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A chassis is the basic construction of a monster truck. It is essentially a truck in itself without the fiberglass body.

History[]

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Bounty Hunter at the Monster Jam World Finals 5

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Bigfoot 8 during testing in 1989, one of the first monster trucks to run a tubular design chassis

Monster truck chassis are what compose the modern monster truck, following the days of using regular truck frames on larger tires. Using a chassis for a monster truck became famous in the late 1980's and continued into the 1990's. Today, nearly all competing monster trucks are composed of a chassis (although some less known, non-competing trucks are still built this way).

Differences[]

No two monster truck chassis are exactly the same. They may vary in terms of length, height, width, and in rare cases, even weight. They may also vary in terms of wheelbase length and suspension. Trucks may also have their chassis painted to match their theme and color scheme.

Chassis Constructors[]

This is a list of notable monster truck teams who have constructed chassis for themselves and/or other teams as well.

Note: The list covers only some of the most used chassis in the business. Countless other chassis are custom built by other teams for their own trucks with different designs and additions for safety and the trucks overall performance. Custom built chassis are often referred to as an "Inhouse" chassis.

Patrick Enterprises Inc. (PEI)[]

Built by Dan Patrick, originally for Samson. PEI chassis have been used for over 100 trucks by a variety of teams. From 2000-2010, Monster Jam commissioned PEI to build their fleet trucks.

PEI chassis

A CRD chassis, Bigfoot 19

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Willman chassis

Carrol Racing Design (CRD)[]

Mostly used by Feld-owned trucks like recent Grave Digger trucks, Son-Uva Digger, and Monster Mutt Dalmatian. It is based on the designs of Paul Cohen, a former chassis specialist at Digger's Dungeon who built many of the in-house chassis for Grave Digger as well as for other teams. It is also the first known chassis to be made digitally. Independent teams also use this chassis, such as Black Pearl, Over Bored and Fullboar. Bigfoot 19 is unique among Bigfoot trucks for being a CRD chassis.

Willman[]

Created by Jack Willman (the chassis' namesake). These chassis were known for having its engine mounted in the front. This chassis also has a slightly longer wheelbase than other chassis styles; One misconception with these chassis is that people often get them confused for a Meents chassis since they have a similar design; the last Willman chassis (Taurus V) was built in the 1990's, since then, none have been built.

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A Racesource chassis

Racesource[]

Built by Pablo Huffaker. Used by his Grave Digger trucks, as well as trucks like Brutus, Devastator/The Felon, Fatal Attraction, The Patriot, El Matador, and the Prime Time.

Concussion Motorsports[]

This chassis is used by some of the bigger names as Bigfoot (used for Bigfoot 18 and Bigfoot 21), Midnight Rider, Monster Patrol and Bear Foot.

Chandler[]

Designed by Bob Chandler and built in-house at Bigfoot, these were the first chassis design featuring steel-tube frames and four-link suspension, which influenced all subsequent monster truck chassis designs. First used for Bigfoot 8, and modified to have a rear-mounted engine for Bigfoot 10 at the suggestion of Dan Patrick.

Meents[]

Built by Tom Meents, it is used by some trucks from Max-D. They are similar in principle to Willman chassis, with front-mounted engines, but are built by Meents' shop, not Willman, despite common misconception.

Koehler[]

Built and created by the Team Scream and named after its owner Jim Koehler. The first and second Avenger (with the second now being ran as Axe/Wrecking Crew) use this type of chassis. Some non-Team Scream trucks like Aftershock and Nothing But Trouble also use this chassis.

Cory Rummell (CRC)[]

Built and designed by Cory Rummell, this chassis has a longer wheelbase than others, with a majority of the bodies ran having to be modified in order to fit properly. Most of Team Scream Racing runs this chassis.

