A monster truck is a vehicle that is typically styled after pickup trucks' bodies,
modified or purposely built with extremely large wheels and suspension. They are used
for competition and popular sports entertainment and in some cases they are featured
alongside motocross races, mud bogging, tractor pulls and car-eating robots.
A monster truck show sometimes involves the truck crushing smaller vehicles beneath its
huge tires. These trucks can run up and over most man-made barriers, so they are
equipped with remote shut-off switches, called the Remote Ignition Interruptor, to help
prevent an accident if the driver loses control at any time. At some events, only one
truck is on the course at a time, while most feature two drivers racing each other on
symmetrical tracks, with the losing driver eliminated in single-elimination tournament
fashion.
In recent years, many monster truck competitions have ended with a "freestyle" event.
Somewhat akin to dressage with giant trucks, drivers are free to select their own course
around the track and its obstacles. Drivers will often try "donuts", wheelstands and
jumps during this segment. Additional items for the drivers to crush, usually including
a motor home, are frequently placed on the track specifically for the freestyle event.
Other obstacles sometimes placed on the track include school buses and small airplanes.
King Kong and Bear Foot each followed Bigfoot to 66-inch-diameter tires, and soon other
monster trucks, such as King Krunch, Maddog, and Virginia Giant were being constructed.
These early trucks were built off of stock chassis which were heavily reinforced, used
leaf spring suspension, a stock body, and heavy military axles to support the tires. As
a result, the trucks were incredibly heavy (usually 13,000 to 20,000 lb.) and most times
had to crawl up onto the cars.
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