Carpentering for the Carpenter

Bigfoot strikes again! The rest of the story? Colleen and I enjoyed "Monster Madness" as its world tour came through Grande Prairie (one of only three Canadian cities to have the priviledge).

In the afternoon we enjoyed going into the arena and looking at the monster trucks up close. Colleen took pictures and I was impressed with how the trucks are made. The bodies are simply a fiberglass shell and the doors don't open. Both front and rear wheels steer hydraulicly. The engine is in the back and the frame is the biggest part of the truck. To get in, the driver climbes up the braces on this frame, and through a rather large hole in the floor boards to his single seat which is in the center of the cab.

In the evening Colleen and I took a ride on "Firestorm" before the show began. I learned that this truck used to be all yellow and was appropriatly called "Tonka." (I saw it once at a car show in Edmonton.)We sat in the front seats so I got to talk to the driver. He showed me how he could flip a switch and make the rear wheels steer the opposite way (crab steering). Thus, instead of going in a circle, both ends of the truck goes the same way. This is handy for backing up to the loading steps.

The main event featured four monster trucks (including Bigfoot #12) which spent most of their time crushing a couple of rows of old cars in the arena. At the beginning of each performance the driver would start his truck and then stick his hands out both windows. Then a man on the ground would hit a remote control button and stop the truck. This safety test completed, the performance would continue.

The first truck out easily got its front wheels up onto the cars. But when the driver tried to climp on over, the truck rared up and sat back on its tailgate. Sitting there almost straight up, the driver could do nothing because something had broken in the dirveline. A small loader had to come out and pull him down and off the cars so he could drive out with the power of his front wheels. The problem was an easy fix and he was back out for the rest of his performances. (I suspect they have a simple link in the driveline that is designed to break first.)

Bigfoot was the obvious star of the show. But by the time he came out the other trucks had the cars well smashed down. For me that made his performances unimpressive.

At half-time some moto-cross bikes came out and did some impressive stunts. They drove up a steep quarter pipe, did some tricks in the air and then landed on a ramp; several times. And none of them ever wiped out!

We enjoyed the evening, but next time I'd like to see the monster trucks in an outdoor venue where they'd have more room to really perform.