The spooky spider was created by Automotive Event Specialists (AES) of Corona, CA, using trussing provided by Global Truss America. It was the brainchild of AES's Ernie Beckham, who was commissioned to create a display sponsored by Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge to showcase six vehicles at the entrance to the festival.
"We decided to do something scary and Halloween-ish instead of going with an automotive-related display," said Beckham. "We wanted something that would really make an impact, so I started playing around with different designs. The spider just popped into my head." A distributor for Global Truss, Beckham knew how versatile the company's trussing could be. He let his imagination run free, using the product like Lego to come up with the spider's ingeniously simple design.
Square trussing was used to fashion the creature's eight legs. The body was made from 20'circle truss covered with a 2" fabricated aluminum dome. For the head, "we used a 3' piece of truss, which we bent and formed with conduit," Beckham detailed. The spider's piercing eyes consisted of Par 56 par cans covered with plastic salad bowls.
AES did a dry run putting together the spider prior to the festival, but when the actual event came, they had a window of only three hours to set the entire structure up. "We did it with six guys, which was incredible for the size of the structure," said Beckham. This relatively small work crew was able to get the job done within the allotted timeframe, mainly because of the ease with which Global Truss products can be assembled, explained Beckham.
Another benefit of Global Truss trussing is that it is TÜV-approved. This widely recognised safety seal of approval helped AES obtain the necessary permits from Los Angeles County.
The truss spider turned out not only to be one of the star attractions at the festival, it also drew considerable media attention. It was featured on the local NBC station, which sent out a news helicopter to take aerial shots.
Ken Kahn, national sales manager for Global Truss, said he was delighted by the innovative way AES used his company's trussing to create the show-stopping Halloween display. "I guess this shows how amazingly versatile our truss is," commented Kahn. "Our truss has been used for a lot of different things over the years - but this is the first time it's ever been considered 'scary.'"
(Chris Henry)
