Stop Skating The Wrong Trucks

Bro...thank you so much for what you do. Not only are your videos informative, but the fact you break stuff down in actual applicable ways without being imposing or over the top is what sets you aside feom the others. I skate a lot of freestyle and truck size is absolutely crucial and under-rated in street skating. I still skate my slappy curb from your how to video. You are doing a great service to the skate community.

I love thunder 149's on 8.25 boards with 52mm wheels, just feels so perfect

So I’m finishing up the rest of the video and I noticed a couple things, first, you said, “I can’t really turn really good yet, but it’s because my bushings aren’t broken in”. And second, you said, “don’t tighten your trucks”, then you tightened yours two turns and suggested tightening them two more turns. This is where your theories about what’s what are proving themselves to be contradictory, and false, when actual physics are applied. Your board doesn’t turn well not because of your bushing not being broken in, otherwise you wouldn’t tighten them two turns and maybe even two more. You can clearly see when you are riding that the wider truck is more stable and thus doesn’t want to respond when you want to turn quickly. I can clearly see it’s the issue that hangs you up in several tricks you don’t ride away from because the truck lacks immediate responsiveness to your weight distribution and by the time it’s responding you’re already off balance because you were forced to over lean to try to get your truck to turn. I think at the end of the day, it’s more about your personal preference about how your board is supposed to look in your mind. And I agree, flushed up it looks nicer. I don’t think they skate as well for skaters who like their boards to be responsive, or for skaters who are flip trick or flat bar dominant skaters.

I used to try to “rail match” the axel to the deck, but Ishod and Ben Degros both skate trucks that are slightly narrower than their boards. When I tried it, I found it helped me with landing kickflips. It all depends on your goals and preferences.

I tried Louie and Mason’s setup with having a quarter size larger trucks than the deck. I learned that popping treflips are much easier for height opposed to those who are used to scooping them and saying that it helps to size a quarter down if you choose to scoop your treflips. BUT this can only work with trucks that bring in your wheelbase like Indy’s, ACE, and Slappy trucks

It’s all preference. I skate Indy 169 (9.125 axle width) on 8.5/8.6 decks. I definitely prefer to have my trucks wider than my deck.

I ride a Santa Cruz/Santa Monica Airlines Natas Kaupus board with Thunder 151's which is exactly what Natas rode for his entire skateboarding career. Good enough for Natas, good enough for Bob.

You and Al are big reasons why I got AF1s in the first place. Best looking and best turning truck and I love both of you guy's skating. I've been experimenting with Thunders, Ventures and Tensors over the past year though too and ended the year having last skated Ventures. But now I'm back and feeling like I'm done experimenting and have settled on 55 AF1s on a 8.625" deck although they are currently sat on an 8.5 and it definitely feels like there's just a tiny bit of axle missing for it to sit just flush with the deck. I mean that could of course also be the deck, they aren't always the exact width they claim to be either. Personally I've been riding the Hard replacement bushings because I'm Big Al sized and I just feel like I just need that extra stability but still have the weight to get a good turn out of them.

Great info Zack. I see skateshops sell the wrong size trucks to kids when they get completes ALL the time, so it's great that you're putting this info out here. I just recently saw a kid at the park who had just had a shop set a complete for him. They put indy 139's on like at least an 8.5 board(might have been bigger even). It was ridiculous. I asked the kid to ride his board. It turned so wrong and when you were riding it , it felt like a hoverboard the wheels were so far in. It felt so unstable. That's not gonna help that kid learn to skate at all. That's just an example, but I see it a lot. I like to just see the edge of my wheels. Fantastic video man!

Always wax or speed cream your pivot cups for ultra quiet riding no matter the truck!

for the nuts with little space, you can invert the nut and the wheels will be more secure

trucks narrower than board is easier to flip/scoop. it's personal preference, both setups (wide or narrow trucks) have their place and pros/cons. it's worth mentioning that wheel width matters too, as far as deck width vs wheel contact patch width(outer edge-outer edge)vs width of trucks. i have several setups and they're all over the place.

