Dave Sparks | ||||||||||
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Born | David Sparks January 5, 1985 Utah, US | |||||||||
Other names | Heavy D | |||||||||
Alma mater | Weber State University (withdrew) | |||||||||
Occupations |
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Years active | 2008–present | |||||||||
Organization | DieselSellerz LLC. (CEO) | |||||||||
Television | ||||||||||
YouTube information | ||||||||||
Channel | ||||||||||
Presented by | Dave Sparks | |||||||||
Subscribers | 3.7 million [1] | |||||||||
Total views | 806.4 million [1] | |||||||||
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Last updated: April 13, 2024 |
David Sparks also known as Heavy D, (born January 5, 1985) is an American philanthropist, internet personality, helicopter pilot, world record holder, custom vehicle builder, monster truck driver and author. [2] He is most known for his role on the reality TV show Diesel Brothers, which aired on Discovery Channel. [3] He is also known for his participation in Monster Jam and former owner of conserved Salt Lake island, Fremont Island. [4] [5]
Dave Sparks was born in Utah, US to a military family. [6] [3] He is from Salt Lake City and is the fourth child of his family. His father passed away when Dave was 21 years old. [7] He is of German heritage. [2] He showed an interest in vehicles from a young age, with Auto mechanics being one of his favorite subjects in high school. [8] He began his tertiary education at Webster University at age 21, where he studied welding, mechanics, and fabrication, [9] he withdrew from school after having spent a semester, to kick off his own business. [8]
He started his career splitting time between 2 different occupations; director of marketing for Rockwell Watches, a Utah based watch started by one of his longtime friends Rich Eggett and operating heavy machinery for his uncle and mentor's construction firm before launching his own excavation business. He began as a car enthusiast, kicking off his vehicle customization and fix-it shop for all types of vehicles. This marked the beginning of his career and the careers of his three other friends who took part in Diesel Brothers show. [10] He brought on his friend Diesel Dave and two others, to assist with equipment operations at his company. [11] After posting several videos on YouTube, an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno was fixed and after the show, he was contacted by Discovery Channel for the commencement of the Diesel Brothers. [12] The show is filmed mostly in Woods Cross, Utah, where his studio is located. [13] Some episodes have also been filmed in Salt Lake City and Wendover, Utah. As an internet personality, his Youtube channel has over 3.7 million subscribers and over 800 million views. [14] He has over 10 million followers and over 2 billion views across all social media platforms. [15] During the course of filming Diesel Brothers, he has also worked with actor, Chuck Norris, amongst others. [7] His first build was a 1976 Yamaha YZ80. [16] One of his most well known creations was the Mega Ram Runner, [17] which he designed and created based on a Dodge Ram 3500 and had a Ford 4R100 transmission. [18] The Mega Ram Runner was displayed at the 2014 SEMA Show. Kanye West sold Sparks his customized Ripsaw EV2, following West's relocation from Wyoming. [19] [20] He acquired the Fremont Island as a potential location for his show filming, customization and vehicular activities, [8] however, he resold the island in 2020 after being unable to secure permits to carry out these activities. [5] [4] Also on his show, he converted a Tesla Cybertruck to have snow tracks, amongst others. [21] He has a world record monster truck jump in his personally branded monster truck, The BroDozer. [22] [23] Some of his other stunts are using a flamethrower to thaw a helicopter, [24] driving multiple different vehicles long distances while tipped up on only 2 wheels, and an attempt at jumping a truck from plane; which was canceled due to safety concerns. [25] He is known for his search and rescue resource, and for being able to solve challenging rescue situations with his expert team and specialized equipment. [26] [27] [28]
He is the co-founder and CEO of two automobile companies, DieselSellerz and Sparks Motors. DieselSellerz has its diesel truck classifieds community website, DieselSellerz.com. [29] [30] His third company called Diesel Power, is a lifestyle brand. [6] He became a brand ambassador and partner with brands including Polaris Inc., Sany Equipment, Ariat Boots, BFGoodrich tires, New Holland Construction & Agriculture, [31] and was involved in a collaboration with MLB Network for the Father's Day of 2017 where he built custom Polaris UTV's for an MLB promotion, as well as played in the 2017 MLB Celebrity Softball tournament. [3] [32]
He was hired by Nikola to design the Nikola Badger truck, [33] of which they delved into an attempt at creating a Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. [34] Nikola canceled the Badger project in 2020 and Sparks purchased all of the rights to the Nikola Badger and Powersports programs which he announced via social media in February 2024. He also has mentioned his intention of bringing the Badger FCEV along with electric UTV's and Personal Watercraft to the market under a new brand, EMBR Motors. He participated in 2 episodes of motorsport event Monster Jam; in seasons 16 and 17, alongside Adam Anderson and Grave Digger.
