Truck set-ups

[Woos]

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Has anyone looked into modding Thunder kingpins?

If I could get a down low kingpin installed in some Thunder 147s and 149s but could also still use Bones Hardcores I’d be so happy.  Smiths and feebles are fucked... especially on the 147s.

Also what feels softer;
Bones Hardcore Hard Bottom w/ Medium Top
or
Bones Hardcorw Medium Bottom w/ Hard Top?

I’m currently running Hard Bottom and Medium Top on my 147s because double medium was causing a bit too much wheelbite and double hard takes too long to break in and they’re way too stiff before being broken in.

I hate having to waste the extra bushings... it feels stupid and “expensive” (for bushings).  I’ll just start putting the softer combination on my 149s since it’s not too different from double mediums.

—

Also I find Indies to work better than Thunders on ledges that are crusty... they grind through it better.  Especially on nose/tail slides because the baseplate actually makes contact.  However Thunders pinch better and are lower so they feel much better on smooth ledges.  Also Thunders have a high kingpin so Smiths and Feebles suck with them.  Forged Indies are nice because they’re lower than standard ones. This helps with balance on ledges.

I find Thunders to be better for stalls and grinds in transition due to them being lower. I feel much more balanced and can feel the tricks more.  Indies are better at carving however so it’s not really Indies for transition and Thunder for ledges.  They both shine in different areas.  If you’re skating ledges with Thunder make sure your wheels are squared and hard with a good formula or you aren’t moving anywhere nor are you comfortably locking in when doing nose/tail slides.  I personally ride 52mm 99a Radial Slims.  I’d ride 101a if the ground was nicer where I normally skate.  The Formula 4 99a formula does slide very well however so I’m not even concerned about it.

[close]

Indys feel so good on a chunky ledge, they really live up to the name "Built to Grind". They feel so solid and just plow through the ledge. I'm liking my Thunder 147 & 148 more though, the like the heavier pop it gives and the turning is fine by me. I used to think all trucks turned the same and rode my trucks very tight; tick tacking > carving / turning.

First time contemplating a durometer other than 101a, how do the F4 99a feel? I recently tried F1 Streetburners and they were way too slippery for the skatelite ledge I usually skate. F4 101a wheels feel great but I'm always hungry to switch things around.

Dude the 99a F4s are the perfect all around wheel for me. I’ve never had any issues with them on ledges or with reverts/powerslides.  They ride over crust way better than 101 F4s and 103 STFs as well.  I guess the only time I contemplate a different wheel is on Skatelite transition but it’s totally manageable, I’m just a pussy and bad when it comes to transition so it is a little too slippery sometimes.

They certainly don’t feel soft but they really handle crusty spots well.  My STFs don’t feel noticeably faster on smooth concrete either so I don’t really see a point in running anything harder.

[munchbox]

ace trucks have almost completely cured my truck madness.

tried 55s on a 15" wb antihero and the short wb trucks just dont work for me. im accustomed to popping off the end off the tail and with a shorter wb, im forced to pop a bit further into the tail which feels alien to me. not an issue i ever had on thunders which extend wheelbase. manuals feel unnatural, and the only thing that helped with it is that the trucks were loose for me. on the other hand, aces surfy feel is really fun and they feel perfect on tranny. i just dont think its worth it at the expense of me doing just about anything else. this experience has really put me off ever owning trucks that shorten wb which takes ace, indy (which i already wasnt a huge fan of), film, and theeve. all im stuck with at the moment is thunder and venture since they are longer wb trucks. fortunately for my wallet and sanity, there isnt much to try when i exclusively am riding 9+" boards. just 151, 161, and 6.1 currently.

i personally cant own a deck with less than a 14.75 wb. at my height it feels like i have shackles around my ankles. anyone else who needs a big wheelbase to feel comfy on board, i wouldnt suggest riding trucks that shorten wb. it feels really tippy on the nose and tail and will force you to make adjustments if you want decent pop. every truck has its benefits but if the wb of your setup can be a dealbreaker id definitely consider your trucks, just my two cents.

either i keep them for a future tranny only setup or sell them cause of buyers remorse. if anyone is interested, they are lightly, and i mean lightly used. barely any grind marks on them and only have been through around 5 sessions. can send pics. pm me if you are interested to negotiate a price

[jay_nev]

Whilst on the ace topic

[Ok]

ace trucks have almost completely cured my truck madness.

