Monster Jam trucks fine-tuned at Palmetto-based Feld Entertainment

MANATEE -- Frank Krmel has a pretty cool job. He drives a company vehicle, but no matter how much he bangs it up, even if he flips it over and lands it on its roof, his bosses don't yell at him.

"It's great," Krmel said. "I can crash it and no one says anything."

Krmel, who lives in Parrish, drives a truck called Cleatus. Cleatus is part of Monster Jam, the monster truck tour run by Palmetto-based Feld Entertainment.

Right now, about 30 Monster Jam trucks are in the shop at Feld Entertainment Studios. Some are in pieces, some are already on a trailer, all set to hit the road. Shop workers are making sure the tricks are fit, inside and out, to perform in front of huge crowds in stadiums all over the country, in a season that runs until March.

Each trucks weighs about 10,000 pounds. Even the tires weigh about 600 pounds apiece. When the tires have outlived their monster truck usefulness, they go to Feld's elephant preserve, where they become toys for the elephants.

This won't be the last time these trucks are in the shop during the season. Carl Van Horn, who drives Grave Digger, perhaps the most famous monster truck of them all, says his truck is in the shop every couple of weeks.

"We'll put a new shell on it every couple of weeks," Van Horn said. "Sometimes every week. It just depends on how hard we've crashed."

Grave Digger holds almost legendary status in the world of monster trucks, Van Horn said.

"The creator of Grave Digger, Dennis Anderson, was the guy who invented freestyle, which seems to be what everybody loves most about our sport," Van Horn said.

Monster Jam events consist of two competitions: a race, and a freestyle competition, in which trucks bounce, jump, turn donuts, perform wheelies and even do backflips, with each driver trying to outdo the other. Anderson pioneered freestyle.

Nine Grave Digger trucks travel around the country, each with its own driver and each on a different Monster Jam tour. When repairs are needed, which is often, they're fixed at Feld in Palmetto.

Two different Monster Jam tours will come to Tampa's Raymond James Stadium this season, and each will include a Grave Digger. Van Horn's Grave Digger will be there Feb. 6. On Jan. 16, a different Grave Digger will be at Raymond James Stadium, driven by Adam Anderson, Dennis Anderson's son.

Grave Digger has the biggest following on the Monster Jam circuit. At the Monster Jam World Championships in Las Vegas every year, it's not unusual for as many as five Grave Diggers to compete against each other.

There's only one Cleatus, but Krmel said it gets a lot of attention wherever it goes.

"It's the Fox Sports truck," he said "People recognize the robot from Sunday football."

Cleatus the Robot, as many sports fans know, is the mascot of Fox NFL Sunday. His image festoons the skin of Cleatus the monster truck.

Some trucks have names meant to be intimidating such as Grave Digger. (Dennis Anderson built his first truck from junk parts, Van Horn said and, when other drivers made fun of it, he told them he would use his pile of junk to dig the graves for their trucks.

There's another called El Diablo. One truck used only for exhibitions is called Crush Cancer.

Some names are more benign such as Scooby Doo. While Grave Digger is painted in black and bright colors, Scooby Doo is a nondescript brown, like its namesake. It's all up to the car's sponsor.

Van Horn, who lives in Gibsonton, and Krmel say they usually have aches and pains all through the Monster Jam season, but haven't had any serious injuries. Trucks are getting safer all the time, they said.

Years ago, whiplash was a common problem. Now there's no chance of whiplash, and little chance of injury, even when trucks flip onto their roofs, which happens often.

"You're in there so tight you can't move anything but your eyes," Krmel said.

Performance is enhanced every year, too, they said.

Van Horn said when he started 13 years ago, it was considered outrageous if a monster truck could jump 15 feet into the air.

"Everything has evolved," Van Horn said. "Now we're jumping 30 feet."

He points to steel beams, far overhead in the Monster Jam shop, to show how high 30 feet is.

"Pretty soon they'll be jumping 60 feet."

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Monster Jam trucks fine-tuned at Palmetto-based Feld Entertainment ."