The Thunder Thread

[j....soy.....]

Yah….I’ve come to the conclusion venture is the best for me…venture let’s you ride it out and Ace is like some crazy auto pilot where you swerve twice…..I get why people love em though….

Just watched that Chandler Burton part and you can see how that stability works…..

[LebowskisRug]

I actually like the Thunder response. Rarely am I going to straight up wheelbite and the snap back to center is great. Ace just keep turning and don't snap. Venture are obviously forgiving but I find sometimes actually having the board turn a bit when off balance rather than sit in the upper part of the turn where there is the delay actually helps me re center my weight.

It's interesting that on Slap it seems mostly people come into the Thunder thread to say they don't like them, but the other truck threads are mostly just praises. In real life there doesn't seem to be as many detractors. And yes, I note negatives in other brand threads as well and historically love Thunders, but have been riding Ventures lately.

[flintstagram]

I love my Thunders. 151 teams. I occasionally try other truck brands, but Thunder is it for me. They just work how I want them to. I love the stability. I love the predictable turn. They’re reliable. I don’t seem to have the issue with wheels on ledges that everyone complains about, and I ride 54-56mm wheels routinely.

My only complaint is that I didn’t start skating Thunders sooner. Skated Indys for way too long before making the leap. Really glad I made the change.

[Paperclip20]

I actually like the Thunder response. Rarely am I going to straight up wheelbite and the snap back to center is great. Ace just keep turning and don't snap. Venture are obviously forgiving but I find sometimes actually having the board turn a bit when off balance rather than sit in the upper part of the turn where there is the delay actually helps me re center my weight.

It's interesting that on Slap it seems mostly people come into the Thunder thread to say they don't like them, but the other truck threads are mostly just praises. In real life there doesn't seem to be as many detractors. And yes, I note negatives in other brand threads as well and historically love Thunders, but have been riding Ventures lately.

All brands have their positives and negatives i get a bit of wheelbite but I've felt really on point since getting on thunders. Especially with crooks and tailslides. I swapped in the 92d conical blue indy bushings because I'm like 6'4 190 and that has me setup great. I get some good turn but the harder bushing means I'm not getting pitched constantly.

[switchfrontshuv]

I actually like the Thunder response. Rarely am I going to straight up wheelbite and the snap back to center is great. Ace just keep turning and don't snap. Venture are obviously forgiving but I find sometimes actually having the board turn a bit when off balance rather than sit in the upper part of the turn where there is the delay actually helps me re center my weight.

It's interesting that on Slap it seems mostly people come into the Thunder thread to say they don't like them, but the other truck threads are mostly just praises. In real life there doesn't seem to be as many detractors. And yes, I note negatives in other brand threads as well and historically love Thunders, but have been riding Ventures lately.

thats what i hated about ventures lowkey. if you land with too much weight on either side of one truck the turning accelerates and veers you out whereas with even weight distribution between both trucks the turning is muted

[Ok]

Expand Quote

I actually like the Thunder response. Rarely am I going to straight up wheelbite and the snap back to center is great. Ace just keep turning and don't snap. Venture are obviously forgiving but I find sometimes actually having the board turn a bit when off balance rather than sit in the upper part of the turn where there is the delay actually helps me re center my weight.

It's interesting that on Slap it seems mostly people come into the Thunder thread to say they don't like them, but the other truck threads are mostly just praises. In real life there doesn't seem to be as many detractors. And yes, I note negatives in other brand threads as well and historically love Thunders, but have been riding Ventures lately.

[close]

All brands have their positives and negatives i get a bit of wheelbite but I've felt really on point since getting on thunders. Especially with crooks and tailslides. I swapped in the 92d conical blue indy bushings because I'm like 6'4 190 and that has me setup great. I get some good turn but the harder bushing means I'm not getting pitched constantly.

I’m swapped in some bushing because I’m like 5’7” ish 170

[Acid Drop]

I really like the forged baseplate with them.

[Richard Skidder]

After a brief foray with Ace I’m back to my Thunders. As fun as the Ace turn is I like the stability of Thunder. They turn well enough for what I need and I’m not getting any serious wheelbite with my 54s ( probably 53s by now).
148 forged on 8.12 with 14” wheelbase. Starting to get flip tricks back.
I think stability is often overlooked as a feature.

[j....soy.....]

Pinch is good on thunders too….I think all 4 brands are great, every one has its pros and cons….