8’75 deck + 9’ trucks works perfect! Fitment is awesome, thanks 🫶

If you want stability, you want trucks to be wider, and wide or offset wheels. In particular you get stability on certain grinds like crooks/fs crooks, though they would be worse for something like a heelside locked 5050 on a rail. If you wanna flip your board, trucks as wide or even slightly smaller than the deck and narrower wheels are what you want. I bet your 360 flip struggle would immediately end if you put less wide trucks on. I've never heard anyone ride the front truck tighter than the back, that's really weird man.

lots of comments about street setups already so I'll just add as a (sometimes) freestyler that when you set up a freestyle deck you want to get undersized trucks and offset wheels, ones where there is no wheel sticking out past the inside bearing and the outside bearing is seated deep into the wheel. And even then, ideally you should still have the width from wheel edge to wheel edge across the truck be a bit undersized so you can then use washers to push the wheels out until your board is perfectly balanced in rail. When I first got my board setup this way, I tried a kickflip and it landed primo and I perfectly stuck the landing. Currently skating a 7.3" freestyle deck with a set of Paris 108's, Powell Nano Cubic wheels, and about 7 washers on every axle. Honestly the trucks are right on the very brink of being too small, but I have just enough space left on the axle, and with the offset wheel, the nuts never touch the ground anyway, so I'm not too worried about them coming off even with them hanging on by about a thread and a half.

I skate a 8.125 boards for flipping in and out of tricks and 8.0 inde trucks with the "old cross logo that is a higher quality metal on ebay" with a slightly looser front truck so primo becomes impossible when skating sets. Indie trucks bushings are the best for the first few months, but if you want to pop flip out of ledges bones bushings are kings for that with the bounce they have. Also for breaking in bushings set it up super loose and sit at your computer desk and just rock the bushings back and fourth for a day while sitting to get them 100% broken in properly. Been skating for 24 years now take from this and the skate footage on my channel to judge for yourself.

Wheelbase actually makes the most difference in turning and everything! In the last year i rode 8.0, 8.25, and 8.7 and makes very little difference but i borrowed a 8.5 longer deck longer wheelbase and it made it so hard to skate for me

Dan Corrigan turned me on to wider trucks. 159 Indys or 151 Thunders on a 8.5 makes complete sens to me. Stability, real estate and overall skating looks better.

I like your videos, but I think your video would be better if it were something along the lines of “Why I prefer to size up my trucks.” I don’t like that you suggest that sizing your axle size to your board size is incorrect just because it’s your own personal preference. For someone who skates more flip trick oriented skating, having your axles stick out wider than your board isn’t ideal. Axles sticking out can kind of get in the way of slappies and wall rides as well. You’re definitely onto something when you say that having bigger trucks than your board make it feel more stable. It reduces the amount of leverage you get by leaning and gives you more precise control over your weight distribution. The extra precision comes at the cost of responsiveness. The opposite example of your skateboard is a polarizer. Those boards are 6 inches and have 4.5 inch trucks. The reason they are so squirrelly is because the extra leverage of the board over the wheels makes the turning extra sensitive. In this case, its extra responsiveness comes at the cost of precision. Just think of a diving board. If you only take a step or two out past the ladder and jump, the diving board isn’t going to spring up and down as much. But if you step out all the way to the end, the board becomes much more springy with even the slightest press of your feet. When it comes to skateboards turning (grinding is a whole other story), having your board smaller than your trucks is essentially chopping down your diving board so that you have more smooth and precise movements. That’s cool if it’s what you like, but I want my board to be more balanced. I think axle size should generally match up to board size when it comes to popsicle boards. But skateboarding is all personal preference. If you want your board more stable and precise, go with wider trucks. If you want quicker and more responsive turns, go smaller. But wouldn’t ever recommend anything over .25 inches wider or smaller. Tippy boards are weird. But then again, that’s just my personal preference. And since my comment is already too long, you kind of have incorrect information about wheelbases too. Ace trucks don’t actually make your wheelbase shorter. The axles would have to come down and sit past the baseplate and more towards the center of the board to do that. They only make your wheelbase shorter WHEN COMPARED TO OTHER TRUCKS LIKE THUNDERS (I’m not yelling, I just don’t know how to make words bold).

I think that decks being 0.125" wider than axles is really nice.