burn gas or alcohol
and range up to 1,800 horsepower. Delivering all that horsepower to those huge tires is
the job of the drive train. As with most things on monster trucks, it's a mixture of the
ordinary and the exotic. And finally, we'll watch race preparation as the drivers and
mechanics get everything ready for side-by-side car-crushing monster truck racing. So let's
get started learning the secrets of monster trucks and what makes these monsters move
up over and through everything inside.
The first thing that everyone notices about monster trucks are the tires. In fact, when
the monsters are trailered around or worked on in the garage, they usually wear regular
truck tires and look kind of funny. The tires are so big, they can't even travel on the
trucks from one show to another. They weigh almost 1,000 pounds each, including a wheel.
That's about two tons of tire on each monster truck. And each tire is 66 inches tall. That's
over five feet in diameter. The wheel rim is over two feet and each tire is 43 inches
wide. They're called flotation tires and come from those huge Terragator farm machines that
are used to spread liquid fertilizer. They're called flotation tires because they float
over the fields without damaging any crops. Monster trucks use them because they're tough
and absorb the tremendous shocks created when monster trucks take 20 feet of air and land
on a row of cars, shattering glass and scattering sheet metal in all directions. Of course,
sometimes not even these tires are tough enough. The huge tires don't use much air pressure.
Most drivers carry about six to eight pounds in each tire. If the event is on concrete,
the tire pressure is increased to 10 pounds or more. This creates less tire compression
and provides more control. It also keeps the truck from bottoming out on the hard floor
when it lands. A good set of tires can last several years unless, of course, you hit the
cars just right or wrong. That's important since the tires cost over $1,500 each. That's
more than $6,000 for a set, not including the spare or $350 for each wheel.
The specifications on a monster truck don't exactly read like the catalog at your GM or
Ford dealer. Each monster truck is custom built, often by the driver. And while it's
true that each monster usually starts with a regular pickup body, the similarity ends
there. Most monsters weigh between 9,000 and 13,000 pounds, with almost one-third of that
weight in the tires alone. They're usually as tall as they are wide, about 11 feet to
the roof and 11 feet side to side. A typical monster truck, if there is such a thing, is
about as long as any pickup, just over 16 feet. The wheelbase varies from 120 inches
to 150 inches, depending on the builder. Fuel consumption, on the other hand, is another
matter altogether. A fully blown alcohol burner will get 75 gallons to the mile. You heard
right, 75 gallons to the mile, or to put it another way, 70 feet to the gallon. On the
other hand, a naturally aspirated or gasoline-powered monster will get one mile per gallon, still
not exactly the kind of mileage the American commuter is looking for. Fortunately, most
monster trucks only race a few hundred feet at a time. As for speed, monster trucks are
not built to set the world land speed record, but they can motor right along. Top speed
is 50 to 60 miles per hour. Of course, that doesn't count when you're jumping cars.
The steering wheel on a monster truck looks like a pickup steering wheel. As a matter
of fact, it is. The steering wheel is only part of the actual steering mechanism. Power
steering on the front is normal hydraulic steering for a heavy-duty truck like an 18-wheeler.
There's a separate reservoir and pump. The hydraulic pressure on the front tires is over
1,800 pounds per square inch. The hydraulic fluid is running at six gallons per minute
while the wheels are turning. The basic steering system is pretty simple, but not small. It's
big enough to turn five-foot wheels that are over three feet wide with a standard steering
wheel. The axles on this monster are 10-ton Clark planetary ends with five-ton Rockwell
centers from some pretty heavy military equipment. The rear tires can turn independently from
the front. How do they do it with only one steering wheel? It's all done with this little
switch, which most drivers run with just their thumb or finger. It activates an electric
motor, which in turn runs the hydraulic steering, this time in the rear. Because there's less
weight, it only takes 1,400 pounds of pressure per square inch to turn the rear wheels. All
suspensions used to be leaf springs. Now the newer trucks are going to coil, big coil springs.
Since they don't build shock absorbers that are big enough and can still fit a pickup,
you need more than one. How about four or five for each wheel? While the newer coil springs
provide better control because they generate better travel, they also create more travel.
These heavy duty straps stop the suspension travel from going too far. The way these monsters
bounce around, they could bounce right out of their frames.