[Ok]

After a brief foray with Ace I’m back to my Thunders. As fun as the Ace turn is I like the stability of Thunder. They turn well enough for what I need and I’m not getting any serious wheelbite with my 54s ( probably 53s by now).
148 forged on 8.12 with 14” wheelbase. Starting to get flip tricks back.
I think stability is often overlooked as a feature.

I get my best kickflips using thunders

[Sedition]

It’s been a while since I’ve tried Thunders (long term Indy rider). Boredom, or madness, has me wanting to try Thunders again. I normally ride forged (or Ti) 144s, so the height/weight difference to 148 Team Hollows isn’t that significant (I often wonder how many people in this thread, who have found the height/weight/pop of Thunders to be superior to Indy, are coming off standard Indys—and what their impression of a comparison between forged/Ti Indy and Thunder would be). I normally ride 53mm Classics on the DLX 8.25/14.38 deck. Might try dropping down to 52mm Classics with Thunders (I ride a good amount of mini ramp, and 52mm starts to feel really slow to me). I’m still debating on Team Hollows, Hollow Lights, or just going for broke with Ti. Ace was to heavy/squirrel for me. Venture was too stiff, with a lesser grind. So, I’m clearly somewhere in the Indy/Thunder camps. 

Coming off Indy, the two biggest drawbacks that I remember from Thunder were (a) they don’t turn as well, and (b) that baseplate issue. Yeah, it’s obvious you can do nose/tail slides on Thunders, but the margin of error seems to be less and/or technique needs to be better. Not sure if I want to re-learn my technique just to try swapping out trucks. As someone else said in this thread, “It’s nice to have trucks that don’t make you think about your trucks.” Thunders often made me think about my trucks when it came to nose/tail slides. The things I remember really liking about Thunders was feeling a bit lower to the ground, the overall stability, and a quick snap. I think the last time I had them, I put stock 90a Indy cylindrical bushing in them. After re-reading this entire thread, it seems clear the conical ones are the much better option—this time around I will give those a try (and after-market Thunders, too). I’m curious to give Thunders another fair shot, and will report back in the near future…once I figure out which ones I am going to end up getting. Enter the Madness...

[Richard Skidder]

@Sedition I switched to Thunder from Indy forged-hollow. I prefer Thunder now. A little wax in the pivot goes a long way with Thunder. Also, patience. It takes a while for them to start to feel loose after the initial firming up of the bushings. You can do a lot of tweaking to get them “surfy” but in the end they are their own truck. I just went full commit and ride them happily for an entire year. I only tried another truck after trying to skate on an 18° day and they were frozen up. I had stock bushings then and I’m still running the stock bushings now. I can recommend teams or team hollows though I’m riding forged with 54mm and no issues with wheelbite (150lbs).

[Ok]

It’s been a while since I’ve tried Thunders (long term Indy rider). Boredom, or madness, has me wanting to try Thunders again. I normally ride forged (or Ti) 144s, so the height/weight difference to 148 Team Hollows isn’t that significant (I often wonder how many people in this thread, who have found the height/weight/pop of Thunders to be superior to Indy, are coming off standard Indys—and what their impression of a comparison between forged/Ti Indy and Thunder would be). I normally ride 53mm Classics on the DLX 8.25/14.38 deck. Might try dropping down to 52mm Classics with Thunders (I ride a good amount of mini ramp, and 52mm starts to feel really slow to me). I’m still debating on Team Hollows, Hollow Lights, or just going for broke with Ti. Ace was to heavy/squirrel for me. Venture was too stiff, with a lesser grind. So, I’m clearly somewhere in the Indy/Thunder camps. 

Coming off Indy, the two biggest drawbacks that I remember from Thunder were (a) they don’t turn as well, and (b) that baseplate issue. Yeah, it’s obvious you can do nose/tail slides on Thunders, but the margin of error seems to be less and/or technique needs to be better. Not sure if I want to re-learn my technique just to try swapping out trucks. As someone else said in this thread, “It’s nice to have trucks that don’t make you think about your trucks.” Thunders often made me think about my trucks when it came to nose/tail slides. The things I remember really liking about Thunders was feeling a bit lower to the ground, the overall stability, and a quick snap. I think the last time I had them, I put stock 90a Indy cylindrical bushing in them. After re-reading this entire thread, it seems clear the conical ones are the much better option—this time around I will give those a try (and after-market Thunders, too). I’m curious to give Thunders another fair shot, and will report back in the near future…once I figure out which ones I am going to end up getting. Enter the Madness...

