Nitro Radio Cars

History

The U.S. Air Force’s own Afterburner performing at Monster Jam in Las Vegas

In the late 1970s, modified pickup trucks were becoming popular and the sports of mud bogging and truck pulling were gaining in popularity. Several truck owners had created lifted trucks to compete in such events, and soon competition to hold the title of “biggest truck” developed. The trucks which garnered the most national attention were Bob Chandler’s Bigfoot, Fred Shafer and Jack Willman Sr.’s Bear Foot, and Jeff Dane’s King Kong. At the time, the largest tires the trucks were running were 48 inches in diameter.

On June 14, 1974, Bob Chandler drove over cars in a field making what is often believed to be the first monster truck to crush cars. Chandler drove Bigfoot over a pair of cars in a field as a test of the truck’s ability, and filmed it to use as a promotional tool in his four wheel drive performance shop. An event promoter saw the video of the car crush and asked Chandler to do it in front of a crowd. Initially hesitant, Chandler eventually caved in. After some smaller shows, Chandler performed the feat in the Pontiac Silverdome in 1982. At this show, Chandler also debuted a new version of Bigfoot with 66 inch (1.7 m) diameter tires. At a prior event in the early 80′s when BIGFOOT was still running 48 terra tires, Bob George, one of the owners of a motorsport promotion company named Truck-a-rama, is said to have coined the phrase “monster truck” when referring to BIGFOOT. The term “monster truck” became the generic name for all trucks with oversized terra tires.

Debate of who did the first car crush is often discussed. During the late 1970s and early 1980s stated that King Kong had done car crushing at Great Lakes Dragway in Union Grove, Wisconsin. Another truck, known as High Roller, was also documented as doing car crushes in Washington State before Bigfoot ever did his. Arizona tractor tired mud truck Cyclops, then owned by the Dykman Brothers, is too known for crushing burning cars before Bigfoot.

King Kong, Spot Horn Action, and Bear Foot each followed Bigfoot to 66 inch diameter tires, and soon other monster trucks, such as King Krunch, USA-1, 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.

For most of the early 1980s, monster trucks performed primarily exhibitions as a side show to truck pulling or mud bogging events. In 1985, major promoters, such as the USHRA and TNT Motorsports, began racing monster trucks on a regular basis. The races, as they are today, were in the form of single elimination drag races, held over a course littered with obstacles. The change to racing eventually led truck owners to begin building lighter trucks, with more power. The establishment of TNT’s first-ever monster truck points championship in 1988 expedited the process and found teams beginning to use straight-rail frames, fiberglass bodies, and lighter axle components to shave weight and gain speed.

In 1988, to standardize rules for truck construction and safety, Bob Chandler, Braden, and George Carpenter formed the Monster Truck Racing Association (MTRA). The MTRA created standard safety rules to govern monster trucks. The organization still plays a major role in the sport’s development in the USA and EU.

Batman truck

With racing taking precedence, several teams began to think in new ways as to how the trucks could be built. Towards the end of 1988, Gary Cook and David Morris debuted Equalizer, a truck with a combination of coil springs and shock absorbers as the main source of suspension rather than the standard of leaf springs and shock absorbers. In 1989, Jack Willman Sr., now with his own truck, Taurus, debuted a new truck which used a four-link suspension system and large coilover shock absorbers, and that weighed in at close to 9,000 lb. The ultimate coup de grce, however, came from Chandler, also in 1989, whose Bigfoot VIII featured a full tubular chassis and a long-travel suspension using cantilevers and nitrogen shock absorbers to control the suspension. The truck revolutionized how monster trucks were built, and within a few years most top level teams built similar vehicles.

In 1991, TNT was purchased by USHRA and their points series were merged. The Special Events championship began to grow in popularity with teams as it had open qualifying spots which the invite-only USHRA championship did not have. The Special Events series lost its Pendaliner sponsorship in 1996, but the series is still running. The short-lived ProMT series started in 2000.

Although racing was dominant as a competition, USHRA events began having freestyle exhibitions as early as 1993. These exhibitions were developed as drivers, notably Dennis Anderson of the extremely popular Grave Digger, began asking for time to come out and perform if they lost in early rounds of racing. Promoters began to notice the popularity of freestyle among fans, and in 2000 USHRA began holding freestyle as a judged competition at events, and now even awards a freestyle championship.

Braden Smith, driver of Spot Horn Action, and president of the Snohomish County Monster Truck Drivers League, plans to lobby congress in August of 2010 to make Monster Truck Driving and Olympic Event.

A typical track for arena monster truck shows. The cars have ramps on one side for racing and are left bare on the other side for freestyle. The jumps around the perimeter are for ATV races.

