Truck set-ups

[manysnakes]

Indy aftermarket bushings are always a staple.
I had Doh-Dohs and they felt mushy.

I agree. I feel like five years ago, they were basically unskateable, but I've kept stock bushing in the last three pairs of Indy trucks I've owned and they've been great for the life of the truck. FWIW I'm 140 lbs, so I'm not really pushing these bushings to their limit. They had a bad run but are basically back on track as far as I am concerned.

[mynameisnotjeff]

Expand Quote

Indy aftermarket bushings are always a staple.
I had Doh-Dohs and they felt mushy.

[close]

I agree. I feel like five years ago, they were basically unskateable, but I've kept stock bushing in the last three pairs of Indy trucks I've owned and they've been great for the life of the truck. FWIW I'm 140 lbs, so I'm not really pushing these bushings to their limit. They had a bad run but are basically back on track as far as I am concerned.

I’m mid-190s, I’ve been running trucks stock to break the bushings in. What usually happens is 3 months down the line, I just get used to them.

Except Ventures, those were rough

[Mbrimson88]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Indy aftermarket bushings are always a staple.
I had Doh-Dohs and they felt mushy.

[close]

I agree. I feel like five years ago, they were basically unskateable, but I've kept stock bushing in the last three pairs of Indy trucks I've owned and they've been great for the life of the truck. FWIW I'm 140 lbs, so I'm not really pushing these bushings to their limit. They had a bad run but are basically back on track as far as I am concerned.

[close]

I’m mid-190s, I’ve been running trucks stock to break the bushings in. What usually happens is 3 months down the line, I just get used to them.

Except Ventures, those were rough

How were they?

I had a couple of sets of Ventures with bushings that seemed like complete opposites, one set were super squishy soft and the other set were so hard even cutting the top down still just didn't want to give enough for how I like them.  Both sets of bushings went to others who were stoked on them, so not a worry there, but I put spare stock Indy bushings in both sets of Ventures I kept and they felt very comfortable and normal then.

Other Ventures, as well as most Thunder bushings have been perfect, but some also been at almost opposite ends of the scale, on boards I have helped people with, but as I usually have a whole lot of spare stock bushings from almost all the major brands, I can usually work something out for them in a swap and trade type deal so they are happy and I have spare bushings for someone else if they need them.

The hardest thing for some people is just not knowing which bushings to go with if they do need to get others, especially if they can only go off what others say and not try them to know what works.

[funeral_tuxedo]

I'm wishing that I still had my beloved pair of Independent Grosso trucks. The black anodized hangers on the polished silver baseplates was just beautiful. I was thinking of painting some of my current Indy hangers black. Any of you Slappers have any experience with DIY painting your trucks?

Eric Dressen has a similar looking set on his board:

[Mbrimson88]

I'm wishing that I still had my beloved pair of Independent Grosso trucks. The black anodized hangers on the polished silver baseplates was just beautiful. I was thinking of painting some of my current Indy hangers black. Any of you Slappers have any experience with DIY painting your trucks?

A guy I know skated the Indy "Thrasher oath" white hanger, black baseplate forged hollows for a minute before changing to other trucks, but as the colour was a bit too bright for me, I used plain black spray to fix them, so did both hangers and they turned out really well, plain black all round.  I meant to take pics, but passed them on to someone else faster than I thought too.

Just make sure you only spray the hanger, not the axles, as per one guy I saw on a youtube video.  I just wrap a bit of newspaper or other spare paper round the axle and apply some tape where the axles meet the hanger and you should be fine.

You could easily do other colours, or just the hanger as well, like a few trucks I have seen that have silver baseplate / black hanger.

https://www.kickpush.com.au/assets/full/174519.jpg

Or this guy from ebay:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/mRsAAOSwFAdgmP7K/s-l1600.jpg

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Independent-Trucks-159-039-s-Custom-Painted-/313557227231



EDIT:  The new Mason Silva truck is that colourway, the matt black looks pretty good - third and fourth pics.

