Wheelbase on your trucks

[DarkPools]

For me:

- WB too short = faster turn "bottoming out" or wheel biting quickly or not feeling turny enough
- WB longer = gradual turn with no "bottoming out" too fast and more stable. Also the turns are more fluid and consistent
- WB too short = spin tricks spin too fast. Board feels "squirrelly" so no stability and pop timing comes too fast to control properly
- WB longer = reliable snap in pop and easier to control. Not too delayed or too quick.
- Indys provide that balance of stability & response in regards to their effect on WB in my experience for how I like to skate

All of that is hinged on the decks WB and length. Boards too short in WB and length with Indys do all the negative things I mentioned above. While, boards with longer WB and length do all the positive things I mentioned above with my Indys.

[Slave IV]

Ok, I’ve heard Royals get mentioned too often here lately and now my madness is kicking in. Where do they sit on the wheelbase chart?

How is the general feel for them in terms of turning, pinch, kingpin clearance, wheelbite. I know these other questions belong elsewhere but wouldnt hurt if I could get the whole picture here.

[tzhangdox]

Ok, I’ve heard Royals get mentioned too often here lately and now my madness is kicking in. Where do they sit on the wheelbase chart?

How is the general feel for them in terms of turning, pinch, kingpin clearance, wheelbite. I know these other questions belong elsewhere but wouldnt hurt if I could get the whole picture here.

I was tempted by them recently so lurked the old royal threads, this is what I recall, could be wrong and I've never owned them so take this with a grain of salt:

Wheelbase should be something like an indy forged give or take a bit I believe

More kingpin clearance than ace/thunders I think, but not a crazy amount like ventures. Maybe indy ish if not slightly better?

Pinch sounds solid, not quite thunder or venture good, but maybe slightly better than indy?

Turn is good apparently, something between indy thunder and venture I think

Baseplate is a little catchy at first apparently

Bushings come really loose out the gate so you either have to crank em after breaking in if you dont ride loose trucks, or apparently ace hards serve as good alternatives.

No idea though, decided not to go through with it. Maybe if they were polished and didn't say Royal I would have be down lol

[Slave IV]

Expand Quote

Ok, I’ve heard Royals get mentioned too often here lately and now my madness is kicking in. Where do they sit on the wheelbase chart?

How is the general feel for them in terms of turning, pinch, kingpin clearance, wheelbite. I know these other questions belong elsewhere but wouldnt hurt if I could get the whole picture here.

[close]

I was tempted by them recently so lurked the old royal threads, this is what I recall, could be wrong and I've never owned them so take this with a grain of salt:

Wheelbase should be something like an indy forged give or take a bit I believe

More kingpin clearance than ace/thunders I think, but not a crazy amount like ventures. Maybe indy ish if not slightly better?

Pinch sounds solid, not quite thunder or venture good, but maybe slightly better than indy?

Turn is good apparently, something between indy thunder and venture I think

Baseplate is a little catchy at first apparently

Bushings come really loose out the gate so you either have to crank em after breaking in if you dont ride loose trucks, or apparently ace hards serve as good alternatives.

No idea though, decided not to go through with it. Maybe if they were polished and didn't say Royal I would have be down lol

Thanks! They sound very middle of the line, like Slappy, which were the next trucks in line if I was going to buy another set. Main difference sounds like Royals are lower (than Slappy standards) and don’t have the kingpin clearance that Slappy emphasizes. I think Royal might be generally lighter as well, which was another thing that caught my attention about them.

[Obijuan91]

Royals are middle of the line af and that’s what makes em good. Mid height. Wheelbase in between Indy standard and Indy forged. Pivot cups are gushy in a good way. Even with ace hards they still have a nice turn to them but not twitchy

[Slave IV]

Royals are middle of the line af and that’s what makes em good. Mid height. Wheelbase in between Indy standard and Indy forged. Pivot cups are gushy in a good way. Even with ace hards they still have a nice turn to them but not twitchy

Thanks! Again, they are sounding a lot like Slappy’s with the main differences being weight, height and kingpin clearance. I’ll move to the truck thread for follow-up on this but thanks for all the feedback here. I also rewatched the Ben Degros video that was posted in the Royal thread.


