You see them on TV, crushing cars and flying through the air. But get this: a single monster truck tire costs around $2,600 and weighs a staggering 800 pounds. No, that’s not a typo. You could buy a high-end gaming PC for the price of one tire, and you’d need a crane to move it.
These things are literally giants. We’re talking 66 inches tall and 43 inches wide. They make a grown man look tiny. But the wildest part isn’t the size or the cost. It’s where they come from.
Here’s the tea: monster truck tires were never actually designed for monster trucks. They’re custom-built agricultural tires, originally made for massive fertilizer spreaders. Yes, really. The kind of equipment used on huge farms in the Midwest.
So why use farm equipment? It’s all about “flotation.” These tires are designed to spread the massive weight of a fertilizer machine so it doesn’t sink into soft soil. That same principle allows a 10,000-pound monster truck to “float” over cars and land those insane jumps without instantly breaking.
But they don’t just slap farm tires on a truck and call it a day. Oh no. Once a team gets a brand new, super expensive tire, they immediately start cutting it up. 😱
Using a special “hot knife,” crews spend 8 to 12 hours hand-carving each tire. They shave off up to 300 pounds of rubber to make the tire lighter for faster speeds and better jumps. This also lets them create their own custom tread patterns for maximum grip. It’s a messy, grueling job that turns a farm tool into an instrument of destruction.
So next time you see Grave Digger or Bigfoot soaring through the stadium, remember the secret. Those incredible feats of engineering are only possible because of a humble farm tire, supercharged and sculpted into a high-performance beast. It’s literally the ancient version of taking a regular car and turning it into a race car, but way, way bigger. Wild, right?
Monster Truck Tires: Real Costs Revealed - Absolute Auto Repair
Where do they get those huge tires? - The Christian Science Monitor