[funeral_tuxedo]

Expand Quote

I'm wishing that I still had my beloved pair of Independent Grosso trucks. The black anodized hangers on the polished silver baseplates was just beautiful. I was thinking of painting some of my current Indy hangers black. Any of you Slappers have any experience with DIY painting your trucks?

[close]

A guy I know skated the Indy "Thrasher oath" white hanger, black baseplate forged hollows for a minute before changing to other trucks, but as the colour was a bit too bright for me, I used plain black spray to fix them, so did both hangers and they turned out really well, plain black all round.  I meant to take pics, but passed them on to someone else faster than I thought too.

Just make sure you only spray the hanger, not the axles, as per one guy I saw on a youtube video.  I just wrap a bit of newspaper or other spare paper round the axle and apply some tape where the axles meet the hanger and you should be fine.

You could easily do other colours, or just the hanger as well, like a few trucks I have seen that have silver baseplate / black hanger.

https://www.kickpush.com.au/assets/full/174519.jpg

Or this guy from ebay:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/mRsAAOSwFAdgmP7K/s-l1600.jpg

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Independent-Trucks-159-039-s-Custom-Painted-/313557227231



EDIT:  The new Mason Silva truck is that colourway, the matt black looks pretty good - third and fourth pics.

@Mbrimson88 those DIY one's look so fresh.
 I'll post before and after pics of my trucks.

*edit* there's some really angry comments on the Indy Instagram about the cross being gone. Yikes

[Mbrimson88]

There's some really angry comments on the Indy Instagram about the cross being gone. Yikes

Yes, ever since the logo thing (and even on here) there have been those for and those against.

I have lots of older ones from USA and newer ones from China, most with the cross, some new ones without, and they all skate the same, no worries at all, so it really is the absolute least of a concern for me.

Crazy to think people are going to spite themselves and change just because of a logo, when that is what they have been riding (and I find the best truck for the turn, grind and overall performance) but whatever hey, they can do whatever they like, but as you said, they sure do like to whine, complain and harass each other on the Indy instagram.

[manysnakes]

I’m glad Indy got rid of the cross but it would be pretty funny if Ace decided to adopt it.

[FrozenIndustries]

@Mbrimson88 you've mentioned it elsewhere, but can you go into more detail on your process for shortening kingpins and top bushings?

[Mbrimson88]

@Mbrimson88 you've mentioned it elsewhere, but can you go into more detail on your process for shortening kingpins and top bushings?

Looks sick! Do you cut down kingpin and bushing by exactly the same amount?

The funny thing is it just kind of happened to come together like that.

The baseplates / kingpins were from someone who had issues with them, so I used an angle grinder and rounded / cut the tops off as he was always getting caught on things.

The bushings from another time I cut them down for someone else and then they didn't want them as they thought they wouldn't work - clearly they work just fine in this board I set up and I can skate it perfectly well with cut down bushings.

Everything just worked out and I could have had the kingpin nut done up tighter, but it actually works fairly well being as loose as it is.


The Instagram posts for Bushings, Kingpins, and the like below, pretty much all the text in the posts explains how, but I can always send anyone all the plain text too, if needed - just thought it is a bit much to post it all here, but I think it has been a while and the other times I posted these are lost in the old pages - now at 344 pages long in truck setups.


EDIT:  I do use an angle grinder a whole lot more than I should for lots of things, but I find it works best to round off the tops, rather than specifically cut down kingpins, even though I have cut straight through other brand kingpins that have been sitting up way too high.  Also easiest to do it all when the complete is set up, bushings in place too, so you know how far down you want to go - a kingpin that is too short is no fun at all.

[FrozenIndustries]

Thanks!

[listentoaheartbeat]

@Mbrimson88, thanks for the link from the big boards thread, good info! Always looking to get the most out of a set of trucks—it takes a while to get a nice groove and new bushings are daring. Definitely going to dabble with cutting Indy bushings since I have some of those lying around.

