What's it take to drive a Monster Jam truck? We quiz champion driver Tom Meents

You know Monster Jam? It's that wild arena event where obscene truck-like creations do physics-defying stunts.

Lets face it, though. I bet you'd want to have a steer of one. The closest most of us will ever get is playing something like Microsoft's Monster Truck Madness (hah! remember that...).

So, we asked a guy who has been driving and building these things for most of his life what it takes to drive one, how he got into it, and what's actually going on under all that perspex bodywork and giant tube suspension.

Oh, did we mention? It was Tom Meents, Monster Jam world champion and the guy who drives the truck known as Max-D (that's short for Maximum Destruction). He's in town for the Monster Jam Australian tour that's going on throughout the month.

Turns out, being a Monster Jam driver is like being a bit of an athelete, driver and engineer all in one...

OS: Okay, What kind of training is involved in being a monster truck driver, is it particularly physically demanding, do you have to undergo fitness training?

TM: Yes, you do. Every day I have to work with a personal trainer doing a lot of core, back strength and especially cardio. Driving a Monster Jam truck can be extremely punishing physically, so you need to be in good shape.

OS: How do you even get into being a Monster Jam driver?

TM: It was something I always wanted to do, since I was 10 years old. I followed Monster Trucks, before Monster Jam, I’d cut out pictures from magazines and put them on the wall as a kid. 

Fortunately, my father was a mechanic, and I learned a lot about how to work on cars and trucks. I found a guy who had a truck and started helping him out for free, and then I bought my own truck.

I stayed committed to my dream and followed it as furiously as I could, I took that dream and rode it all the way to the top.

OS: When you started out, was that with ATVs or smaller trucks or did it escalate very quickly for you?

TM: In my time… back in those days… it escalated very quickly. I had regular trucks that you’d drive on the street and take to the mud on weekends, but once I got an opportunity to drive a monster truck it escalated very quickly.

Today’s driver - in the Monster Jam Era - can go to Monster Jam University. They receive proper training on how to drive excitingly, entertainingly and most importantly, safely.

I actually run the Unversity myself, I’m the professor there and I’ve had the opportunity to work with all the new drivers from the last five years.

OS: Are the cadets required to call you 'professor'

TM: Yes.

OS: Monster Jam has racing, two-wheel challenge, donuts and freestyle. What's your favourite event and why?

TM: It really is freestyle, because you drive a four-metre-high & wide truck and you jump so high it’s amazing. See the greatest thing you’ve got in two minutes, see which driver can pull off the coolest tricks and be the biggest show-off on the track.

It’s always the biggest event of the night, it happens last, and I love it when I put down a great performance in freestyle.

OS: The flips can be intense, it's a five-tonne truck... What's the worst injury you've sustained while driving?

TM: I’ve had a lot of bumps and bruises, but in 25 years of driving at the highest level possible I’ve come out pretty well unscathed.

Most of that is due to the great safety developments in the last 25 years, Monster Jam is the safest in the industry.

OS: What did you make of Mad Scientist's front flip last year? It's our office favourite

TM: It was epic. Totally unexpected, nobody’s been able to duplicate that, so it’s really a one-off performance.

OS: With regards to the engines, I know they run on methanol and produce around 1500 horsepower, but what configurations are they? V8, Inline six? 

TM: It’s based of a Chevrolet big-block V8, 540 cubic inches, as you said, runs on methanol, Max-D is fuel injected. We’re only allowed to run the blower [supercharger] 2 per cent faster than the engine. That limits the horsepower.

They’ve continued to get faster, the suspension is better, every year they get better.

OS: Are the engine rules a formal requirement, or is it more of a gentleman’s agreement between the teams?

TM: Well, the tyres are regulated for sure, the engine size is regulated, all the safety is highly regulated. After that there are a few teams that are experimental and try different things, certainly with the suspension and different chassis configurations.

The Max-D is a front-engine design, the only one in the show, it has a different balance to the other trucks, but it has the weight just where we like it.

OS: Changing a tyre… The Tyres weigh 645 pounds (~300kg) each. Is this a machine-assisted process?

TM: People do it manually. They use a hydraulic jack to lift the truck then it’s a person either side and they wiggle it back and forth to get it on or off.

OS: How much do one of those tyres cost?

TM: $3000 US. And each rim is $1000 US, so the whole assembly is $4000 US per corner.

OS: I was going to ask you how driving a monster truck compared to jobs you’ve had in the past, but seeing as though you skyrocketed into it…

TM: Well, I did work at a dealership for a while, one that sells traditional cars for seven or eight years. It was an okay job and I was able to make good money at it. It just wasn’t me, you know? I went to work every day and I didn’t feel as though it was what I was put on the earth to do.

The coolest thing for me is, the last 25 years driving monster trucks I haven’t been to “work” one day.

OS: Okay, so theres a never-before-seen-in-Australia super stunt. What can fans expect to see?

TM: We’re going to attempt to jump over six other Monster Jam trucks that are going to be in a line. It’s pretty far, each truck is about 4.0-metres wide, each one is four metres tall. So not only do you have to get the distance, you have to remain that high.

It’s a real attempt, we don’t know what’s going to happen - are you going to have enough traction? Are you going to have enough room in that stadium to speed up to make the jump? And, more importantly, are you going to have enough room to slow down?

Inside the stadiums we’ll be doing in Australia is a bigger floor than you have in the US. But it’s still limited. If you were outside with unlimited room, it would be a much easier attempt.

OS: What happens when you ruin the trucks? Do you ever feel bad for the poor engineers who have to put them back together?

TM: (laughs) Yes. We have the best technicians possible, if anything breaks we bring a lot of parts with us all the way from the ‘states to put them back together. There are some amazing stories of people putting them back together in time for the next show.

We’re (Max-D) actually one of the only teams who had an engine blow-out in qualifying for racing, we had the truck back up and running for freestyle (the same night).

OS: On average, how much time do you think is spent repairing the trucks after each event?

TM: Normally it would take the entire week. At least two technicians work on the truck from the moment it finishes its last performance until the day it goes back out on the track.

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We also had a chance to speak with Dan Evans, one of the engineers who works on Max-D, to see how he felt about the whole truck-destroying deal...

OS: Does it hurt watching all your time and effort get destroyed by Tom out in the field, or is it all worth it for the spectacle?

DE: It’s absolutely awesome to watch it. Tom is the master of destruction, there’s no doubt about that. But to see the looks and the cheers of the crowd, all the effort and time we put into keeping the truck in A1 condition is worth every minute.

OS: How did you get into engineering Monster Jam trucks? Did you train in other motorsport-related areas, or did you come from somewhere completely different?

DE: My personal background is running another truck, a destroyer truck for 18 years. I drove trucks for the last five years and now I help the research and design for a lot of products on the new trucks.

We’ve always been entrepreneurs of building our own... Tom designs his own chassis, my wife and I designed our own chassis... After years of doing it you just try and make it better for the next generation.

OS: What's the most expensive part on the truck?

DE: The most expensive part is gonna be the engine. They’re 540 cubic-inch big-block Chevies, they’re supercharged and run on alcohol making about 1500 horsepower [around 1120kW], for a complete unit that’s going to be about $45,000 U.S. dollars.

OS: How different are the suspension setups on each of the different teams, is there a lot in it?

DE: Tom’s truck (Max D) is his own design. It’s front-engine and the suspension has nitrogen shocks with coils over them. You won’t see that on other trucks that are out there. It’s pretty unique.

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Have you ever wanted to get behind the wheel of a Monster Jam truck? Tell us what you think in the comments below.