He published the book The Diesel Brothers: A Truckin' Awesome Guide to Trucks and Life in 2017, alongside Diesel Dave. [35] He hosts the annual Heavy Academy conference, where he lectures participants about business strategies and how to inculcate them into their ventures. [36]
He is well known for he and his team's fast response time to assist with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts by flying his rescue helicopter, as well as sending 6 fully loaded semi trucks with various rescue equipment to Houston in August 2018. He helped provide resources and his helicopter in the search for the corpse of teenager Dylan Rounds. [27] [37] He also helped stranded snow victims in California, [38] [28] and additionally rallied others to help. [39] In 2022, he helped the family of late pilot Wayne Wirt extract the remains of the latter's body, [40] as well as the wreckage of his ill-fated airplane the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, after the family had taken to the internet solicit for help due to the high cost of a professional extraction. [41] He paid condolences and assistance to the family of Fremont County, Colorado girl who lost her life from a climbing accident. [42] [43] He does an annual toy drive to gather toys for families in need each Christmas. He also helped a family with broken down truck who were harassed out of their camping space with a makeover. [44] [26] In February 2022, he posted, via his YouTube channel, four videos filmed over 11 days documenting an excavation of a 225-foot (69 m) deep mineshaft within the vicinity of the area husband of disappearance victim Susan Powell claimed to have gone camping the night his wife disappeared. [45] Upon having the remains forensically analyzed, it was concluded that the bones were unlikely to be human. [46]
He is outspoken in his support for Latin American culture and immigrants. [47] [48]
No. overall | Title | Original air date | |
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417 | "Racing and Freestyle from Kansas City, MO" | August 18, 2019 | |
All the racing and freestyle action from Arrowhead Stadium on June 15, 2019. Winners: R: Adam Anderson and Grave Digger and F: Dave 'Heavy D' Sparks and BroDozer Commentators: Scott Jordan and Morgan Kane |
No. overall | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
442 | "Racing and Freestyle from San Diego, CA" | October 2, 2020 | |
All the racing and freestyle action from Arrowhead Stadium on June 15, 2019. Winners: R: Adam Anderson and Grave Digger and F: Dave 'Heavy D' Sparks and BroDozer Commentators: Scott Jordan and Morgan Kane |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Free Willy's" | January 4, 2016 | N/A |
2 | 2 | "Tows Before Bros..." | January 11, 2016 | N/A |
3 | 3 | "Hell Camino" | January 18, 2016 | N/A |
4 | 4 | "Truck vs. Train" | January 25, 2016 | N/A |
5 | 5 | "The Hole-y Grail" | February 1, 2016 | N/A |
6 | 6 | "From Sweden With Love" | February 8, 2016 | N/A |
7 | 7 | "Abominable SnowRam" | February 15, 2016 | N/A |
8 | 8 | "Busting at the SEMA" | February 22, 2016 | N/A |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|
9 | 1 | "Callout Fallout" | January 16, 2017 | N/A |
10 | 2 | "There Will Be Mud" | January 23, 2017 | N/A |
11 | 3 | "Feed the Beast-Mode" | January 30, 2017 | N/A |
12 | 4 | "Hummer Time" | February 6, 2017 | N/A |
13 | 5 | "Motors and Rotors" | February 13, 2017 | N/A |