[mynameisnotjeff]

Set up some of the new Geometry Tensors.
They’re light but because of the nubs kinda weird to apply.
Magnesium skates so much smoother than USA made Indys, I skated the same curb with my trunk and new set up. The Tensors were like butter.

I like riding stock until things break in and won’t make changes unless necessary. This may be the first truck I tighten early. They feel super loose and turny. I’m really surprised.

[Mbrimson88]

I'm wishing that I still had my beloved pair of Independent Grosso trucks. The black anodized hangers on the polished silver baseplates was just beautiful. I was thinking of painting some of my current Indy hangers black. Any of you Slappers have any experience with DIY painting your trucks?

I remembered this from a guy I skate with, giving it a different take on the usual paint your trucks routine.

He also made risers from an old board too.

[tuesday]

I'm wishing that I still had my beloved pair of Independent Grosso trucks. The black anodized hangers on the polished silver baseplates was just beautiful. I was thinking of painting some of my current Indy hangers black. Any of you Slappers have any experience with DIY painting your trucks?

Somewhere along my way I had the revelation that white hanger and silver baseplate is the best combo. So I ended up spray painting/lacquering half a dozen sets of hangers or so. Pretty easy:

First clean the hanger and sand it a bit using sand paper. 

Next, mask the axles using masking tape like in the video above with the black Aces. No need to take the axle nuts of(f).

To get the primer and lacquer applied evenly on the hanger from all sides, I tie some fishing line or a shoe lace around the axle/axle nut after masking them and hang the hanger inside of a cardboard box so that it can spin freely, after turning it a bunch hanging from the fishing line/shoe lace. Do that and start spray painting only after the hanger started to to spin. Apply the primer/ground coating first. Once that has dried up (might take some hours or a day, just leave the hanger hanging inside of the box), apply the final coat of lacquer/spray paint. The trick is really to get it spinning on the rope. Just don't spray so much coat or paint at once that it starts running downwards.   


 

[Xen]

Set up some of the new Geometry Tensors.
They’re light but because of the nubs kinda weird to apply.
Magnesium skates so much smoother than USA made Indys, I skated the same curb with my trunk and new set up. The Tensors were like butter.

I like riding stock until things break in and won’t make changes unless necessary. This may be the first truck I tighten early. They feel super loose and turny. I’m really surprised.

Never had an issue with the nubs as I tend to install my trucks with the board vertical <nose or tail on the ground> so that the trucks (any truck) is sitting flush against the bottom bolts and tighten as usual: one bottom a few turns, then the diagonal top a few turns, other bottom, other top, etc. then crank them all down).

Stock, too tight for me but I ride very loose. I had to loosen the stocks so much it wasn't safe. I use bones soft bottoms/tops most of the time.

Grinds for days tho, but I do wish they were lower than 55mm, I feel more at home on forged Indy or Thunders.

[fakiefs180]

Anyone has experiences with 139s on a 8.25 deck?
I can fit 3 washers on the inside and maybe that is very similar to running 144 trucks?

[LebowskisRug]

Works fine, but I feel somehow that 144/149 turn better/looser. A washer is 1mm so you're talking 6mm in total, which is .23in total. It's fairly close and the Indy hanger is pretty flat so you should have bout the same grinding area. With that said I recently tried it and the trucks always felt tighter and I just didn't like it.

[FrozenIndustries]

Anyone has experiences with 139s on a 8.25 deck?
I can fit 3 washers on the inside and maybe that is very similar to running 144 trucks?

The Boss runs that combo.  Prior to 144s, people skated 8.25" with either 139s or 149s depending on their preference, and without issue. If the 139s are nice and broken in (and you're used to them), there is going to be a lot less of an adjustment.