tried 55s on a 15" wb antihero and the short wb trucks just dont work for me. im accustomed to popping off the end off the tail and with a shorter wb, im forced to pop a bit further into the tail which feels alien to me. not an issue i ever had on thunders which extend wheelbase. manuals feel unnatural, and the only thing that helped with it is that the trucks were loose for me. on the other hand, aces surfy feel is really fun and they feel perfect on tranny. i just dont think its worth it at the expense of me doing just about anything else. this experience has really put me off ever owning trucks that shorten wb which takes ace, indy (which i already wasnt a huge fan of), film, and theeve. all im stuck with at the moment is thunder and venture since they are longer wb trucks. fortunately for my wallet and sanity, there isnt much to try when i exclusively am riding 9+" boards. just 151, 161, and 6.1 currently.

i personally cant own a deck with less than a 14.75 wb. at my height it feels like i have shackles around my ankles. anyone else who needs a big wheelbase to feel comfy on board, i wouldnt suggest riding trucks that shorten wb. it feels really tippy on the nose and tail and will force you to make adjustments if you want decent pop. every truck has its benefits but if the wb of your setup can be a dealbreaker id definitely consider your trucks, just my two cents.

either i keep them for a future tranny only setup or sell them cause of buyers remorse. if anyone is interested, they are lightly, and i mean lightly used. barely any grind marks on them and only have been through around 5 sessions. can send pics. pm me if you are interested to negotiate a price

appreciate the context you give for your decision.
I just like thunder and venture better, but I’m short, with shorter legs. I get all turned around when I want to ride a big board.
I haven’t been skating much, mainly weather and work, but just stepped thru a window in the aging process or something and all of a sudden gravity has increased. Dramatically. Trying to flip a board around isn’t working, I never built up strong fundamentals, ledges or transition, so it’s easy to lose a few tricks and be really disheartened.
Aaaannnyways, pushing around on a big board with bigger wheels is still fun! So that’s the direction. Trying to find the combo of big and comfy but still a skateboard.
Thanks for the therapy. Continue on

[Diocletian]

Thunder 161 trucks with Venom SHR 94a bushings...amazing. Super twitchy and carvey. 56mm wheels, baaaaaad wheelbite though. I got pitched a lot. Gonna need risers now .

[Mort Garson]

Just set up some 6.1s on an 8.625, still stock bushings w/ no bottom washer. Little speed cream in the pivot cups to get rid of that mf squeak. Shit feels great.

[jay_nev]

Thunder 161 trucks with Venom SHR 94a bushings...amazing. Super twitchy and carvey. 56mm wheels, baaaaaad wheelbite though. I got pitched a lot. Gonna need risers now .

stock bushings are 90a right? Yeah I’d throw 1/8” risers in with 161 if I was gonna run

[chris.]

ace trucks have almost completely cured my truck madness.

How tall are you? I’m 6’5”, all legs, and honestly Aces just should not work for me considering they shorten WB but I can’t imagine myself ever skating anything else.

[jay_nev]

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ace trucks have almost completely cured my truck madness.

[close]

How tall are you? I’m 6’5”, all legs, and honestly Aces just should not work for me considering they shorten WB but I can’t imagine myself ever skating anything else.

6’4.5” here - what size board and wb you ride with ace’s that you like?

[munchbox]

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ace trucks have almost completely cured my truck madness.

[close]

How tall are you? I’m 6’5”, all legs, and honestly Aces just should not work for me considering they shorten WB but I can’t imagine myself ever skating anything else.

im also 6'5" all legs. brother is that you?

[Stigmata]

I just started riding Indy 149's on both 8.25 and 8.38 decks and ive been absolutely lovin it

[Skatansfinest666]

So anyone know if the Ti indys are similar to the theeve Ti as in they literally don’t grind on metal surfaces at all? I know some of y’all watched Ben degros review on the theeve ones and he literally stuck everytime on the metal edge ledge. I really wanna get a pair due to life span and how light they are but won’t be able to deal with it if they don’t grind seeing as I hit the local park a lot and everything is metal coping there so...thanks for the input homies 🤙🏼🛹

[Xen]

So anyone know if the Ti indys are similar to the theeve Ti as in they literally don’t grind on metal surfaces at all? I know some of y’all watched Ben degros review on the theeve ones and he literally stuck everytime on the metal edge ledge. I really wanna get a pair due to life span and how light they are but won’t be able to deal with it if they don’t grind seeing as I hit the local park a lot and everything is metal coping there so...thanks for the input homies 🤙🏼🛹

Indy Ti have titanium axles, the hanger is regular old Indy aluminum so the grind is unaffected; Theeve TiHangers are one solid piece of titanium and don't grind on metal very well, especially angle iron. On the flipside they chew through shitty concrete that other trucks would stick on.

[B0udoir]

ace trucks have almost completely cured my truck madness.

I was thinking that before trying Thunder Teams 149.
Still love Aces though, it's just that currently I prefer to sacrifice the turn to the pinch feeling.