For this thread, I would be curious still to see measurements or just the numbers for the wheelbase effect.

[swongolianbbq]

I want to try thunders, and a lot of people were saying the wheelbase on cast thunders is the same as forged indys, when in my experience, forged and cast indys both have the same wheelbase. And I've seen a lot of indys where they're drilled like shit. That would definitely increase wheelbase by a little hahaj

Measured my forged hollow Indy 149s

Measured my deck wheelbase first and it's bang on 14"

Measured both sides and evened it out, subtracted 14, and I got 3.028"

So a hair less than 3 and 1/32"

Pretty sure Indy forged and cast are supposed to be the same wb, and the discrepancies folks are getting is either due to how they're measuring, or the baseplate holes were drilled in a slightly different spot. I've seen many indys over the years where the holes are drilled so close to the inside edge of the baseplate, the hardware nuts hang over so much. Early 2000s I saw a pair that pulled right through there from loose hardware

Seen a stage 11 set last year like that. Standards. I could see their wb measuring 3.125" hahaha

Definitely interested in trying thunders again, as the boards I usually ride are 19° kicks and 14" wb.

[Mbrimson88]

I want to try thunders, and a lot of people were saying the wheelbase on cast thunders is the same as forged indys, when in my experience, forged and cast indys both have the same wheelbase. And I've seen a lot of indys where they're drilled like shit. That would definitely increase wheelbase by a little hahaj

Measured my forged hollow Indy 149s

Measured my deck wheelbase first and it's bang on 14"

Measured both sides and evened it out, subtracted 14, and I got 3.028"

So a hair less than 3 and 1/32"

Pretty sure Indy forged and cast are supposed to be the same wb, and the discrepancies folks are getting is either due to how they're measuring, or the baseplate holes were drilled in a slightly different spot. I've seen many indys over the years where the holes are drilled so close to the inside edge of the baseplate, the hardware nuts hang over so much. Early 2000s I saw a pair that pulled right through there from loose hardware

Seen a stage 11 set last year like that. Standards. I could see their wb measuring 3.125" hahaha

Definitely interested in trying thunders again, as the boards I usually ride are 19° kicks and 14" wb.

I think for me Thunders work on any slightly shorter wheelbase deck with longer kicks, when compared to my usual Indy setups.  The Thunder truck definitely pushes things out a fair bit more, so the axles almost lined up with Thunder on 14.2 wb as my Indy on 14.5 but there are any number of factors that could make that inaccurate.

The main thing is Thunder being lower and longer wheelbase, I feel the difference in popping more than anything, along with the Thunder turn taking longer than any Indy turn.

When I have shorter wheelbases on boards with Thunders, I can get a quicker turn and then things work more "normally" for me, but I will usually have to run a little extra height and or add wheel wells to any board with Thunder trucks too, as I am used to leaning however far with a definite point where I lean to on Indy without getting wheelbite, whereas doing the same on Thunder, I lean too much with no risers or wheel wells.


Thunder can and do work really well, but I just had to adjust how I skated.  Some people don't want to adjust how they skate, while others will have to adjust the setup to work better for them, which is what I did.

[swongolianbbq]

Just typed a whole ass reply and it got scrapped somehow when i hit post. Ill re-write it later but i agree on a couple points there for sure


Edit

It said some stuff about how i like mellow kicks, and that could affect pop in a similar way to long kicks

And how im trying to find a truck based on boards i like

14" wb drilled on the same mold as 14.25" +, i think thunders and ventures work well

Like the bbs 8.25 short blanks

And how the dlx true fit mold decks are interesting because theyll be short wheelbase but with the fingers of flat and pop feel of 14.25+ wb... like the whole thing is scaled down instead of just the same mold, drilled in a bit.

