Therefore, in-cab roll cages became a requirement. While some experimented with aluminum as a frame material in an effort to cut weight, rollovers began to occur at higher speeds and the old bed mounted roll bars were no longer adequate. It wasn’t long before Monster Trucks were racing side by side and weight as well as driver safety became an issue. Most straight frames were constructed for strength but weight was not yet an concern. These frames typically were made from at least 1/4″ thick mild or high tensile steel ranging from 8″ to 12″ tall. This prompted some builders to start from scratch and fabricate a frame following their own specifications employing either C channel or box tubing. This option solved some of the strength issues but created new challenges such as shortening the wheelbase, modifying cross members and fabricating body, engine and transmission mounts. And thus the straight frame Monster Truck was born. So in keeping with Monster Truck philosophy that of course meant going to bigger frames! It occurred to someone that instead of pulling the drive train out from under a military truck and welding it under their pick-up truck frame, why not just mount that pick-up truck body on top of the military truck’s chassis. Here we have a beautifully executed example of both fish-plating and sub-framing techniques.Įventually owners realized that those factory frames just were not up to the task of handling the type of loads being placed on them no matter how much steel you welded to them. In many cases a great deal of time was spent welding in “sub-frames” for additional structural support. But, as tire size went from 48″ to 66″ and in some cases 73″, and axles went from 2 1/2 ton to 5 ton and bigger, additional steps were required to further strengthen those factory frames. As most factory truck frames to that point were formed out of C channel some owners went the extra mile and “boxed” their frames which entailed welding steel plate to the outer edges of the inside of the frame rails thus giving them more torsional rigidity. That is to say that steel plates were welded all along the bottom and/or outside of the factory frames to give them more strength. The first attempts at solving this problem came in the form of what is affectionately termed as “fish plating”. ![]() Little attention was placed on the load being placed on that factory truck frame.Īs car crushing became all the rage so did frame breakage. The first sight of Bob Chandler’s big blue Ford sporting those “immense” 48 inch Goodyear tires inspired legions of followers to create their own incarnations in a quest to construct THE BIGGEST MONSTER TRUCK ON THE PLANET! But, at that time this just meant a trip down to the junk yard to collect a pair of old military 2 1/2 ton axles and a set of discarded tractor tires which were then bolted, welded or occasionally tie wrapped on to the family pick-up truck. In the beginning, as the saying goes, “size was everything”. ~ TRSĮvolution of Monster Truck Chassis Design While we know our readers won’t be building monster trucks, we thought our readers would find the article of interest since it discusses the evolution from leaf sprung monster trucks to the current 4-link setups and why the changes were made. Note: This article was resurrected 11/2007 because of the information it provides. Story by Marty Garza – Overkill Racing – January 1, 2001
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