[Skatansfinest666]

Expand Quote

So anyone know if the Ti indys are similar to the theeve Ti as in they literally don’t grind on metal surfaces at all? I know some of y’all watched Ben degros review on the theeve ones and he literally stuck everytime on the metal edge ledge. I really wanna get a pair due to life span and how light they are but won’t be able to deal with it if they don’t grind seeing as I hit the local park a lot and everything is metal coping there so...thanks for the input homies 🤙🏼🛹

[close]

Indy Ti have titanium axles, the hanger is regular old Indy aluminum so the grind is unaffected; Theeve TiHangers are one solid piece of titanium and don't grind on metal very well, especially angle iron. On the flipside they chew through shitty concrete that other trucks would stick on.

Awesome! Just what I needed to know

[rob]

I know I would be the last person expected to ask this

But are the riptide pivot cups really worth it?

They’re in the cart and I’m ready to pay but I’m thinking

Are they really worth it?

[Vintagebody]

Do you guys file down or round the edges on the baseplates?
Often they seem to have sharp edge, or uneven/protruding edges, creating an uneven contact patch.
This then digs into the board, making the already weakned breaking point, even weaker.
It seems to have helped with pressure cracks on my boards. I'm a little heavy guy (200lbs), so prone to pressure cracks

[thebacker]

Whilst on the ace topic

i love ben degros

[Skart]

I like his skating, that's aboot it

[UPPERCASEnocap]

I'm deep in the truck madness with a set of ventures, thunder, indy, and aces set up currently. I was skating in my garage yesterday and noticed that my aftermarket indy red bushings had literally frozen. Rock hard. I am in Montana and its was like 25 degrees but all my other bushings were fine, maybe a little stiff but definitely not frozen. Whats up with this?

[oldbummer]

I've played around with changing bushings so much that some of my kingpin nuts have worn out and I bought replacements.  Did you know that not all kingpin nuts are the same height, and if you are trying to recreate a previous setting and you reference your tightness to how flush the nut is you might be off because of that.

[fang]

Anyone run smaller trucks than board width? I've got a 8.375 on deck but 139s and I hate breaking in trucks. Last time I did a wide deck to small board was literally 20 years ago.

[sneakpeekmeek]

I've played around with changing bushings so much that some of my kingpin nuts have worn out and I bought replacements.  Did you know that not all kingpin nuts are the same height, and if you are trying to recreate a previous setting and you reference your tightness to how flush the nut is you might be off because of that.

What I do to keep track of how tight my trucks are is to take off the nut and then twist it back on just until it locks on the very first thread and then i'll tighten it while counting the number of rotations of my skate tool.

[Roisto]

Anyone run smaller trucks than board width? I've got a 8.375 on deck but 139s and I hate breaking in trucks. Last time I did a wide deck to small board was literally 20 years ago.

You could get some 149s and keep everything else the same but just change the hangers. Sure you'd have fresh hangers without grooves but at least everything else would feel broken in.

[FrozenIndustries]

Anyone run smaller trucks than board width? I've got a 8.375 on deck but 139s and I hate breaking in trucks. Last time I did a wide deck to small board was literally 20 years ago.

I've done this a few times. Venture 5.2s and indy 139s on 8.25 and 8.38. Currently running 149s on a 9.12 football.

It's fine, just add some washers. I'd way rather my shit magic carpet than hotrod (which IMO looks horrible).

[Xen]

I know I would be the last person expected to ask this

But are the riptide pivot cups really worth it?

They’re in the cart and I’m ready to pay but I’m thinking

Are they really worth it?

JOIN US

[Xen]

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do ace bushings work with ventures?

[close]

Only if you mixed a set of tall and lows. Tall bottom, low top, then it's close (ish) to a standard indy bushing set which is the same height as Ventures.

Hell yes they work.

On a whim, I dug out my spare ACE bushings (regular bottoms and low tops that I used in my Indys) and threw them in my 5.6" Ventures (replacing Bones medium bottom/soft top, which it does make the turn better than stock but also makes you feel like you need to 'balance' to maintain stability, if that makes sense. It was like trying to balance on a rail just to go straight -  something I've never felt with any other truck using bones).

Anyway back to ACE bushings in Ventures.

Holy shit.
They feel amazing (just like they make ACE and Indy's feel amazballs), they also work their magic in Ventures.

I was seriously thinking of jumping back to Thunders (I finally realized I don't like tight truck WBs all that much), since I wasn't vibing on the Ventures stock and Bones felt like too much work.

