This four-door Crew Cab short-box...
This four-door Crew Cab short-box has been given the treatment by Bigfoot 4x4, although one can obviously tell when it reaches the height of a two-story apartment building. The front fenders and rear bedsides are actually fiberglass and add a 3 3/4-inch extension to the body. Front and rear bumpers are from Trail Ready, and the front houses a 15,000-pound winch—as if this truck is going to get stuck anytime soon. Overlaying this array of subtle body mods is a show-stopping hue from Dupont called Hot-Poppy Red with a matte clear finish. It turned out to be one of the most talked about paintjobs at SEMA, where this vehicle—not so subtly—made its debut.
There is no name more synonymous with monster trucks than Bigfoot. Mention the term formerly associated with a giant, ape-like creature taking strolls through Oregon forests, and one is nowadays immediately struck with the image of a black-and-green pickup with 6-foot wheels launching skyward as it leaps over and flattens a row of junked-out cars, sometimes taking a detour through the empty grandstands afterward.
While the race trucks we’re so familiar with are built from the ground up, this streetable version is based on a stock ‘08 Chevrolet HD Duramax. Midwest Four-Wheel Drive in Hazelwood, Missouri, is known as the Home of the Bigfoot, due to its involvement in the program since day one. A.J. Straatman and the rest of the crew brought the truck in brand-spankin’-new and immediately tore the suspension and steering components off. If you look closely, you can see that it has been removed and replaced with a four-link setup. Doing so required welding a massive upside-down C-notch onto the stock frame and resulted in a huge lift without it looking like the truck is on stilts.
While the 30-inch lift might be obvious, the modifications to the body are not. The Bigfoot team also scrapped the removable body panels and the interior and even sent the cab off to the stereo shop to have the console installed. While the interior bits were eventually replaced with custom panels and such, the priciest addition of the entire build would be the installation of fiberglass body panels that came to around $10,000. This isn’t so outrageous when you consider the entire build totaled $350,000. So much for being in a recession.
 While the body is a stunner,...  While the body is a stunner, like most trucks, it’s what elevates and suspends the body that really makes the vehicle. If you pull up to a drive-thru in this bad boy, they’re going to look at the triangulated four-link suspension boxed frame and Eibach coilovers with more than a foot of lift front and back, before they actually reach up as far as they can to hand you a bag of soft tacos, or chalupas, whatever the case may be. This thing has been lifted 30 inches! What more can we say? |  |  Powering these not-so-subtle...  Powering these not-so-subtle 6½-inch speakers is a Sony Xplod mounted on top of the custom console. The same type of amp powers the three 10-inch subs mounted in the console. The cabin is also replete with the necessary baller accoutrements, including seven screens. As one can imagine, footage of Bigfoot annihilating cars is shown on the screens. |
The rest of the loot is obviously tied up in the undercarriage. To accomplish this massive lift and four-wheel steering, a mock-up of the suspension cradle was created with cardboard and masking tape. While the cradle was being constructed, the front and rear fiberglass fenders got fitted. As soon as the cradle was finished, the axles were set up under the vehicle so the four-link could be designed and built. It took two weeks to do the truss work on the axles. As the crew completed one cradle, they designed the steering on the other and vice versa.
To modify the motor, they did an extraction that resembled Blackhawk Down and added the power-adding goodies and the tranny. After that, it was time for the paint. This part of the process proved to be one of the most difficult parts of the build. The matte clear over the Hot-Poppy Red and black has to be laid perfectly and without a speck of dirt, because if you try to buff anything out, it goes all shiny on you.
The entire process took about 15 weeks. One reason it was able to be done this quickly was because the folks at Midwest Four-Wheel Drive were able to borrow a chassis from GM in order to assemble the body for paint. It’s not every day you can just grab a spare chassis from GM headquarters, but when you’ve got a head-turning show truck to be built on deadline for SEMA, a few screws can be turned.
 |  Color-coding of the exterior’s...  Color-coding of the exterior’s titillating color continues in the cabin with the panels painted Hot-Poppy Red. There’s also a custom rear seat install by Midwest Four-Wheel Drive that allows up to 12 giddy passengers to crowd in the back. |  To handle the extra power...  To handle the extra power being sent to the car-crushing tires, additional internal clutches, increased line pressure, and a multidisc converter have been mated to the Allison six-speed automatic. Of course, the torque doesn’t stop at the tranny, so single-CV custom driveshafts have been added to the equation. As you can see, the package does a good job of transferring the power, kicking up a lot of dust in the process. |
 While the 6.6L Duramax diesel...  While the 6.6L Duramax diesel had plenty of grunt from the factory, a little more was required for this particular application. To accomplish this, Industrial Injection added a CP3 injection pump, Dragon Flow injectors, and a modified turbo. These upgrades, plus a Magnaflow 4-inch stainless exhaust and a Pure Power filter, enable the motor to churn out an estimated 800 hp and 1,200 lb-ft of torque. Of course, this figure is also achieved by the removal of the DPF and a custom diesel “clean burn” tune from SoCal Diesel. |  Bigfoot attracts attention...  Bigfoot attracts attention even in the middle of the desert. Here an ultralight flyer swoops in for a closer look. |  |
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