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California Kid, the short wheelbase chassis

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Team Hot Wheels Firestorm, on a long wheelbase chassis

Straight Up Racing (SUR)[]

SUR offers four different chassis designs:

  • The first design is very similar to other major chassis designs, and it is used by trucks such as Identity Theft and Honda Generators High Voltage. It has also been used by trucks built by SUR for other teams or drivers, such as Double Trouble and Crash Test Dummy.
  • The second design has a low stance and the engine in the front, much like the Willman and Meents chassis; it is used by California Kid and Willy Crash. A variation is also used by the SUR-built current chassis for Trouble Maker.
  • The third design is shaped similarly to the second one but has the engine mounted on the back; it was used by the original Rockstar.
  • The fourth design, while being quite similar to the first variation, has a much lower height; it is run on the current Rockstar.

Flame Motorsports[]

Built by David Smith. This chassis has been used by King Krunch, El Matador/Nitro Hornet, Obsessed and Big Kahuna.

J&B[]

This chassis has been notably run by Storm Damage and Extreme Attitude (Natural Disaster), Shockwave and Be Aware (Braukmann Racing), and the original Stinger's (Rettew Racing).

Eddie Majka[]

A newer style of chassis similar to a CRD. Krazy Train, Buckshot, Hurricane Force and a few others use this type of chassis.

Kreg Christensen Motorsports (KCM)[]

A chassis that is developed, fabricated and built by Kreg Christensen. Used by Wicked, Dragon Slayer, Vendetta and Kamikaze. There are also a number of Australian trucks that Kreg built with this design, such as Revenge, the Australian Wicked, Executioner (Aussie), MisMayhem and Extreme.

The Metal Shops (TMS)[]

A newer style of chassis created by Rick and Ryan Disharoon's The Metal Shop in Delaware. Trucks using this style include all variations of Saigon Shaker, Smokin', Toxic 2.0, Stinger Unleashed, and Paul Jensen's Jurassic Attack, which was later converted into the blue Velociraptor

Freedom Racing (Woodcock)[]

These types of chassis are very tall and feature the engine placement very high and in the very rear of the truck. These chassis are known to wheelie very easily because of this. Some trucks that still use this type of chassis are Shocker and Sheer Insanity.

"Belly Dragger Chassis"[]

A front engine chassis built by Wildfire Motorsports. Known for having a very low clearance from the ground to underneath the chassis.

Unique custom-built chassis[]

Big Dummy[]

Custom built by Frank Schettini, the truck was operated similar to a motorcycle. The truck is steered with a handlebar and the driver stand up while strapped into a harness.

Virginia Giant[]

After the truck was destroyed in a crash in 2021, Kevin Ricco of Ricco Enterprises was able to completely rebuild the truck in less than three weeks, including backflip bars, new forward cab bracing, and engine repairs. This would make Virginia Giant IV the first ever PEI/REI hybrid.

Bigfoot 5[]

Originally built by Bob Chandler for Joe Ritter as Godzilla, Bigfoot 4x4 later bought the truck and rebuilt it into Bigfoot 5, which now holds the title of the world's tallest monster truck. The truck sits on 10-foot-tall tires that came from a scrapped military "land train" vehicle, built in the 1950's for use on the Alaskan tundra, in contrast to the long time 66-inch-tall standard monster truck tire. Little information regarding the construction of Bigfoot 5 has been released publicly, likely so that nobody could replicate it. Although they would rebuild Bigfoot 7 to be like Bigfoot 5, and later built a second replica with a 1999 Ford Super Duty body which now resides in a Roscoe, Illinois car museum.

Uses[]

Motorsports leagues like FELD may have spare chassis for use in the case of a truck's regular chassis breaking, or they may also use the chassis of another truck. This happened in 2015 when Backwards Bob was destroyed in a trailer fire. It returned soon after on a spare PEI chassis.

A year before, in 2014, Titan crashed hard into the wall during qualifying of Monster Jam World Finals 15, so Titan ran the actual World Finals on BJ Johnson's Mohawk Warrior chassis instead. Some chassis actually have multiple identities. Examples of this include Devastator and The Felon, both of which are run on the same chassis. Former driver Mark Schroeder alternated between the two every season. Other examples are Wrongway Rick/Obsession, Axe/Wrecking Crew, and Barbarian/Alter Ego.

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