14 | 6 | "Truck Norris" | February 20, 2017 | N/A |
15 | 7 | "Epic Fail of the Year" | February 27, 2017 | N/A |
16 | 8 | "Somersault" | March 6, 2017 | N/A |
17 | 9 | "Flippin' Diesel" | March 13, 2017 | N/A |
18 | 10 | "Good Bros and Goodbyes" | March 20, 2017 | N/A |
19 | 11 | "Full of Bull" | April 3, 2017 | N/A |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|
20 | 1 | "Race Against the Machine" | September 4, 2017 | N/A |
21 | 2 | "3 Axles and a Baby" | September 11, 2017 | N/A |
22 | 3 | "Snow Job" | September 18, 2017 | N/A |
23 | 4 | "Clash of the Titan" | September 25, 2017 | N/A |
24 | 5 | "Wham, Bam, C10 Slam" | October 2, 2017 | N/A |
25 | 6 | "Thunder or Lightning" | October 9, 2017 | N/A |
26 | 7 | "Not So Easy Rider" | October 16, 2017 | N/A |
27 | 8 | "Bros to the Rescue!" | October 23, 2017 | N/A |
28 | 9 | "Hurricanes, Trucks and Snowmobiles" | October 30, 2017 | N/A |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|
29 | 1 | "Big Bro Bus" | July 30, 2018 | N/A |
30 | 2 | "School Is in Session" | August 7, 2018 | N/A |
31 | 3 | "2 Wheel Drive" | August 13, 2018 | N/A |
32 | 4 | "Yo Soy Diesel" | August 20, 2018 | N/A |
33 | 5 | "Diesel Defender" | August 27, 2018 | N/A |
34 | 6 | "De-Ice Ice Baby" | September 3, 2018 | N/A |
35 | 7 | "Yes Way, Jose" | September 10, 2018 | N/A |
36 | 8 | "Tuff Truck Takedown" | September 17, 2018 | N/A |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|
37 | 1 | "Soar Like a Diesel" | April 8, 2019 | N/A |
38 | 2 | "Diesel Dave is my Co-Pilot" | April 15, 2019 | N/A |
39 | 3 | "Now Departing: Diesel Air" | April 22, 2019 | N/A |
40 | 4 | "Raising Heli" | April 29, 2019 | N/A |
41 | 5 | "Failure to Launch" | May 6, 2019 | N/A |
42 | 6 | "When Trucks Fly" | May 13, 2019 | N/A |
43 | 7 | "Prepare for Liftoff" | May 20, 2019 | N/A |
44 | 8 | "Monster Jump Live" | May 27, 2019 | N/A |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|
45 | 1 | "Diesel Brothers Vs. The World" | December 9, 2019 | N/A |
46 | 2 | "Blazer of Glory" | December 16, 2019 | N/A |
47 | 3 | "Don't Tread on Diesel" | December 23, 2019 | N/A |
48 | 4 | "Detroit Diesel Brothers" | January 6, 2020 | N/A |
49 | 5 | "Get Pitted" | January 6, 2020 | N/A |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|
50 | 1 | "Diesel Nation Celebrates Memorial Day" | May 25, 2020 | N/A |
51 | 2 | "Diesel Nation vs. Zombie Apocalypse" | June 1, 2020 | N/A |
52 | 3 | "Diesel Nation: The Fast and the Famous" | June 8, 2020 | N/A |
53 | 4 | "Diesel Nation Redemption" | June 15, 2020 | N/A |
54 | 5 | "Back with a Kodiak" | June 22, 2020 | N/A |
56 | 6 | "A Kraken Kodiak" | June 29, 2020 | N/A |
57 | 7 | "Release the Kraken" | July 6, 2020 | N/A |
58 | 8 | "Tanks A Lot" | July 13, 2020 | N/A |
59 | 9 | "A Tank, an Eagle and a Brat" | July 20, 2020 | N/A |
60 | 10 | "Brat vs. Eagle" | July 27, 2020 | N/A |
He is married to Ashley Bennett. [49] He resides in Utah. [2] In addition to English, he also speaks Spanish and Portuguese, having gone on a Mormon missionary to Bolivia at age 19. [50] He also traveled to Brazil for missionary work. [12] He threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the Major League Baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers on 18 May 2017. [2]
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particularly through lake-effect snow. It is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water that covered much of western Utah.
