Mini-Motor Monster Truck

Mini-Motor Monster Truck Most monster truck projects don’t start with tires, but Chris Floerkey’s did. When he saw a pair of 5-ft. tall fat tires for only $165 at a local auction, it was too good a deal to pass up. Finding a use for them was the challenge. “I looked at my project trucks, thinking I could put them on one,” says Floerkey. “I mounted them on my little Mazda pickup truck, and everyone who saw it grinned ear-to-ear.” The repower required cutting out the hub pattern on the 26-in. wheels and welding the 15-in. Mazda hubs into place. He also used the same clutch rebuilding process that he had developed for repowering his Farmall H. Floerkey has a YouTube channel for videos of projects he undertakes. Most of them involve repowering cars, a tractor (Vol. 49, No. 3) and the Mazda with Predator go-cart engines. The big wheel Mazda video was successful enough that it paid for the wheels. It gave him the incentive to go big on all four wheels. This time, a pair of used fat tires set him back $1,500. However, he quickly realized he would have to cut away too much of the cab to make room for the oversized front wheels. “I had an old Ford F350 wrecker that belonged to my granddad,” says Floerkey. “The body was eaten up, but the heavy-duty frame was still good. I got rid of the old wrecker bed and scrapped the cab too.” He repowered the big Ford with a 6 1/2-hp Predator 212 engine. As with the Mazda, he mounted the F350 hubs in the 26-in. wheels and rebuilt the clutch to mount a chain drive from the Predator driveshaft to the F350 drive. “I built a platform big enough for a seat and mounted a new firewall on the original brake system, minus the booster,” says Floerkey. “I kept the original steering, but knew it would be impossible to turn with the big tires. I ran a power steering pump off the input shaft of the Predator, and it worked flawlessly.” While it topped out at 18 mph on the flat, it couldn’t crawl up a small hill, so Floerkey fired up his video camera again. This time, he swapped out the Predator for an 18-hp DuroMax 440. With the DuroMax, the top speed was around 24 mph. While satisfied, Floerkey was curious about trying a larger Predator. He picked up a Predator 459. While about 2 hp less than the DuroMax, he found little difference in how it ran. To see details on the build, as well as further modifications Floerkey has planned for the monster truck, check out his YouTube video channel. To date, he has posted 259 videos and has 26,400 subscribers. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Chris Floerkey, Danville, Ala. (ph 256-303-0696; ckeyfarm@gmail.com; YouTube: Keyfarm).

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