Ford F-250 known as Bigfoot #5 was built in 1986 specifically to ride on these 10-foot-tall tires.
Ford has sold tens of millions of F-Series pickups over the past 70 years, but none are as famous as Bigfoot. Bob Chandler created the first Bigfoot from a 1974 Ford F-250 back in the late 1970s, essentially creating the entire monster truck world. The dark metallic blue pickups with massive tires and the familiar name on the doors has become an icon in the motorsports world, but what many people don’t realize is that there were actually many different Bigfoot trucks over the years.
Bigfoot #5 is arguably Chandler’s most extreme truck, having been built to ride on the unique 10-foot-tall tires. This week’s Freaky Friday video comes from the Animator22 YouTube channel and it features a collection of footage of the world’s biggest truck strutting its stuff with some of the world’s biggest tires.
Firestone Tundra
While every Bigfoot Ford truck has had huge tires, #5 was built specifically to ride on some of the biggest tires in the world. The team built this truck back in 1986 with the plans to run a set of Firestone Tundra tires, measuring 10-feet by 4-feet by 5-feet. These tires were originally made for a land train used by the US Army to cross Alaska back in the 1950s, but similar rubber was featured on Bigfoot 1, 2 and 4 before #5 was complete.
When the truck was finished and the massive tires were mounted, this Ford truck was the tallest, widest and heaviest truck in the world, tipping the scales at a whopping 28,000 pounds. For those wondering, each tire weighs around 2,400 pounds, so with the gigantic wheels, the rollers on this truck easily weight more than 10,000 pounds combined.
World’s Biggest Truck in Action
In the video above, we get to see Ford F-250-turned-Bigfoot #5 doing just about everything. It starts off by participating in a parade of some sort, followed by crushing some cars, then crushing some “average” jacked-up trucks, then doing some mudding, then crushing a bunch more cars. There is even some footage of the truck wearing eight Firestone Tundra tires, with two stacked on the end of each axle.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
