Bob Chandler (Born September 12th, 1941) is a monster truck owner and retired driver out of St. Louis, Missouri. Bob is the owner and creator of Bigfoot; considered the first monster truck ever built, and is regarded as the true inventor of monster trucks. Bob also owns its namesake team: Bigfoot 4x4, and also owns Bigfoot’s “rival” truck Snake Bite. He drove a majority of the early Bigfoot trucks, primarily 1 through 5 and was known to drive Bigfoot Fastrax until he aggregated his back injury from a motorcycle accident long before monster trucks.
Early life[]
Before Bigfoot, Bob was a career construction carpenter and an off-road enthusiast, which is where he became friends with Jim Kramer, who was a co-worker at the time. This also is the reason Bigfoot 1 was purchased, and sported a carpenter’s tool compartment on the bed early on. His love for off road would lead him to open Midwest Four Wheel Drive in Ferguson, Missouri. After injuring his back in a motorcycle accident, he would retire from construction, and luckily, he was able to fall back on the 4x4 shop because of its success. In 1965, Bob married his wife Marilyn Chandler, who would co-own Bigfoot 4x4.
Career[]
In 1975, Bob began racing his personal 1974 Ford F-250 pickup truck that he modified.
In 1981, Bob performed the truck’s first car crush as a joke. A man promoting a motorsports event in Columbia, Missouri, asked him to duplicate the stunt in front of a crowd.
In 1983, Bigfoot began a sponsorship with the Ford Motor Company, which sponsored the team until 2005. Later that year, Bob performed the car crush at the Pontiac Silverdome. There were 72,000 people at the show. Several thousand people jumped over the wall after Bob stopped on top of the cars. He couldn't move for half an hour. He locked the doors because he didn't know what would happen. Bob raced Everett Jasmer on That's Incredible. He did exhibition car crushes until 1987, when the team began racing trucks due to car crushes starting to get old.
In 1987, Bob co-founded the Monster Truck Racing Association (MTRA), an organization created for the sole purpose of promoting safety in the monster truck industry.
In 1988, Bob debuted and drove Bigfoot Fastrax. This would be the last truck he drove in competition as he retired from driving after it kept exacerbating his back injury.
Post-retirement[]
In 1991, Bigfoot 4x4 debuted Snake Bite.
In 2011, Bob was inducted into the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame.
In 2019, Bob was inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame.
Bob had passed the company on to his son in law, Bob Trent, though he does still technically own Bigfoot 1 and a majority stake in the operation.
Trivia[]
- Bob also pioneered the use of video, radar and on-board data acquisition in analyzing monster truck performance.
- He helped develop the now-standard Remote Ignition Interrupter (RII) that allows a monster truck’s engine to be shut off by remote radio signal.
- He can be seen as the flagman in Take This Job and Shove It. Famed stuntman Craig Baxley drove Bigfoot 1 for the racing scene.
- He is seen in Cannonball Run II, driving Bigfoot 2. He drives over a Porsche at the beginning of the race. Director Hal Needham was the driver of the Porsche. Bob is later seen with a flat tire on Bigfoot. Bob stated they dubbed the music over his dialogue so that they didn’t have to give him actor’s credits, thus adding further payment.
- Bob drove Bigfoot 7 in an unused scene for Road House where Brad Wesley was to drive the truck across the river to confront Daulton. Due to almost sinking the truck, Bob refused another take, and the scene was cut from the movie. Behind the scenes footage was shot by the team and was used for Bigfoot Strikes Again, and photos were used on trading cards and promotional shots.