If there is one vehicle in the universe that we want to some day sit in, at minimum, and at maximum idle around a parking lot, it is Bigfoot 1. The truck that started as a hobby project of Bob Chandler’s and eventually became the most famous truck on Earth had very humble beginnings and a fantastic evolutionary process that was all captured in photos back in the 1970s and early 1980s. Bigfoot has revamped their website and will be offering detailed histories on all of their trucks, but the best by far is the first one published, fittingly on Bigfoot 1.
There are dozens of photos to look at that show the truck as the Chandler family camping unit, complete with slide in camper, to a mud bog machine that began wearing dual rear tires, right up through the addition of four wheel steering, a big motor, and ever larger axles and tires.
Famously, Chandler built the original truck mostly in his home shop, and then driveway when the truck became too large to fit in the workshop. He spent lots of time touring around the midwest with it running mud bogs, hill climbs, and just showing it off. He drove it to SEMA in 1974 and show organizers who had initially rejected his application for entering the truck, took one look and invited it inside.
Yes, monster trucks have evolved into a cartoon like situation these days, but the early trucks, those that wore stock steel bodies, had custom interiors, bright chrome work, stock (but modified) frames, arched leaf springs, and lift blocks, still stand as some of the coolest vehicles ever built. The story of Bigfoot is uniquely American and totally BangShift approved. A couple of guys who thought too much wasn’t enough built an icon, and eventually, an entertainment industry.
(photos: Bigfoot4x4.com)
