St. Cloud Home to Largest Collection of Monster Trucks in USA
ST. CLOUD -- The largest collection of monster trucks in the United States is based right here in St. Cloud.
James Trantina says owning monster trucks started out as a hobby for him back in 2016 and now with 14 trucks in his fleet, it has grown into a business.
One of the trucks is the original USA 1 Monster Truck which is just the first or second truck ever on 66-inch wheels, which he bought about a year ago.
We have the 1988 which is the first world national championship monster truck, along with that we have 10 other performing monster trucks, they call them race trucks in today's world. So those are the ones you see at Monster Jam and the fairs and everywhere else. They are all housed right here in St. Cloud. We have a couple of other display trucks as well.
Some of the other notable names of his trucks include Monster Patrol, Carolina Crusher, and Bear Foot which were all popular at shows throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
He says he is now the largest independent monster truck team in the entire United States.
Most other teams have four trucks and that's what we were planning on being, but with the names that we have and the people that I know our trucks are out every weekend.
Trantina says some of his trucks are racing as far away as Wyoming and Michigan this weekend.
Trantina doesn't have a showroom open to the public just yet, but he is hoping to offer that in the future.
Thursday in the grandstand at the Benton County Fair the Truck Pull starts at 6:00 p.m. The 1970 USA 1 will be was one of the trucks pulling.