Common misconceptions in monster truck industry

This is a list of common misconceptions in monster truck industry, also known as goofs.

NOTE: Do not add in media-related descriptions here.

Trucks

• On most trucks, the headlights (when included in the design) are not real; rather, they are decals, similar to NASCAR race cars. Certain trucks, like Grave Digger and Max-D do have functioning "headlights" as part of the trucks' design, but they serve no practical purpose as the venues are always brightly illuminated for safety and an optimal viewing experience for fans.

• Most trucks do not have doors for the drivers to use to get in or out. The drivers instead must climb up between the body and chassis. There are a few exceptions, including Grave Digger and Son-uva Digger, as they incorporate doors to keep with the design of the production trucks upon which they were originally based.

Neither the Australian or American Scooby-Doo trucks are related to each other

• Despite their similar designs, both having the same name, and being based on the same cartoon character, the American FELD-owned Scooby-Doo! truck is not in any way related to the Australian truck of the same name, which preceded it by six years. They are different trucks running under separate licenses. The Australian Scooby-Doo! has since been renamed to Buddy after the license expired.

Original Brutus

• Brutus was not always a 3D dog: it debuted as a pickup body in 2001, before becoming a dog in 2004. On top of that, Brutus' original theme was the Roman soldier of the same name. It was changed after several fans made comments about their dogs also being named "Brutus."

• Avenger has not actually always used a Bel Air body; it ran for its first three years as an S-10.

• El Toro Loco is not technically a successor to Bulldozer, but a spin-off. The two designs actually co-existed for eight years; El Toro Loco debuted in 2001, while Bulldozer continued running until its retirement in 2009.

• Madusa is not a feminine themed truck, despite being driven by a woman for all but one show. Debra Miceli's former wrestling name of "Madusa" is short for "Made in the USA", so the truck as actually is more of a patriotic theme. While a pink variant of this truck did exist in its later years, that version started as a variant to promote breast cancer awareness.

• The name Son-Uva Digger actually existed long before the actual truck's debut in 2011, having been used for Ryan Anderson's mud racing truck in his teenage years. It is one of the four truck names that was sold to FELD, rather than created by it.

• The Earth Shaker design was not plagiarized from Dirt Crew, despite initial fan outrage. Although both trucks were themed after dump trucks, the two designs have little in common. They have different colors and different truck styles; while Earth Shaker is a more realistic dump truck, Dirt Crew is a unique, half dump truck and half Dodge Ram truck design. Also, Dirt Crew has never even competed in Monster Jam at all.

Grave Digger

• Grave Digger did not become popular for winning a majority of events. In fact, Dennis Anderson became nicknamed "One Shot Dennis" and "One Run Anderson" because of his frequent early eliminations in racing. This is what gave Anderson the idea to convince promoters to allow him to continue as an exhibition for fans as a result of being eliminated early, which is what eventually became known today as freestyle.

• Despite their high quantity, Grave Digger bodies are not mass-produced by a manufacturer, each body is actually hand-painted. The current painter is Jim McShea.

• Not every Grave Digger has been a competitive monster truck. Grave Digger 6 was a street legal display truck; Grave Digger 9, Grave Digger 11, and Grave Digger 40 are ride trucks; Grave Digger 17 was a dragster run as part of a cross-promotion, and Grave Digger 21 is a trailer-mounted half-truck used as part of an interactive display.

• Grave Digger 5 is not the same truck as Grave Digger 2. In fact, #5 was built in 1991 as a replacement for #2, which was retired in late 1990 after a bad crash, and intentionally used a similar leaf-spring design so it could reuse salvageable parts from #2, including the fiberglass replica body first used on #2 in late 1989 in place of its original steel body. As #5 looked so similar to #2, and was only used for a short time before being replaced by Grave Digger 7, many mistakenly assumed that #5 was a repaired #2 and not a separate truck.