One thing to note and there is recent talk about how much the pivot cups are shit lately in thunders, not so in Ventures, they have the khiro squish to them and feel like quality compared to the hard ass ones in thunders and indys. However, I swapped them out with some worn in cracked ice indy cups (when using bones) and it really helps break them in, the stock cups are really snug (obviously).

Seriously the ACE bushing combo in Ventures is fucking on point. it gets them surfing but still stable; not as surfy as Indy or ACE but somewhere between a Thunder and an Indy maybe?

[Lloyd Braun]

Anyone know what risers work for ventures, maybe diamond? Schmidt nine club episode got me wanting to try them out again. Also maybe different wheels. Hoping this doesn’t turn me into a gear madman...

[tzhangdox]

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do ace bushings work with ventures?

[close]

Only if you mixed a set of tall and lows. Tall bottom, low top, then it's close (ish) to a standard indy bushing set which is the same height as Ventures.

[close]

Hell yes they work.

On a whim, I dug out my spare ACE bushings (regular bottoms and low tops that I used in my Indys) and threw them in my 5.6" Ventures (replacing Bones medium bottom/soft top, which it turns out does make the turn better but also makes you feel like you need to 'balance' to maintain stability, if that makes sense, something I've never felt with any other truck using bones).

Anyway back to ACE bushings in Ventures.

Holy shit.
They feel amazing (just like they make ACE and Indy's feel amazballs), they also work their magic in Ventures.

I was seriously thinking of jumping back to Thunders (I finally realizes I don't like tight truck WBs all that much), since I wasn't vibing on the Ventures stock and Bones felt like too much work.

One thing to note and there is recent talk about how much the pivot cups are shit lately in thunders, not so in Ventures, they have the khiro squish to them and feel like quality compared to the hard ass ones in thunders and indys. However, I swapped them out with some worn in cracked ice indy cups (when using bones) and it really helps break them in, the stock cups are really snug (obviously).

Seriously the ACE bushing combo in Ventures is fucking on point. it gets them surfing but still stable; not as surfy as Indy or ACE but somewhere between a Thunder and an Indy maybe?

Damn, was having a decent time on my stock 5.8 Venture tis (with riptide cups) but this sounds very tempting. Buying two sets of ace bushings just to mix and match them in ventures sounds like a giant pain though. Is it really worth it?

[Xen]

Expand Quote

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Expand Quote

do ace bushings work with ventures?

[close]

Only if you mixed a set of tall and lows. Tall bottom, low top, then it's close (ish) to a standard indy bushing set which is the same height as Ventures.

[close]

Hell yes they work.

On a whim, I dug out my spare ACE bushings (regular bottoms and low tops that I used in my Indys) and threw them in my 5.6" Ventures (replacing Bones medium bottom/soft top, which it turns out does make the turn better but also makes you feel like you need to 'balance' to maintain stability, if that makes sense, something I've never felt with any other truck using bones).

Anyway back to ACE bushings in Ventures.

Holy shit.
They feel amazing (just like they make ACE and Indy's feel amazballs), they also work their magic in Ventures.

I was seriously thinking of jumping back to Thunders (I finally realizes I don't like tight truck WBs all that much), since I wasn't vibing on the Ventures stock and Bones felt like too much work.

One thing to note and there is recent talk about how much the pivot cups are shit lately in thunders, not so in Ventures, they have the khiro squish to them and feel like quality compared to the hard ass ones in thunders and indys. However, I swapped them out with some worn in cracked ice indy cups (when using bones) and it really helps break them in, the stock cups are really snug (obviously).

Seriously the ACE bushing combo in Ventures is fucking on point. it gets them surfing but still stable; not as surfy as Indy or ACE but somewhere between a Thunder and an Indy maybe?

[close]

Damn, was having a decent time on my stock 5.8 Venture tis (with riptide cups) but this sounds very tempting. Buying two sets of ace bushings just to mix and match them in ventures sounds like a giant pain though. Is it really worth it?

I know...it sucks...but I bit the bullet a while back for my Ti Indys, it was great. The ACE standard top/stock bushing is fucking TALL.

I tried 8.5 ti Ventures stock, stiff but stable didn't 'move me' to stick with it after a few weeks; tried riptides, was 'ok'.

****MADNESS****

I tired again with 5.6 hollow ventures, stock, meh. Bones med bottom/soft top (bones washer bottom/top), riptides = acceptable, but still not feeling it - bones soft bottom/soft top too squirrly.

Put in the ACEs (big bottom, low top), reg bottom Venture washer (they are bigger than ACEs so you get some flex), bones top washer (stock washer binds if you run loose!!!), riptides. Fucking great. Really. Really. fucking. great.

DLX, rip-off/make a deal with ACE to ship with these duros/bushings.