A friend gave me an 8.5" with Thunder 149s ver. II and I'm enjoying it so far.
Had a disastrous experience with the old geometry 149ers where the wheelbite was so bad it would pitch me. Riding smallish (for me) older wheels on this and it hasn't been an issue on street. We'll see about transition and if I can say the same with fresh 54mm wheels.
Turning is almost as good as my regular Venture 5.2 Highs and being so low I haven't had a single ghost pop. I still think I prefer a slightly narrower board but I'm going to fool around on this for a while.
TL;DR: I liked a 5 year old truck redesign.
I have quite a few older sets of trucks including some of those Thunders.
Coming from other taller trucks I ride medium to loose and bigger wheels, I found that risers were a must, even just the thin rubber ones made such a difference and I could skate them "normally" without getting wheelbite and actually being able to turn with them, running stock bushings and untouched kingpin nut.
How does risers affect the turn of a truck?
Will it turn more with risers or just lean more?
Having risers, even just 1mm thin rubber ones, or at most the 1/8 height with regular sized wheels makes a huge difference to everything, so yes you can turn a lot more without wheelbite stopping the turn, but that is combined with bushings that will allow the turn as well.
No use having any risers at all with crazy tight trucks that are a struggle to turn.
One thing I often don't say unless I am helping someone face to face, but what makes a big difference too is by putting more weight on the back truck as you turn, rather than the front truck. If you have more weight on the front truck, you are going to wheelbite and stop, but more weight on the back truck and you are more likely to be able to turn well without wheelbite, or if you do have a bit, it will not stop you dead and more likely just slow you down a bit.