Jeff Dane (born November 7th, 1957) is the owner, builder and driver of several monster trucks out of Killen, Texas. Jeff was originally from Germantown, Wisconsin. He was the creator of the King Kong, Awesome Kong, Undertaker and Punisher monster trucks.
History and career[]
In late 1976 while still in the military, Jeff met a man named James Berry that sold military surplus, specifically surplus vehicles. From there, Jeff would take parts from 2 1/2 and 5-ton army trucks for his Ford pickup, including 5-ton axles, 6 14.00/20 tires, 2 ½ ton transfer case and a turbo diesel motor with a 5-speed manual shift transmission behind it. Later, a working 22,000 lb. PTO winch on the front and a working 45,000 lb. PTO winch on the rear were installed.
Later, Jeff would be tracked down by JR Laramie, promoter of the World of Wheels car Show in Waco Texas, and asked Jeff to bring his truck to the show. This would prove to be very successful, as JR would hire Jeff and crew to do 100’s of car shows all across the USA, and magazines would feature his trucks on their covers.
Jeff built several monster trucks over his 30 years in the sport, with himself and various others such as Steve Dane, Steve Cain and Mark Brandt piloting them. In 1995, Jeff would officially step down from driving.[1] Jeff continued to campaign his trucks into the early 2000’s when Jeff decided to retire from monster trucks.[2]
In 2011, Jeff was inducted into the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame.
In 2014, Jeff founded War Time Finds. That same year, he built a replica of the original King Kong, which currently sits in the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame.
Trivia[]
- Jeff is a member of the Monster Trucks Wiki.
- Jeff claims to have performed a public car crush at Great Lakes Dragaway with King Kong in 1979, which would pre-date Bob Chandler's Bigfoot by two years. This claim however has yet to be confirmed.
- Despite this, there are various photographs of Dane performing car crushes that predate Chandler's car crush.
Gallery[]