• Pablo Huffaker's first Grave Digger doesn't actually have a number, as it was in reality his second Jus' Show N Off truck running the body from Jack Koberna's Grave Digger 4 which had lost the license earlier on 1993. The original Grave Digger 4 frame was autographed by Dennis Anderson some years later, and he mislabeled it as "Grave Digger V", furthering the confusion about early truck numbers. Pablo's original 10-week deal with Dennis was soon made permanent, and Pablo built a new truck, Grave Digger 10, by 1995.

• The number of the latest Grave Digger (41 as of 2020) does in fact represent the true number of Grave Diggers. Although the number 13 was skipped due to superstition about unlucky 13, including Pablo's unnumbered first Grave Digger makes the total accurate. Even Bigfoot suffered from this too as well.

Technical aspects

• Modern monster truck bodies are mostly made out of fiberglass, which is thinner and lighter than the sheet metal used for normal street vehicles. This saves weight and is much easier to repair or replace when damaged than metal. The use of fiberglass began in the late 1980s as replacement parts for damaged metal body panels on leaf-spring trucks and became the standard for full bodies with the introduction of tube-framed trucks in 1989. As fiberglass is molded, its use allowed the creation of trucks with unique body styles not based on production vehicles.

• Fiberglass is actually quite reusable, despite being seemingly flimsy and lacking durability, which leads to the idea that fiberglass is practically disposable. In most cases, depending on fiberglass damage, whether from a crash or just an occurrence of the body falling apart (a common occurrence with trucks like Maximum Destruction and Grave Digger), fiberglass can actually be repaired and put back onto a truck. There have been instances where the damage was severe enough to require a new fiberglass body, but in many cases the body can be fixed and reused. It is, however, quite less reusable than carbon fiber, a much more durable, though also far more expensive, material used on certain trucks.

• In modern rear-engined competition trucks, monster truck drivers are never seated on the left side of the truck, they are actually seated directly in the center. Older trucks, however, have had drivers sit on the driver's side, and ride trucks are even the same way, since they are built differently than competition trucks. The only trucks that still have a left side seat are the front engine style chassis.

• The interior cab light, usually a small red light inside the cab, very rarely if ever turns on immediately when the engine does. While the cab light is associated with the truck's ignition, it actually comes on several seconds, and in some cases even a couple of minutes, before the engine itself, likely as a warning to track crew members that the truck's engine is getting ready to start.

• It is unlikely that mini monster trucks were invented specifically for children's use, despite the fact that they are today very popular with and driven by children, some as young as nine years old. Mini monster trucks were instead likely to have been invented as a cheaper alternative to a standard monster truck, as there is a history of adults driving mini monster trucks as well.

Drivers

• Tom Meents did not start his monster truck career with FELD Motorsports. He actually spent the first six years of his career driving Monster Patrol, which is not, nor has it ever been, a FELD truck (although it has been driven in Monster Jam events before) but was instead owned by Paul Shafer.

Stunts

• Larry Quick was not the first driver to do a backflip. It was actually Tom Meents, who did the stunt in March 2009 while practicing for Monster Jam World Finals 10. The misconception comes from the fact that Larry Quick was the first to attempt a backflip, but he did not actually land it first.

• On the other hand, Tom Meents was actually not the first to land a Front flip. Likewise, he was the first to attempt the front flip, but during his first and so far, only attempt at the East Rutherford show in 2015, he did not technically land the flip, as he landed on his back wheels: completing the flip would mean landing on the front wheels, not the back ones. Lee O'Donnell driving VP Racing Fuels The Mad Scientist was the first to land it at Monster Jam World Finals 18, which earned him the freestyle title.

Crush Cars

• Crush cars never contain the engines: they are removed from the cars before they are crushed. However, there have indeed been instances where cars with engines have been crushed: this has caused a small explosion from the car (likely a reason why engines are usually removed from the cars). This happened during a Myrtle Beach South Carolina show when King Kong accidentally crashed into two police cars, which were parked off to the side and were not part of the track. The confusion may also come from the fact that other items, such as the seats, steering wheel, and even seatbelts, are still intact in a crush car.