Teams or team cast, imo, would work best for you coming off of Indy’s. The cast baseplate keeps the effective wb closer.
For me, Indy’s turn deeper/‘better’, and grind better, but I do not prefer them to thunders. With thunders I get a significantly nicer pop. Some 148s with say a 53 classic, should go well (I rode 147s and 52 and smaller).
 The turn is different. I’d spend a few sessions on the stock bushings before changing stuff. That’s me tho. When folks change their gear, but then modify the new gear to act like the old gear…why.
Hope it’s fun, I like trying different stuff. Helps shake things up, hone in preferences. To my memory you’ve been pretty steady on setup, sometimes for me, it’s cool to switch it up and see if shit I struggle with gets easier.

As a reference, I think indy had made a great truck, forever. Ticks the most boxes, for the most people. Whenever I ride them, I’m always wanting something else. But I like venture lo’s and shit. So take that with a grain of salt.

[LebowskisRug]

I also was on Forged Indy before. There is a pop difference for sure but it's not as jarring for me as going from Thunder to Venture or Indy forged to standards. I went for Teams cuz I couldn't find Hollow axles. I would likely be running blues in Indys and use stock Thunder bushings where the top of the nylock is even with the top of the kingpin. I don't need to ride them loose because they're responsive as is.

I ride 52-53 on them and have done as big as 54. I still can slide on the baseplate fine for the most part.

[Sedition]

Well, I ended up getting two sets. Ordered a set of raw 148 TH from my local (with an assortment of bushings), and also snagged a pair of used, but like-new 148 TI off eBay for $45 (no way I could pass that up).   

@ok  Yeah, I absolutely intend to give the stock bushing a fair shot before I start messing around with them. And totally agree, if you are trying to force Product X to skate like Product Y, then just skate Product Y. You have to take things on their own terms. That said, you can certainly seek to reasonably optimize those terms. And yeah, I've tried a few other things here and there, but I have been rock-steady on my set-up for a very long time at this point. The last real "change" was going from 149s to 144s when those first came out (however many years back that was). So, this little jaunt into Thunder Madness will be good for a some variety (if anything, only to prove my Indy assumptions still hold true, and there is merit in that).

@LebowskisRug Yup! I run blues/92a on my Indys. Stock orange/90a are just a tad to soft for me. I can ride those with a few threads showing, but would rather go blue/92 and a flush kingpin nut.

[intendedreceivers]

I bought some 145s for a kid board, and the bottom bushing is about 2mm shorter. Is that typical, just something they do on sub-8.0 trucks to give you more turn?

[Sedition]

Anyone have the verified weight (e.g. not sourced from Tactics) of 151 Hollow Lights? Thanks in advance if you do!

[Ok]

Anyone have the verified weight (e.g. not sourced from Tactics) of 151 Hollow Lights? Thanks in advance if you do!

I do not.
Had 151 hollow lights with forged plate (on a huffer) and the trucks were very good. It was a time I was into trying wild big setups, and tbh was smitten with ck1’s setup/skating (this must have been 2014 ish). 159s were my favorite Indy’s for quite awhile, followed by 139s, but the 151s worked much better for me. I’m just too much of a baby to skate Indy’s. Or/additionally, when I skate Indy’s I tend to also get big wheels, and I skate like shit on 100 percent of big wheel setups (so I guess not a fair comparison).
How are the 148s treating you?

[Richard Skidder]

Anyone have the verified weight (e.g. not sourced from Tactics) of 151 Hollow Lights? Thanks in advance if you do!

DM Thunder. I asked that question about team Hollow 149s and they messaged me back in less than 24hrs

[Sedition]

Expand Quote

Anyone have the verified weight (e.g. not sourced from Tactics) of 151 Hollow Lights? Thanks in advance if you do!

[close]

I do not.
Had 151 hollow lights with forged plate (on a huffer) and the trucks were very good. It was a time I was into trying wild big setups, and tbh was smitten with ck1’s setup/skating (this must have been 2014 ish). 159s were my favorite Indy’s for quite awhile, followed by 139s, but the 151s worked much better for me. I’m just too much of a baby to skate Indy’s. Or/additionally, when I skate Indy’s I tend to also get big wheels, and I skate like shit on 100 percent of big wheel setups (so I guess not a fair comparison).
How are the 148s treating you?

