BIGFOOT® #1 History - Part II

A Sunday Drive, Over Some Cars!

Arguably the most important year in monster truck history, 1981 saw, among other things, BIGFOOT appear in the Hollywood film “Take This Job and Shove It.”  The famous scenes of BIGFOOT racing around gravel roads and shoving smaller trucks around in the mud only served to further fuel BIGFOOT’s popularity. In addition, the added exposure served to further increase the public’s awareness of this blue monstrosity.  Little did the Chandlers know it, but a small sliver of home-movie footage shot in a muddy farm field later that year would do more to change the course of BIGFOOT’s (and their) fate than any Hollywood movie could ever hope to.
At some point around the film shoot, Chandler had seen photos of another big-wheeled truck with its front tires parked on a car’s front bumper.  Inspired by this, Chandler (with the help of Jim Kramer, who at this point had sold his share in Midwest and had been working full-time as a travelling heavy equipment mechanic) arranged a pair of junk cars in a muddy farm field outside of St. Louis. The cars were placed side by side, and, in about as much time as it takes to read this sentence, Chandler had gunned BIGFOOT’s supercharged 460ci big block powered truck over the pair of clunkers with almost no effort at all.  Chandler then circled around, and, with less horsepower and more finesse, guided BIGFOOT back atop the cars and parked on top, to the cheers and amusement of the witnesses present.  Chandler had unknowingly set in motion a rather large set of wheels that would help change American culture for the next three decades!

Chandler (almost embarrassingly) ran a copy of the video tape over the TV’s in Midwest’s showroom (which by now was located in Hazelwood, MO a few miles away from the original Ferguson store) as a way of promoting both the shop’s quality of workmanship and BIGFOOT’s capabilities.   Copies of this video footage had begun to circulate (the precursor to today’s “viral video”) and it wasn’t long before it was brought to the attention of a local racetrack promoter.  Said promoter was able to convince Chandler (with some convincing) to duplicate the stunt at one of his race tracks.  Anyone’s doubts as to whether or not the stunt would be popular were quickly drowned out by the uproarious approval of the fans who witnessed it.  Apparently crushing junk cars with an oversized pickup has an appeal to everyone on some sort of primordial, pre-historical level.

Back in 1979, BIGFOOT had been dubbed a “monster truck” by the press, and, although the name had really stuck from the get-go, BIGFOOT truly became a “MONSTER TRUCK” when it crushed cars.  Imitators, rivals, and challengers to the throne were cropping up all over the US, seemingly overnight, and the four wheel drive magazines couldn’t resist making comparisons.  While Chandler had never claimed that BIGFOOT was the biggest truck around (that claim wouldn’t be settled until BIGFOOT #5’s creation in 1986), he has to this day firmly clung to “The Original Monster Truck®” moniker, and rightfully so.   Despite the fact that today the definition of what really qualified a vehicle as being a “monster truck” has evolved over the year, the term “monster truck” was first applied to BIGFOOT.

And Then There Were Two

Demand for BIGFOOT continued to grow in leaps and bounds over the next two years, and by 1982 the truck’s workload had just gotten to be too much for the Chandlers and their pick-up to handle. It began to look like another “BIGFOOT” might be useful; at least until people got tired of seeing it (which the Chandlers were sure would happen in another year or so)! So Chandler asked Jim Kramer to re-join the Midwest crew, at least for a year or two, to help build, transport, and drive BIGFOOT #2.   BIGFOOT #2 debuted in late 1982 with 5-ton military axles and 66” tires, upgrades that the original BIGFOOT (now dubbed BIGFOOT #1) received as well.  And, later than year, BIGFOOT #1 became the first monster truck to float on water.

During the early 1980’s, the concept of a monster truck being nothing more than a car-crushing exhibition vehicle was shattered.  Midwest, and it s newly-formed sister company BIGFOOT 4x4 Inc, commissioned the construction of an all-new shop, which still serves as the team’s base of operation today, from the ground-up in 1984, about 2 miles from the existing shop. From there, the joint team began pumping out newer and more technologically advanced BIGFOOT trucks, leading to the “semi-retirement” of BIGFOOT #1, which just could not compete with the more advanced, lighter trucks

The Times, They are A-Changin'

With BIGFOOT #1 no longer being competitive from a side-by-side racing standpoint, Chandler shifted the truck’s focus back to its roots: mud bogging, hill climbing, and exhibition car crushing.  For these duties, especially the mud and hills, Chandler installed a 640ci all-aluminum Alan Root Ford hemi, a monster of a motor topped with a chromed supercharger and not one or two, but three Predator carburetors that literally poured high-octane racing gas down the mill’s gullet.  As if this wasn’t already enough, the engine could also receive a healthy shot of nitrous oxide for those special occasions when 1,100hp wasn’t enough.
Although the rest of the BIGFOOT fleet was either built with planetary hubs or had them permanently added at some point, BIGFOOT #1 has remained planetary-free for most of its life, except for a small period of time in 1986 when the truck used the same style of Rockwell units that the rest of the fleet did.  Although this reduced axle shaft breakage considerably, it reduced the amount of wheelspin the truck generated by adding additional gear reduction in the hubs.  Chandler ended up having the planetary hubs removed, replacing them with the original 5-ton military hubs that remain on the truck to this day.

Throughout its life, BIGFOOT #1 has underwent a great deal of cosmetic and physical changes, numerous paint jobs, repairs, and parts replacements, although it is the only BIGFOOT truck to have not been updated to the 80s, 90s, or 2000s body styles.  It is easy to see the historical importance of this truck and forget that up until the late 1980s it was still an active working truck. It continues to stand out as a monument to Bob Chandler and Team BIGFOOT’s achievements

Old Age & Retirement

BIGFOOT #1 has really been retired since 1990 season, as the demand for monsters to run in the mud was all but nonexistent and the public’s interest centered around the high-speed world of monster truck racing, which had been revolutionized by trucks like BIGFOOT #1’s distant cousin BIGFOOT #8. However, due to its iconic status, it continues to serve as a goodwill ambassador for both Team BIGFOOT and the industry as a whole, appearing at numerous charity events, benefits, parades, and other special events.

In January of 2011, BIGFOOT #1 made its first appearance at the International Monster Truck Museum & Hall of Fame in Auburn, IN, where it will spend several weeks as part of the museum’s rotating display of historical monster trucks.