Monster Jam is currently the largest and premeir monster truck event promotor, touring not only through the United States, but Canada and select regions of Europe. Other promoters of monster truck events include Checkered Flag Productions, AMP Tour, Special Events 4 Wheel & Off Road Jamboree, Major League of Monster Trucks, Extreme Monster Truck Nationals, MTRSS, Monster Truck Challenge and Monster Nationals.

Truck design

Jurassic Attack, based on a triceratops

A modern monster truck is more of a scaled up, four wheel drive dune buggy. As such, they generally aren’t actual “trucks” and only maintain their name due to the common style of fiberglass bodies used on the vehicles. Trucks now have custom built tubular chassis, with four-link suspensions to provide up to four feet of clearance. Mounted just behind the driver on most trucks are the engines, which are typically supercharged, run on alcohol, and have displacement up to 575 cubic inches (9.42 L). Axles are typically out of either heavy-duty military trucks or road vehicles like school buses, and are modified to have a planetary gear reduction at the hub to help turn the tires. All trucks have hydraulic steering in both the front and the rear (four wheel steering), with the front wheels controlled by the steering wheel and the rear wheels by a toggle switch. The tires are typically “Terra” tires used on fertilizer spreaders, and have measurements of 664325 (1.71.10.6 m). Most trucks utilize a modified and/or custom designed automatic transmission, such as a Turbo 400, Powerglide, Ford C6 transmission, or a Torque-flite 727. A limited number of trucks utilize a Lenco transmission, which traces its roots to drag racing. Most of the automatic transmissions are heavily modified with transbrakes, manual valve bodies, and heavy duty gear sets. Trucks running a Lenco use a centrifugal clutch as opposed to a torque converter, which are used in automatic transmissions. Lenco transmissions are usually found in two-speed or three speed configurations, and are commonly shifted using compressed CO2.

The trucks have many safety features, several required just to run in the small arenas that the trucks frequent. The aforementioned RII is one of three kill switches on each truck, the other two being one within the driver’s reach in the cab, and another at the rear of the truck so that all electrical power may be shut off in the event of a rollover. Many trucks are constructed with the driver sitting in the center of the cab for visibility. Most cabs are shielded with Lexan (or comparable polycarbonate), which not only protects the driver from track debris, but also allows for increased visibility. Drivers are required to wear firesuits, safety harnesses, helmets, and head and neck restraints. Most moving parts on the truck are also shielded, and high pressure components have restraining straps, both in case of an explosion.

Popular culture

Monster trucks are possibly often portrayed as being a form of motorized professional wrestling. Commonly cited evidence is the use of names for the trucks, rather than numbers and sponsors (some trucks are now named for their sponsor, and in 2008, the Major League of Monster Trucks, before their eventual downturn, planned to mandate truck numbers), and often accusations of rigged races, as some trucks (including Bigfoot and Grave Digger) are seen as winning more often in order to please the crowd. However, promoters have widely denied rigging races, and many shows often feature evidence to the contrary when the unpredictable happens. Perhaps more than the redneck stereotype, the pro-wrestling stereotype is hated among drivers and teams, who feel they are regarded with disrespect despite their work to compete at a high level. Likewise, many fans would like to see the sport treated by the media as NASCAR is currently. However, as monster truck events do feature a considerably more show-like atmosphere than most other motorsports, competitions are often considered a form of “sports entertainment”.

The advertising of monster truck events has also become a part of popular culture. A familiar 1980s series of radio commercials for various monster truck races featured a screaming announcer (most famously, Larry “Supermouth” Huffman), blaring rock background music, and heavy use of reverb. These spots began with “Sunday!!! Sunday!!! Sunday!!!”, and ended with an emphatic “BE THERE!!!!!!”. Although commonly associated with monster trucks, the ads were conceived in the 1960s for funny car match races at drag strips. Chicago-area drag racing promoter Jan Gabriel, who produced three television specials about monster trucks in 1985 and 1986, is generally credited as coining the Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! catchphrase. As some promoters of those events also became promoters for monster truck events, the ads were retooled to fit the monster trucks. The ads have been frequently parodied in other advertisements.

