Of all the years of coverage of green transportation we’ve done here, we never expected to see a monster truck go electric.
That’s right – you did read that correctly – a monster truck has gone all electric. And not just any monster truck mind you, but the first and most well known of them all, Bigfoot, which recently unveiled Odyssey Battery Bigfoot No. 20 Monster Truck.
The Bigfoot electric monster truck makes use of what is described as “a battery-powered electric motor, which was designed and built by Dennis Berube of Phoenix to wield high-horsepower and high-RPM capabilities.” It is powered by three banks of 10 electric batteries from Odyssey Battery that power the motor for a total of 360 volts.
Six additional batteries, meanwhile, power the brakes and steering systems. All total, the 36 on-board batteries weigh a staggering combined 1,375 pounds. To carry all this weight, Bigfoot #20, as you can see from the photo below, is a custom-designed 2012 fiberglass body. Other custom features include onboard battery chargers and a variable-speed programmable speed controller.
While there’s no mention of specific motor power or range, you really don’t care about that so much when you are behind the wheel of a monster truck. What you want to know is if you can crush stuff, which usually means going over other cars. A recent test of Bigfoot #20 revealed just that, as you can see in the video below.
Note how relatively quiet the monster truck runs compared to traditional ones, allowing you the fun of hearing the crunching of the other cars all that much more.
With all of this being said, the folks behind Bigfoot seem in no immediate rush to enter this electric vehicle into many monster truck events, noting that, for now, it “will be used in static displays and parades, but as we become more experienced with the electric power unit, battery maintenance, controller adjustments, drive lines and weather, our fans may just see it perform car crushes or even compete in monster truck shows.”