I have two set-ups. the 8.25 DLX, which is my normal ride. I also have an 8.75 DLX that I take out from time to time. I've got 159 Indys on it. As it's such a big board, it's kind of a tank. I was thinking that throwing Hollow Lights on it might make it a lot less...cumbersome. I was curious to see just how much lighter HLs were compared to my Indy Forged Hollows (e.g. is it worth it). 

As to the 148s...I'm currently dealing with a pulled groin muscle. It's getting better, but def not 100% yet. So, I've been going real low-impact recently (should actually just stay completely off the board for a bit, but yeah, like that is going to happen). As such, I haven't been able to give the 148s a real test yet. I've mostly been skating some smaller transition, and doing slappies (at the moment, ollies really aggravate the muscle pull). That said, I've been impressed with Team Hollows so far. They turn much better than I remember them turning (but that might also be because I kept conical bushings in them this time). Def less surfy than Indys, but they have a nice controlled, and stable turn. Wheelsbase feels a bit longer, even though there is virtually no difference between TH and forged Indys. The one major draw back? Major wheel catch on nose/tail slides. The experiment continues...   

[camel filters]

I put my thunders back on my daily rider and I can say, everything pre trick is great. The stability makes setting up for tricks feel safe and predictable. However, if I’m not landing perfectly, everything after the trick (the landing) feels restrictive and I’m finding myself tic tacking out when I would swerve out with Indy’s or aces. I think I am going back to aces after this current deck dies

[commander jameson]

Anyone have the verified weight (e.g. not sourced from Tactics) of 151 Hollow Lights? Thanks in advance if you do!

According to
https://www.skatedeluxe.com/en/thunder-151-high-hollow-ii-truck-polished-8-75_p124992?cPath=44&brand_id=119
they are around 330 grams.
European Skatedeluxe is usually very good with trucks spec like weight unlike deck spec that can be all over the place.

[Sedition]

Expand Quote

Anyone have the verified weight (e.g. not sourced from Tactics) of 151 Hollow Lights? Thanks in advance if you do!

[close]

According to
https://www.skatedeluxe.com/en/thunder-151-high-hollow-ii-truck-polished-8-75_p124992?cPath=44&brand_id=119
they are around 330 grams.
European Skatedeluxe is usually very good with trucks spec like weight unlike deck spec that can be all over the place.

Thanks. I just crossed-checked their listed weights for Indys against the Indy web site* (which has always been really close to my measurements), and they were certainly within a reasonable margin of error. Suffice to say, I'd bet their listing of HL is pretty damn close to actual. Thanks again.

*Would be nice if Thunder listed all the tech spec on their page like Indy does.

[Cthulhu!]

My trusty 5.0 lows are done, so I am returning to Thunders for the foreseeable future. A nice change of pace from low Ventures. My beloved 147s...

[Ok]

My trusty 5.0 lows are done, so I am returning to Thunders for the foreseeable future. A nice change of pace from low Ventures. My beloved 147s...

147s are my ‘other’ truck, after 5.0 lo/5.2 lo. My current 147s are hollow lights, and I think I’d prefer regular teams, but these work well.

[G_Money]

What thunders did I just buy?

I ordered what I thought were team 148, but they arrived with orange bushings instead of blue.

Did I get a bushing upgrade? Is this different from the team model?







how to upload id on facebook

[Ok]

What thunders did I just buy?

I ordered what I thought were team 148, but they arrived with orange bushings instead of blue.

Did I get a bushing upgrade? Is this different from the team model?







how to upload id on facebook

You got 148 teams, which I’ve only seen with the orange translucent bushings.

[goodatmeth]

What thunders did I just buy?

I ordered what I thought were team 148, but they arrived with orange bushings instead of blue.

Did I get a bushing upgrade? Is this different from the team model?







how to upload id on facebook

What made you expect blue bushings? Hollow lights come with blue ones

[yourbreakfsat]

What thunders did I just buy?

I ordered what I thought were team 148, but they arrived with orange bushings instead of blue.

Did I get a bushing upgrade? Is this different from the team model?







how to upload id on facebook

Thunder 148 standards always come with orange bushings instead of blue. They are the same durometer though.

[G_Money]

Expand Quote

What thunders did I just buy?

I ordered what I thought were team 148, but they arrived with orange bushings instead of blue.

Did I get a bushing upgrade? Is this different from the team model?







how to upload id on facebook

[close]

What made you expect blue bushings? Hollow lights come with blue ones

I guess because the other pair I have on my 7.75 say team on the baseplate and have blue bushings.