A truck competition in the film Take This Job and Shove It features Bigfoot and USA-1, probably the earliest appearance of monster trucks in a major film.[citation needed]

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Monster truck

Monster Truck Madness video game

Pro Arena Trucks

Slap wheelie trick move

List of monster trucks

Radio-control monster trucks

Firestarter Mini Monster Truck

Mini monster truck

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Monster Jam Series

Trucks

Grave Digger  Maximum Destruction  Bigfoot  Bear Foot  Monster Mutt  Towasaurus Wrex  Captain’s Curse  Avenger  Dalmatian Mutt  Aracnaphobia  Batman  Black Stallion  Blue Thunder  Bulldozer  Clydesdale  Cyborg  Donkey Kong  El Toro Loco  Heavy Metal  Hummer Time  Maniac  Predator  Raminator  Reptoid  Sudden Impact  Swamp Thing  USA-1  WCW Nitro  Wild Hair

People

Dennis Anderson  Tom Meents

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Off-roading Topics

Types of off-roading

Off-road racing  Green laning  Desert racing  Dune bashing  Enduro  Mud bogging  Motocross  Observed trials Rally raid  Rock crawling

Off-road vehicles

All-terrain vehicle  Dirt Bike  Dual-sport motorcycle  Dune buggy  Enduro motorcycle  Four-wheel drive  Monster truck  Rock crawler  Sandrail  Trials motorcycle  Trophy Truck  Truggy  UTV

Off-road Related

Off road park  Xtreme 4×4  Trucks!

Categories: Monster trucks | Sports entertainmentHidden categories: Articles lacking sources from December 2009 | All articles lacking sources | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from October 2009 | Spoken articles

Mini RC Tank are great fun for everyone and mini RC tanks have advanced a lot over the last few years. Mini radio controlled tanks come in small mini desktop size to over 2 feet long. Also most hobby grade tanks have movable turrets or can do a 360 degree turn, up and down movements. Have BB firing plastic ammo, headlights, engine and machine gun sound effects. Most have smoke effects from exhaust or turret to make these awesome tank models realistic, Mini RC tanks move by radio control and go forwards, backwards and can climb steep terrains and slopes. Mini RC tanks are made of plastic with metal parts throughout and are reasonable tough, most PRO version tanks have upgraded metal tracks with rubber treads attached to them and give a great pull and look so real. Every detail on these mini RC tanks make them so cool like, a commander figure in tank hatch and lights, sounds markings, guns and even a metal gearbox is now very common. Mini RC tanks can do battle together or with other tanks, if you have pre select channels you select a different channel to other tank and you’re ready to roll. These normally run on 27mhz to 40mhz and most have pre select channels on the radio controller. Heng long is a great radio controlled tank manufacture and make a large range of model tanks from a beginner to pro level and have features like a built in smoke generator or metal gearbox’s and metal tracks +much more make these more reliable and tougher. The realism of these pro versions is unlimited with quality specifications and all the war tanks like the German panzer tank or bulldog tank, panther tiger tanks are available with all the fine details to make model RC Tank real-like. A good to remember when buying a mini RC tank is to make sure parts or accessories are available, so getting smoke pellets or BBs will not be a problem. You can also paint your mini RC tank to suit or personalize your own design and heng long make quality pro RC tanks with all these great features. Either way you’re going to have totally awesome fun with a radio controlled tank and some guys build there own battle ground and add some army figures and create a battle zone. If you are looking for quality mini RC Tanks then check out Online Marketplace as they sell a range of mini radio controlled tanks from beginner to pro models and have the lowest prices. Also we have nitro mini RC cars and nitro buggies + radio controlled jets and radio controlled helicopters from brand name manufacturers and low prices. Source by http://blog.topons.com/index.php/2010/08/the-rock-mini-rc-tanks/

Airsoft is a very popular game and lots of people are getting interested in this game. It can be called a hobby or a sport. Airsoft is a game with replica firearms, and the participants eliminate each other by shooting non-metallic pellets from these replica firearms like guns and rifles. These replicas are made from plastic and only the external size and shape are like the real firearms. Airsoft games are becoming popular sport in US, UK and Europe.

The Airsoft guns, which are replicas of real guns, shoot small plastic balls at velicity ranging from 30 to 260 m/s. You should be above 18 years if you are interested in buying a Airsoft gun and these guns come with an orange tip, which should not be removed. People enjoy playing the game ‘Airsoft’ with these Airsoft guns, which are safe and harmless, but it should be handled properly and not be misused. These guns are also called BB guns or Pellet Guns.

An Airsoft Gun can be operated by gas, spring or electric motor. Depending on the quality and the type of Airsoft guns, there is variation in prices. Spring operated Airsoft guns are less in price compared to gas operated Airsoft guns.A Spring Airsoft Gun is readily available and less expensive. They are manually operated and therefore cannot be automatic and semi automatic. Before you fire a shot you have to reload by re-cocking the spring. You can use it anytime as these guns don’t depend on battery or gas.

