Originally published in March, 2007, this article is back by special request.  Do you have a factory or operation you want to show off?  Call us. 

Tracker Trucks, San Diego and skateboarding all go way back, together.  Founded in the heyday of the 1970’s skateboarding boom (and some would say a cause of said boom), Trackers were designed by Larry Balma and produced in a Sorrento Valley manufacturing warehouse for years.  Later, Balma moved his operations up to Oceanside, in the northern reaches of San Diego County, and they remain there today:  an essentially nondescript set of buildings, tucked away in a quiet business park.    Not too long ago, we happened to be in the neighborhood, so we dropped in on the Tracker headquarters in force.  Buddy Carr greeted us with a grin, and gladly gave us a tour of the facility.

It was a cool opportunity to get behind the scenes and see the nitty gritty background of the Tracker, Orion and Torch trucks, all produced by Balma’s “Climax Manufacturing".  About halfway through our tour, we drummed up the courage to ask “Mr. Carr” whether we could shoot a few photos.  To the chagrin of the crew on the manufacturing line, he let us loose with our flash set on strobe, and so we’ve got an inside look at Tracker Trucks.  So, settle in and enjoy an informal tour, behind the scenes, at The House of Balma.

Well, some correction may be necessary, at this point.  We also recently saw the prototyping for the new FasTrack trucks, and it’s almost all on paper and computer!  Rest assured, Buddy tells us that they’ll still be inspecting and testing the hard-protos in here when the time comes.  This is also where they take base plates and hangers from each run of trucks, to test and verify for quality assurance.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves here, though.  We asked Buddy to take us through the life of a Tracker, so he explained that the hangers and base plates are cast offsite, at a local aluminum foundry.   Some of their trucks are cast with heavily-splined axles in place (generally any truck they anticipate will be slammed, over and over again); some are cast without and will have the long axles pressed into position.  Either way, the hangers all start in a mold, like this one:

After the molding process, the hangers are on “trees”.  Each gets cut off the tree of metal and the trimmings go back into the “pot” at the foundry.   These hangers below are just a set that never finished processing. 

We actually found these under a workbench in the testing room. 

After the foundry operation, the hangers and base plates are delivered to the Tracker facility and cleaned up with a “vibratory” –essentially a large, vibrating bin filled with granite stones and water.  They dump the fresh aluminum into the vibe, fire it up and let it all stir around for an hour or so.  The end result is a smoothed, hammered-finish on the aluminum parts.  You can see the rig below; it’s that large, green machine you see behind Buddy as he wheels a cartload of hangers into the factory.

After the trucks and base plates are run through the vibratory, they’re set out in batches, by type and brand.  We were astonished to see how many trucks were being processed, and how quickly it was done.  Some of the trucks you see in the photos here were finished by the time we left the building.

See?  Treasure!

So, the base plates go down one line in production, and the hangers another.  The base plates are all sanded and ground “to square” by guys that have been making skateboard trucks for years.  

Yeah, it was cool weather, but that glove's not to keep his hand warm... 

After the sanding, the trucks are drilled in the appropriate hole pattern(s).  In the photo below, they’re drilling a set of MidTracks, so it’s a “4-gang” drill being used to poke all four holes of the Old School mounting pattern, at once.   On some trucks, they’ll switch tools and poke 6 holes at once.

After the drilling, the base plates are washed down and have kingpins pressed into them.  After that, they’re rolled on over to the assembly line.   Some nice young lady strolls into the “bushing room” and selects the appropriate parts for the particular truck, then sets up the base plates with lower bushings on them, to await hangers.

Richy Carrasco loves that room full of "Superball" bushings. 

Now the hangers get a similar treatment, after the vibratory.  First, they’re sanded to remove any leftover flashing or seams from the casting process, and then they’re machined or cleaned up. 

Sanding and Facing, Sanding and Facing. 

In some cases, where the axles have been pressed into place, the ends of each hanger are faced.   The guy above, on the right, has a set of hangers laid into a jig.  He drops a cutting bit over the axle on one side of each hanger, faces it perfectly square, then flips the jig and does it to the other side.  Yes, they manage to create a fair amount of aluminum chips… and it’s all recycled later. 

400lb. of aluminum chips, anyone?  It's all sold to recyclers. 

After the hangers are sanded, faced and cleaned up, they arrive at the assembly table, where they’re slapped onto waiting base plates, and bolted together.  You can’t really tell from the photos below, since our activity caused the guys to stop, but they go quickly.

The completed trucks get packed into boxes and then they’re off to the warehouse side of the facility, to be cataloged and readied for shipping.

When it’s all said and done, over ten different sets of American hands have poured, deburred, sanded, cleaned, machined, assembled and packed your Tracker, Orion or Torch trucks.     Our tour was late in the day, and the entire crew was getting ready to head home.   It turns out that we missed the morning sessions on the Buddy Carr Test Track... check that out, below.

That’s about all we’re allowed to show you all, right now.  To go to the Tracker Trucks website, just click those words.  In the near future, we’ll have an inside look at the first new Tracker in several years, the FasTrack, inverted kingpin truck.  Go Skate, and then come on back.  Update:  the FasTrack release.

Bonus Round:  oh yes, there's more.  For more photos of the factory and our tour, some interesting shots of equipment and gear stocked in the warehouse as they get ready to ship and casual shots of the amazing collection of old, rare, ultra rare and weird skateboards that adorn the walls of the Tracker offices, go to the Tracker Factory Tour Gallery we've created for ya, 'Fish!  There are even some shots of various rare boards and seized knock-offs that are hanging in the rafters or tucked away where nobody can get at them.    There are some gems hiding in there for fans of the old, weird and rare, for sure!