Actually, the brakes aren't really monsters. They're just really clever. On most vehicles,
the brakes are on the wheels, whether disc or conventional shoe. But can you imagine
the size of the disc that would be necessary to stop a wheel this big? It's been estimated
to take a three-foot disc brake. Here's the brake on a monster truck. It's just an ordinary
car or truck brake. What's important is where it is, right here on the differential. This
way, the brake gets a 19 to 1 advantage before the power is carried from the differential.
No more power, and the monster comes to a quick and safe stop most of the time.
Most monster trucks start their lives like any ordinary pickup truck. They're usually
three-quarter or one-ton models. In fact, if you look carefully along here, you can see
the original frame. Special supports are welded on to raise the ground clearance and provide
needed strength. This truck's added a kind of bridge work, not only to stiffen the frame,
but protect it when the truck lands square on a car. The bodies are unchanged from stock,
except for three things. First, there's no bed in the back. Monster trucks aren't used
much for hauling, so why carry the weight? Besides, this way it's easier to get to the
fuel tanks. Second, you've got to move the door opening mechanism to the bottom of the
door. No one is tall enough to reach a regular handle on a truck that's nearly 12 feet tall.
And finally, there's the paint job. Some monsters, like Master of Disaster, use beautiful graphics,
all hand-painted and lacquered, for shine and protection. For safety, all monster trucks
have roll cages and very heavy-duty seatbelts. You can get really bounced around inside these
trucks, even when you're careful.
The engine is the heart of any monster truck, on Master of Disaster. The big-block
Chev engine is blown, injected, and burns alcohol. Its 572 cubic inches delivers almost
1,800 horsepower to all four wheels. The blower is belt-driven for quick, sure response.
Injectors are used just to get the fuel volume to the engine. It's like a shower when the
engine roars. The injectors are pumping fuel at the rate of a gallon every few seconds.
Remember, monster trucks only go about 75 feet per gallon, and they can cover 75 feet
in a couple of seconds. The oil has to be special anti-foaming oil. If you used ordinary
oil when you're running on alcohol, you'd have a bubble bath made of engine oil. While
the engines can run pretty high, often 250 to 300 degrees, the algae burners have no
such problems. The alcohol evaporates so fast it cools the engine and can sometimes even
frost up the injector. Monsters are so noisy because there's no muffler system of any
kind. It would cut into performance. That's why most exhaust systems come directly off
the header, one pipe for each cylinder. To help keep some of the noise from blowing everyone
out of the place, the exhaust is directed straight down into the ground. With four-wheel
drive and four-wheel steering, delivering power to the wheels is no simple matter in
a monster truck. The transmission itself is simple enough, usually from the original truck
or even a car. It's often a turbo 400 or similar transmission, but it's custom modified
to take the huge increase in horsepower. After clearances are adjusted and fans tightened,
the valve body is changed. While it started out as a fully automatic transmission, the
valve body change makes it manually shifted. In a race that covers 300 feet and lasts 10
seconds, most of it going up in the air or landing on the ground, no automatic tranny
can respond fast enough. And with all that bounce, who could find a clutch? The transfer
case is another matter altogether. This one is air-shifted and came off a six-by-six military
truck. It can take the strain.
When race night comes, it's like the slow dance of giants, all gathering from hundreds
of miles away to find the fastest and the best. It's fun. It's entertainment. It's
also a lot of work. The trucks arrive half-dressed, their huge feet carried alongside as cargo.
The monsters look uncomfortable in their street clothes, their traveling tires. But soon,
each wheel is jacked up one at a time and the real tires go on. Pressure is carefully
checked and matched to the course. Fuel is measured and metered. Engines are fired.
Steering is checked. Everything is inspected. Then it's time to start the wild dance of
monster trucks. The first runs are to check out the course and flatten a few cars. It's
a monster truck's way of roaming the field. Then the match-ups start for real, side-by-side.
The first to the finish wins. You get oohs and ahs for taking lots of air, but going
up doesn't mean you're going forward. Sometimes, often in fact, things break and have to be
fixed between heats. In this case, Master lost its rear steering. The hydraulics failed
and a straight bar was welded in to hold the tires straight so Master could continue racing
that night. But the action goes on, nonstop, until there's one winner.
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Well, there you have it. An inside look at monster trucks, how they're made and how they
run. Next time you see the monsters in action, maybe it'll be more fun and interesting. We
sure hope so.
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