[Ok]

Expand Quote

Anyone has experiences with 139s on a 8.25 deck?
I can fit 3 washers on the inside and maybe that is very similar to running 144 trucks?

[close]

Im a fan of this setup.
Quicker turning with the narrower truck, but I mainly do it for familiarity and better flip.
The Boss runs that combo.  Prior to 144s, people skated 8.25" with either 139s or 149s depending on their preference, and without issue. If the 139s are nice and broken in (and you're used to them), there is going to be a lot less of an adjustment.

[logjammin]

Anyone ever try an Ace hanger on an Indy Stage 11 baseplate? I'm curious if it'll work with those new IKP baseplates. Shalom

[jimgrude]

Expand Quote

Anyone has experiences with 139s on a 8.25 deck?
I can fit 3 washers on the inside and maybe that is very similar to running 144 trucks?

[close]

The Boss runs that combo.  Prior to 144s, people skated 8.25" with either 139s or 149s depending on their preference, and without issue. If the 139s are nice and broken in (and you're used to them), there is going to be a lot less of an adjustment.

Boss also made the switch to 144s though.
But it's true he used to run that combo, and before that 8.00" with 129 I believe.

[FrozenIndustries]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Anyone has experiences with 139s on a 8.25 deck?
I can fit 3 washers on the inside and maybe that is very similar to running 144 trucks?

[close]

The Boss runs that combo.  Prior to 144s, people skated 8.25" with either 139s or 149s depending on their preference, and without issue. If the 139s are nice and broken in (and you're used to them), there is going to be a lot less of an adjustment.

[close]

Boss also made the switch to 144s though.
But it's true he used to run that combo, and before that 8.00" with 129 I believe.

As recently as his stop and chat he is on 139s. Don't have Insta anymore but when I did he was posting them there as well.

[moonordie]

Expand Quote

Anyone has experiences with 139s on a 8.25 deck?
I can fit 3 washers on the inside and maybe that is very similar to running 144 trucks?

[close]

The Boss runs that combo.  Prior to 144s, people skated 8.25" with either 139s or 149s depending on their preference, and without issue. If the 139s are nice and broken in (and you're used to them), there is going to be a lot less of an adjustment.

Reynolds skates 8.5 on 139 don't he? Tbh first who cares and second is impossible to keep track of that since he changes setups like I change my socks.

[Xen]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Anyone has experiences with 139s on a 8.25 deck?
I can fit 3 washers on the inside and maybe that is very similar to running 144 trucks?

[close]

The Boss runs that combo.  Prior to 144s, people skated 8.25" with either 139s or 149s depending on their preference, and without issue. If the 139s are nice and broken in (and you're used to them), there is going to be a lot less of an adjustment.

[close]

Reynolds skates 8.5 on 139 don't he? Tbh first who cares and second is impossible to keep track of that since he changes setups like I change my socks.

Age has caught up with him and he isn't hucking much anymore; dude is riding an 8.125" - he replied to my/a question on insta a while back....but the dude has the madness so who knows what he's riding these days, no doubt he's got a quiver.

[Ok]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Anyone has experiences with 139s on a 8.25 deck?
I can fit 3 washers on the inside and maybe that is very similar to running 144 trucks?

[close]

The Boss runs that combo.  Prior to 144s, people skated 8.25" with either 139s or 149s depending on their preference, and without issue. If the 139s are nice and broken in (and you're used to them), there is going to be a lot less of an adjustment.

[close]

Reynolds skates 8.5 on 139 don't he? Tbh first who cares and second is impossible to keep track of that since he changes setups like I change my socks.

[close]

Age has caught up with him and he isn't hucking much anymore; dude is riding an 8.125" - he replied to my/a question on insta a while back....but the dude has the madness so who knows what he's riding these days, no doubt he's got a quiver.

One my bigger mistakes….with setups is that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to size up. No. Not real helpful. Skating different stuff is fun, but bigger setups just wear me out.
I repeat myself often.

