surprised to see all the hot rod dissent on here. you do realize the current SOTY rides this exact setup? primitive 8.25" with Thunder 149s.
Jamie Foy also uses a setup similar to this i believe (i think 8.5 on 151s).
Dan Corrigan rides hot rod as well (i only know this cause i watched the video with Ben Degros) and he talks about how doing fs crook feels super easy on hot rod because you can see exactly where the front wheel is so you have a visual of the pinch vs. magic carpet you do not.
It definitely adds more weight to your setup and flips slower, but its a more stable setup for the most part. i personally just cant stand the way it looks! to the point i wont ride it! but I totally get the functionality.
Foy used to do it. Stopped when he started riding twins. Does 8.5 w 149s now.
With that said, 8.5 with 151s (8.75”) is the shit. My favorite setup for sure, and I set up all my boards like this, whether they’re twins or not. Have for years now. So stable, so rad, and honestly looks like it fits better to me than an 8.5” board with an 8.5” axle. With a quarter inch wider truck, your wheels basically come all the way out to the edge of your board, maybe just a hair wider. Looks way more normal to me than equal axle and board width.