Jay's Journal is a 1979 book that was published in a diary format. The book is presented as an autobiographical account of a depressed teenage boy who becomes involved with a Satanic group. After participating in several occult rituals, Jay believes he is being haunted by a demon named "Raul." The book was edited and written by Beatrice Sparks, and is based partly on the life of 16-year-old Alden Barrett from Pleasant Grove, Utah, who died by suicide in 1971. Critics allege Sparks misrepresented Barrett's life and experiences.
A monster truck is a specialized off-road vehicle with a heavy duty suspension, four-wheel steering, large-displacement V8 engines and oversized tires constructed for competition and entertainment uses. Originally created by modifying stock pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs), they have evolved into purpose-built vehicles with tube-frame chassis and fiberglass bodies rather than metal. A competition monster truck is typically 12 feet (3.7 m) tall, and equipped with 66-inch (1.7 m) off-road tires.
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Junius Free Wells was the first head of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, an organization which is today the Young Men organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also was a magazine founder, an author, and the chief organizer of the LDS Church's efforts to build a number of historical monuments in the early 1900s.
Fremont Island is a 2,943.04-acre (11.91 km2) island located in Great Salt Lake in northern Utah, United States. State owned, it is the lake's third largest island after Stansbury Island and Antelope Island. The island has also been known by several other names, including mo'ko-mom-bĭtc, Castle Island, Coffin Island, Disappointment Island, and Miller Island.
The Ripsaw is a series of developmental unmanned ground combat vehicles designed by Howe & Howe Technologies for evaluation by the United States Army.
Susan Marie Powell is an American missing person from West Valley City, Utah, whose disappearance in December 2009, and the subsequent investigation garnered national media attention. Her husband, Joshua Powell, was named by law enforcement a person of interest in her disappearance but he was never charged. Joshua killed himself and the couple's two young sons in February 2012 after custody of the boys had been awarded to Susan's parents.
Nikola Corporation is an American manufacturer of heavy-duty commercial battery-electric vehicles, fuel-cell electric vehicles, and energy solutions. It presented several concept vehicles from 2016 to 2020, the first of which was a natural gas fueled turbine-electric semi truck. The company went public on June 4, 2020. In February 2022, the company projected deliveries of between 300 and 500 of its first battery-electric semitrucks — known as the Nikola Tre — to customers. The company delivered its first two battery-electric trucks in December 2021. Like Tesla, Inc., the company is named in honor of Nikola Tesla, but these are not related to the inventor. Nikola Corporation is based in Phoenix, Arizona.
Diesel Brothers is an American reality television series. The series premiered on January 4, 2016, on Discovery Channel. The program follows a group of friends in Utah who repair and customize pickup trucks.
Trevor Robert Milton is an American convicted felon, former businessman and the founder and former executive chairman and CEO of Nikola Corporation. In September 2020, Milton resigned from his position as executive chairman after the U.S. SEC and Department of Justice began investigating claims that Milton and Nikola committed securities fraud. In July 2021, Milton was indicted by federal prosecutors on three counts of securities fraud and wire fraud and released on $100 million bail. In June 2022, he was charged with another count of wire fraud. In October 2022, he was found guilty on three of the four counts, and received a 4 year prison sentence, a $1 million fine, and may be forced to forfeit part of his property holdings as a part of his sentence.
Blake David Moore is an American politician and former diplomat from the state of Utah. He is the U.S. representative for Utah's 1st congressional district, serving since January 2021. Since November 8, 2023, he has been vice chair of the House Republican Conference.
S. Ryan Smith is an American billionaire businessman and chairman of Smith Entertainment Group. He is the executive chairman and co-founder of Qualtrics, an experience management company based in Provo, Utah. Smith is also owner of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Utah Hockey Club of the National Hockey League (NHL) in Salt Lake City, and co-owner of Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer (MLS) with sports investor David Blitzer.
Micah Potter is an American professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA), on a two-way contract with the Salt Lake City Stars of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers.
Gerald Douglas "Bo" Huff was an American custom car designer and an influential figure in the American Kustom Kulture and hot rod movement. He was known as the "Rockabilly King" in the American custom car scene for his promotion of Kustom Kulture lifestyle, rat rods, and custom cars, and was identified as one of the top 20th and early 21st century American custom car designers.