[Xen]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Anyone has experiences with 139s on a 8.25 deck?
I can fit 3 washers on the inside and maybe that is very similar to running 144 trucks?

[close]

The Boss runs that combo.  Prior to 144s, people skated 8.25" with either 139s or 149s depending on their preference, and without issue. If the 139s are nice and broken in (and you're used to them), there is going to be a lot less of an adjustment.

[close]

Reynolds skates 8.5 on 139 don't he? Tbh first who cares and second is impossible to keep track of that since he changes setups like I change my socks.

[close]

Age has caught up with him and he isn't hucking much anymore; dude is riding an 8.125" - he replied to my/a question on insta a while back....but the dude has the madness so who knows what he's riding these days, no doubt he's got a quiver.

[close]

One my bigger mistakes….with setups is that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to size up. No. Not real helpful. Skating different stuff is fun, but bigger setups just wear me out.
I repeat myself often.

I'm victim of this, but I've always felt more comfortable on 8.3s and 149s, sizing down while ok for flips and whatnot doesn't give me that sense of stability (wide and low and small wheels, it's the 90s kid in me).

[Bongwater Mojito]

I'm victim of this, but I've always felt more comfortable on 8.3s and 149s, sizing down while ok for flips and whatnot doesn't give me that sense of stability (wide and low and small wheels, it's the 90s kid in me).

Just set up a 8.3 + Indy 149 forged hollows from old stuff I had, was surprised of the difference. Yes, flips are heavier and it wears me out doing/trying them but there's the stability and wider area to grind. I know when I'll return to my recent 8.1 + Film 5.5 flips feels so much lighter to do.

Also noticed that even soft aftermarket barrel bushings are difficult to get as loose/responsive as I'm used to with Films - if I would set them as loose as I like, nylock wouldn't touch the kingpin.

[jaydella]

I'm riding Indy Stage 11 139 standards with bones hard bushings on the bottom and mediums on top, I kept the top washer on so I can get my ideal tightness/looseness without the bolt sticking out too far above the lock ring.

I've been enjoying this setup and want to get some hollows and put the standards on my winter/indoor ramp board. I ride an 8" board.

The story on the mixed bushings:

The stock bushings crushed and peeled. So I bought Bones mediums and really liked them. After a few months though, the front bottom bushing squashed out.

I bought Bones hard bushings but they turned out to be too stiff. So I came here, searched for threads on bushings, found a reply by someone saying they use hards on the bottom (at the baseplate) and medium on top (at the bolt) and it was perfect for them. So, I figured I'd try it before buying another pack of bushings. I love it. It could be that where I live it's been like 90-100 degrees and humid as fuck, but it's working for me now and feels great. Might be a different story after I move back to the east coast and skate in the fall and winter.

[FrozenIndustries]

I'm riding Indy Stage 11 139 standards with bones hard bushings on the bottom and mediums on top, I kept the top washer on so I can get my ideal tightness/looseness without the bolt sticking out too far above the lock ring.

I've been enjoying this setup and want to get some hollows and put the standards on my winter/indoor ramp board. I ride an 8" board.

The story on the mixed bushings:

The stock bushings crushed and peeled. So I bought Bones mediums and really liked them. After a few months though, the front bottom bushing squashed out.

I bought Bones hard bushings but they turned out to be too stiff. So I came here, searched for threads on bushings, found a reply by someone saying they use hards on the bottom (at the baseplate) and medium on top (at the bolt) and it was perfect for them. So, I figured I'd try it before buying another pack of bushings. I love it. It could be that where I live it's been like 90-100 degrees and humid as fuck, but it's working for me now and feels great. Might be a different story after I move back to the east coast and skate in the fall and winter.

Just my experience, but bones hards break in really well after a week and feel like a fresh set of mediums for the life of the bushings. The mediums rule new but they just die too quickly.

Have an old set of hards on my cruiser and they're perfect.