OTHER MONSTER TRUCK'S
GRAVE DIGGER

TRUCK NAME: GRAVE DIGGER

MAKE: 1951 Ford Panel Wagon
(First ruck built as Grave Digger in 1981)

OWNER: Dennis Anderson. Paublo Huffacker & Pace Motorsports.
(All own individual trucks)

DRIVERS: Dennis Anderson, Paublo Huffacker, Chuck Pauken & Joe Payne

TOWN/CITY: Kill Devil Hills, Norh Carolina

ENGINE 540 cubic inch Chevy,

INFORMATION: Back in 1981 a man called Dennis Anderson, decided he wanted to enter an upcoming mud-bog contest in his home town. Using parts of old vehicles from scrapyards, he used a corroded chassis of a 1951 Ford pickup,& a Chevy engine, he built himself his own mud-bogger. When other competitors found out what he was doing, they laughed in his face, and told him that their new big expensive trucks would run him into the ground. Dennis responded by telling his opponents: "I'll take this old junk, & dig your grave" he subsequently won the contest. The Grave Digger was born.

He continued mud-bogging on the mud-bogging circuit for a couple of years. As he became more serious, he changed parts on his truck to make sure his truck stayed in the winning circle. He changed the body style to what would be the standard body of all his later trucks, it was a 1951 Ford panel van. He also put a Chevy big-block engine located in the back of the truck. Then one day at an event in 1984, the monster truck which was supposed to be appearing to crush some cars, failed to turn up. Dennis went to the promoters & offered to do the job. He crushed the cars & the crowd went wild. Dennis " The Wild Man" Anderson had entered the world of monster trucks.

Dennis, with his new found sport decided to build another Grave Digger truck, this time with a stronger chassis, Grave Digger two was born. The Grave Digger truck became a feature attraction at the truck events. In 1985 Dennis made a apointment with Fred Bumann of Norfolk,Virginia, an artist/auto painter. They discussed the paint job & Dennis told Fred that he didn't like the idea of green flames on a black truck.. Fred told Dennis to leave him alone with the truck for at least 18 hours, & if he didn't like the paint job he'd change it. When Dennis saw the trucks new look he immediately fell in love with it.

After competing in the M.T.R.A. racing circuit with his new paint job his truck became a real crowd favourite, by the end of 1988. Dennis realised that with his all steel body & heavy suspension, that his truck was handicaped. With many trucks changeing to fibreglass bodies, because of the trend moving from car crushing towards the speed aspect of the sport, Dennis decided he needed a fibreglass body on his truck. Working closely with a fibreglass company from Tenessee, they made a light-weight all fibreglass body patterned after a 1950 Chevrolet panel van. With the ledgendery paint job, the new breed of Grave Digger trucks where born.

Paublo Huffaker's truck

TRUCK NAME: GRAVE DIGGER 9 Suburban/Ambulance Ride Truck

MAKE: 1950 Ambulance(created in 1993)

ENGINE SIZE: 500 cubic inches Chevy, with an industrial cooling system

INFORMATION: This truck is the Grave Digger ride truck, located at the Grave Digger headquarters at Poplar Branch North Carolina. It is a similar vehicle to the 1950 Panel van of the other Grave Digger trucks. This truck will take 12 passengers, for a small fee of course. All passengers are strapped in & get to go over a monster truck race track. It has an industrial cooling system for the engine to handle the non stop use of the engine, unlike normal monster truck engines which are only used in short bursts during racing.

Check out the offical Grave Digger website.

Check out some more Grave Digger pictures

Check out some more Grave Digger pictures taken at their home

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