Another type of Airsoft gun is the Electric Airsoft Gun. These guns are powered by an electric motor. A rechargeable battery is used to power this motor, which makes the gun shoot the pellets. Originally developed in Japan, these guns can shoot around 750 rounds per minute, fully automatically. They are widely used in competitions as they need not be recharged very often.

The third type of Airsoft gun is the Gas Airsoft Gun. Gases like HFC-134a or Green gas are used to operate these guns. When shooting, the slide moves back and forth, and there is a gas chamber where the gas is re-loaded after several shots. These guns can be fully automatic or semi-automatic.

Airsoft Pistols and Airsoft Rifles are used in Airsoft games and this game offers relaxation and lot of thrill away from your routine life and work. If you are interested in playing the game, you can get yourself an Airsoft Sniper Rifle, for distance firing, with accuracy. They are available in the price range you want and in different camouflage colors to suit the terrain.

Another interesting game is the racing game with radio control vehicles. Many people consider it as a hobby. Children nowadays prefer and demand for RC toys like RC cars and RC trucks. RC vehicles are vehicles that are operated and controlled by radio signals from hand-held transmitters. The RC helicopter comes in four types; electric, gas, nitro and petrol/gas. The RC airplanes are also very interesting. If you like water sports get a RC boat and during winter, you can get a RC hovercraft to race on the snow or ice. The RC buggie is also a very versatile vehicle.

Remote controlled monster trucks are a wonderful hobby that can be enjoyed by both kids and adults.  It makes no difference if you want to just drive them around your yard or get involved in competitive racing, there is an RC monster truck for you.  There are many choices of radio controlled monster trucks out there.  On thise site, you will learn about some of the choices that you have and what they will mean for your r/c monster truck.

Nitro/Gas or Electric Power?

The Nitro/Gas powered monster trucks are the fastest trucks you can buy.  These trucks can travel up to 50 mph!  If you are looking for speed or to get involved with r/c monster truck racing, you’ll need to go this route.  Gas powered engines can be finicky at not want to start at times just like your pesky lawnmower.  Gas powered trucks are also more noisy than electric.

Electrical powered trucks are great for beginners that are just becoming involved in the hobby. These trucks are simple to use.  Just charge the battery and away you go.  They are also quieter than gas powered trucks.  What you make up for in ease of use you pay for in speed. If you want these trucks to approach the speed of a gas powered truck you will need expensive motors and batteries.

Scale

Scale refers to the size of the truck.  An example scale would be 1/24.  What this means is that the truck is 24 times smaller than the real deal.  Therefore, the lower the second number is, the bigger the r/c truck is.  So a 1/10 scale truck is bigger than a 1/24 scale.

One of the inventions of our time is remote controlled vehicles which 
are a product of the advancement in technology. It is no doubt that 
vehicles have made life better for man and ways to improve them to 
become more efficient are encouraged. Remote controlled vehicles are 
mobile devices that use radio control, infrared controller or a cable 
that connects the vehicle to the control in order to control its       
motion. They are also known as radio controlled devices. It should be 
noted that though a remote controlled vehicle moves independently, its 
movement is controlled externally by a person. Are remote controlled 
vehicles a good invention? Are they competitive in this time? Well, 
the answer is yes in both cases.
Remote controlled vehicles have many varied uses in our world today, 
which include; in the military, as a recreational hobby and for 
scientific purposes. As a recreational hobby, we find some remote 
controlled vehicles that are toys are designed specifically for 
children that in the beginning came in small sizes with a remote 
control that the child used to control its motion, now they come in 
bigger sizes and are quite popular with young children. There are also 
hobbyists who collect radio controlled models of these cars. These 
types of remote controlled vehicles are sophisticated and have varied 
prices. They may include boats and planes. They are either off road or 
on road and are found in many consumer shops.
In the scientific world remote controlled vehicles have been used in 
space exploration and for working underwater. The remote controlled 
vehicles used here are more sophisticated or technical in nature. Some 
are electrically powered or use gas. Notably, most of the devices used 
for orbiting our solar system and gathering data that has assisted in 
understanding our universe better have been remote controlled devices. 
This has led to big discoveries in this field.
In the military, remote controlled vehicles have also been a big help 
when working in environments that are considered harsh. During the 
World War 2 they were used to control teletanks during the winter war. 
They have also been used experimentally in planes. The use of these 
cars can also be seen in the police department specifically the bomb 
squad, who have used remote controlled cars to detonate explosives.
Remote controlled vehicles have been a great help and will continue to 
do so because of the many improvements that are being made on them as 
technology advances.

Categories: Nitro RC Cars  |  Tags: competitive, Controlled, Remote, Vehicles  |  No Comments