• Monster truck promoters do not "buy" the cars they use for their shows. The majority of crush cars actually come from junkyards. This is evident as some cars have minor frame damage, or missing certain parts like bumpers etc., implying that they are junk cars. Cars are rented out from the junkyards, shipped to the stadium or arena, crushed, and then taken back to the junkyards, where they are likely scrapped for good and recycled to make new cars.

Monster Jam tracks in recent years have been criticized for their lack of crush cars

• Crush cars are no longer as common as they used to be because newer cars, and therefore newer junked cars, have more plastic in their bodies as opposed to metal, meaning they crush faster and have a tendency to lose large pieces. Monster Jam stopped using loose cars due to pieces being thrown by truck's tires towards staff and fans, now only using them embedded into other jumps.

Monster Jam itself

• Fan Judges are not a new idea to Monster Jam shows, in fact, the use of fan judges dates all the way back to 1999. However, the debate among more dedicated fans whether or not this method of scoring is effective and fair has gotten more prevalent as time has gone on.

• Although the Monster Jam name was introduced in 1995, the actual organization was founded in 1992. It was known as "Monster Wars" before becoming Monster Jam.

An example of Bigfoot competing in Monster Jam in 1998

• Bigfoot did compete in Monster Jam from 1997-1998, when the name began circulating, despite the widespread misconception that Bigfoot has never been involved with Monster Jam.

• Monster Jam discontinuing the use of free standing (loose) crush cars is not due to budget or tire quality, but rather safety concerns as the nature of newer cars to break apart when hit and produce loose pieces that can be thrown by the trucks.

World Finals

• Monster Jam World Finals 1 was not the first Monster Jam World Finals to take place. Three separate events that were referred to in some form as the Monster Jam World Finals took place in 1993, 1994, and 1999, the latter of which is the most well-known of the three. These were the only Monster Jam World Finals events to not be numbered.

• The Young Guns Shootout was not originally designed to determine a final spot in the main line up for the Monster Jam World Finals. While the Young Guns began in 2012, it was actually not until 2013 when the idea came about to present the winner into the main line up.

Other

• Driving a monster truck does not require a driver's license. Monster trucks are not street legal vehicles, so they cannot be driven on public roads regardless of whether or not the driver has a valid driver's license. It is very common that most monster truck drivers begin learning to drive before they are able to receive their learner's permit, as is common in motorsports. Allen Pezo, known for driving Predator, began his monster truck career before he had a driver's license.

• Avenger's 20th anniversary was not the reason for the fountain obstacle returning at Monster Jam World Finals 18. This belief is mostly due to the association of the fountain with Jim Koehler's yearly tradition of jumping into it after freestyle, which started at Monster Jam World Finals 6. Instead, it was revived that year for the same reason as the reintroduction of a school bus to the World Finals course, fan criticism regarding its absence in recent years. However, Avenger may be one of the reasons for fans wanting the fountain back, as Koehler used his own water feature during years without a fountain.

The modern version of Blue Thunder features no sponsorship from Ford like it did from 2001 to 2010.

• A truck's sponsorship expiring does not always mean that the truck will be immediately retired, despite there being instances where this has happened, such as with Advance Auto Parts Grinder, SoBe, Team Suzuki, and Team Hot Wheels Firestorm. There have been instances where a truck's sponsorship has expired, but the truck has continued competing. The most popular example is Blue Thunder, which for several years ran under a Ford sponsorship. However, the sponsorship has since been dropped, but the truck still performs today, albeit without any references to Ford on the truck (other than the body it's based on). Another example is El Toro Loco, which briefly ran under an Advanced Auto Parts sponsorship from 2008-2009.

• In the event that a truck's sponsorship expires, and the truck is retired, merchandising off of that truck can still be sold in stores long after the sponsorship ends: the deal is that no new merchandise can be manufactured at that point. Merchandising off of Marvel trucks, for example, has been found in places such as grocery stores long after the sponsorship ended with FELD, but it is a case of yet to be sold merchandise and is discontinued.

• Non-FELD trucks never sell merchandise at Monster Jam events, due to a policy from FELD Entertainment forbidding them to do so. Such merchandise is only found at non-FELD events.