To all those who said it couldn’t be done: monster trucks, and this 8-wheeled Chevy Silverado known as Monstermax in particular, can drive in the ocean.
This is the latest stunt from Cody Detwiler and his team at WhistlinDiesel, from Indiana. Detwiler was recently in Florida and, on the occasion, was able to try out one of his wildest, oldest dreams: drive his daily into the ocean, with the fishes and the boats.
Monstermax is no regular monster truck, though. The latest iteration of it, which was used for this stunt, is an 8-wheel, double-axis vehicle that sits on 36-inch tires. It’s those tires that helped it successfully float in the waters near the Atlantic Ocean in Florida, between Longboat Key and Bradenton Beach.
The video details the entire stunt, from the moment the crew unloaded Monstermax from its trailer and proceeded to put those massive tires on it and an officer of some sort came by to let them know they couldn’t park a vehicle at the boat docking ramp. Detwiler’s reply was that the truck was “an aquatic vessel” since it had boat numbers, road registration and life jackets, and that they would be taking it fishing.
The stunt itself took place before the police and the coast guard had any chance to stop it. Detwiler drove the truck into the water, with a helicopter and a drone in the sky to capture the footage, and a boat as backup, in case he needed towing back. He made his way at a speed of about 0.5 knots (0.57 mph / 0.9 kph), went under a draw bridge and was just about to head into the actual ocean when he was told the boat number he’d given officers “didn’t come back to a 2006 Chevy Silverado 2500.”
And that was true, Detwiler says, admitting that he didn’t know he had to register the actual truck as a boat. He’s given them the registration of a boat, not of the truck. He was fined $70 for it – the only reprimand he got for the stunt, which brought at the scene cops, the Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Natural Resources, together with countless Floridians who wanted to see the floating truck.
You can see the stunt in full below. It’s truly something else.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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