Also i wonder about the short-ass tail on the real red oval board. Back in the early 2000s when i learned 360 flips it was on a short, tapered tail Habitat and thunder 147 hi voltage

[Jort250]

I’m coming back to the Thunder after a 1.5 year… Venture (har har)

In terms of matching wheelbase with trucks, what do folks usually like? I generally used the following but am open to hearing other experiences

Ace: 14.38
Indy: 14.25
Thunder: 14.1
Venture: 13.9-14

[Mbrimson88]

Just typed a whole ass reply and it got scrapped somehow when i hit post. Ill re-write it later but i agree on a couple points there for sure

If that happens again, just hit back twice, then post.  It should take you back to where you were with all your text still there.

Happens to me a fair bit and that is what I do, no issues after that.

[Mbrimson88]

I’m coming back to the Thunder after a 1.5 year… Venture (har har)

In terms of matching wheelbase with trucks, what do folks usually like? I generally used the following but am open to hearing other experiences

Ace: 14.38
Indy: 14.25
Thunder: 14.1
Venture: 13.9-14

Yes!

That could be a fairly easy way to state the info, which would make those boards similar all up, maybe more so 14.5 for Ace and Thunder T-II trucks.

I used to skate Indy on my 14.5 boards too, but I found if I bring in the back truck just a little, it makes it so much easier for me, mainly since seeing how Thunder T-II trucks sit with their baseplates in a bit more too, so I redrilled Indy to be about that and now I think I prefer that, but I also prefer longer tails too.

I think this also applies a bit more easily to boards between 8.25 and 8.5 but I guess increasingly there are more short wheelbase boards coming out in most sizes too.

All up a number of boards in smaller sizes tend to have shorter wheelbases, bigger boards are more likely to have longer wheelbases, but even mixing things up a bit, if a bigger or wider board has been pressed on a shorter mold, I have to bring in those trucks no matter what brand they are, but that might be changing the subject too much, or be better in the Madness thread.

[swongolianbbq]

I’m coming back to the Thunder after a 1.5 year… Venture (har har)

In terms of matching wheelbase with trucks, what do folks usually like? I generally used the following but am open to hearing other experiences

Ace: 14.38
Indy: 14.25
Thunder: 14.1
Venture: 13.9-14

I thought about it

If say, 8.5" axle trucks and 8.25-8.5" decks with 14.25" wheelbase is "industry standard"

I think any of the 8.5 trucks available are proportionate enough to work on pretty much anything, but some stuff might be too extreme for certain people, though others may really like it. Like Chad Tim Tim on 14" wb + AF1 44s, for example, or Jaebs indy 144 + 13.875" wb situation

So, pretty much any truck should work well on 14.25

For ~14" wb, i think venture and thunder are a good fit, but indy or lurpiv would still work good too

For ~14.5" wb, stuff like Ace, indy stg 4, or thunder T2s make sense to me, but indy stg 11s or lurpivs would also work


14-14.125 - venture, thunder

14.25 - any

14.375-14.5 - ace, t2, stg 4

I think stage 11s/lurpivs should work well across almost any wheelbase, as long as the axle is 8.5" or wider to keep it from being tippy, since they're pretty tall trucks

For 7.5-8.25" axle - thunder and venture

For 8.5" axle - anything

For 8.75" axle and up - ace, t2, stg 4


Obviously anything works, but there are extremes that might trip somebody up

You can do whatever you want but this sorta rationale helps me pick shit out that i know im not gonna hate

Like if you want a lot of stability and explosive, weighty pop, by all means slap some venture 6.1s and ~56mm wheels on a ~14.5 wb deck

The possibilities are endless, but my paycheck aint...

I see all kinds of different info out there, but this is kinda whay i got in my head, please correct me if its wrong or help me make it more specific:

~2.75" - ace, indy stg 4, thunder t2
~3" - indy stg 11, lurpiv
~3.125" - thunder team
~3.125+" - thunder forged
~3.25" - venture
~3.25+" - venture forged

Anybody know whats the specs on the newer Royals?