What trucks on a 7' board?

[Thaison]

Okay, so I'm gonna be building a seven foot board this winter, with a wheelbase of around 65". My question is, what are good trucks for these kinda boards? I was thinking of getting some original S8s to get better turning, but well it really matter when the board is gonna be that big? Or could I just use regular RIIs?

[silversurfer]

A 7 foot board!?

Cool.

R2's turn good, but on a board that big you want to
reduce the turning radius as much as possible.
Or you really wont be able to use the board except in
a very large open area.

I'd go with Original's. Model depending on the width of the deck.
Or go with smaller ones and make holes in the board where the wheels
would bite. Like the Freestyle 43, it's not on there site anymore but
you can still see it in their banner ad here;

http://www.ncdsa.com/gen_tab2.asp?CatID=5

In any case you must design the board for no wheel bite, particularly
with trucks that can lean up to 45 degrees like Original's.

Even with Original's a board that big is going to need a lot of space to
turn in.

But post pics when it's ready!

[Thaison]

Cool! Thanks for the advice! I've currentley just drawn the board on paper, but the way I've "shaped" it it'll be about 10" wide at its widest, and not more than 7" wide where the hangars go. As for wheelclearance, I'm probably gonna skip wheelwells, as I wanna use either oak or black walnut as the outside strip (I'm gonna v-lam it and use around seven or so pieces of wood, basically like volvoguys giant), so ill make superbig risers instead . Anyhow, this isn't gonna be done for a long time, as I haven't even checked out wood prices yet. Add the fact that I don't have acess to a planer at the moment which means I'm either gonna have to buy one, which'll be hard on my student budget, or I'll have to find someone who does, and use theirs. Hopefully gonna be done late january to february...but I'll definately post pics!!

[silversurfer]

Sounds good.

I was going to say ask VoVoGuY about his giant set up.
He prolly has the most experience with a board that size.

Do you know what trucks and wheels he has on that?

It sounds like the board comes in quite a bit where the trucks and wheels
will go. If you make the cut outs there pretty generous you should avoid
wheel bite pretty well. Do you have a drawing or blue print of the deck
you can post here?

Original's come with a special riser which is pretty big. If you use that
and some not too big wheels, you should be ok. I think some 66mm Abec 11 Striker's would be a good choice of wheel or do already have some wheels in mind? Original has some clearance measurements on their website, somewhere. I think you should go with S8's or maybe even S10's. If you go with Original's you'll prolly want to get the trucks before finalizing the design.

Keep us posted on your progress. Interesting project.

[Momona Boe]

Nuclear Pickles are pretty turny too, and high as well. But the Originals are more adjustable.

You really should consider cutouts or at least wheelwells for 7', otherwise you're gonna need quite a bit of riser. I had a 6' deck for awhile, but in order to combat the wheelbite, I had like an inch of riser and it made it a little too high for me. I ended up just cutting it down to 5'.

[joseph]

what about exkate trucks? they are used a lot on boards this big to get a turny longboard surfboard feel. i've only ridden exkates on a small board but i think the wider ones would be killer on something that long.

[EBasil]

I was thinking the same, Joseph: that Exkate's might fit the bill nicely. They're very turny, but I'm impressed with the stability of my 101's with new black bushings. I may swap them onto my 60" for giggles.

[silversurfer]

I may swap them onto my 60" for giggles.

What set up do you have on your 60" now?

It's not quite 7', but that's a big board.

[K-Rimes]

Volvo's Set-Up is wedged randal II in the front and flat riser randal II in the back. I rode it a couple days ago and it carves sick as hell. I think it would be nicer with double wedged, but its nice this way too.

[Thaison]

Those exkates sound interesting; getting more of a "surf" feel is what I'm aiming for with this board, though I want it to turn as well..does Volvoguy have wheel wells on his board? I dont wanna make cutouts cause I think it would take some of the charm away from a giant board..

[silversurfer]

I don't really like eXkate's because 1) you need to buy different bushings
to adjust the turniness and 2) they mounting screws dont go all the way
through the deck and sometimes (at least once) pop out leading a mouthful of poo.

Original's are just as surfy and turny and can be easily adjusted with
nothing else to buy.

I'm not recommending Carver's but check out their website anyway.
There is a video of a guy on an ACTUAL surfboard mounted with Carver
trucks. It's amazing how he can manuever that big board. I've never
tried Carver's but they seem interesting, but very unconventional.

Original's feel pretty much like randal's except that you can lean the
board over up to 45 degrees, so they turn REALLY sharply. The turning
action of the Carver's is much different and from what I understand takes some getting used to.

But hey people who own them love their eXkate's and Carver's so who
knows?

Unless you are going to go straight all the time, use tiny wheels or don't care about wheel bite I think you are going to need to shape the board
with cut outs or at the minimum wheel wells. Wheel bite sucks!

www.carverskateboards.com
www.originalskateboards.com
www.exkate.com
www.stik.com

[EBasil]

[quote="silversurfer
What set up do you have on your 60" now?

I don't really like eXkate's because... 2) their mounting screws don't go all the way through the deck and sometimes (at least once) pop out leading a mouthful of poo.
[/quote]

I've got RII 180's with Flashback 75a's on the 60. It's not like a board that long is going to slide real quick anyway, but it rails like that.

The Exkate bolts go all the way through the board, just not all the way through the truck's baseplate. They thread into a tapped socket on the baseplate. Yeah, that struck me as odd, but I haven't had one loosen up yet.

[Thaison]

Okay, so i checked out the exkates and the originals, and I think I'm gonna go with original s10s..reason for this is their info about board clearance, which is about 8". With the shape I've got now the board does not exceed 7" where the trucks are at. Anyway, if this is wrong and I should throw this idea in a blender, uh, tell me. Please .

[silversurfer]

I think I'm gonna go with original s10s..reason for this is their info about board clearance, which is about 8". With the shape I've got now the board does not exceed 7" where the trucks are at. Anyway, if this is wrong and I should throw this idea in a blender, uh, tell me. Please .

Well, someone might disagree but I think those will be Purrrfect!

That's gonna be an incredible board. What wheels are you gonna use
on there?

You must post pics when it's done. Please.

Thanks!

[Thaison]

For wheels I'm probably gonna go krypto 76s or 70s if the 76s are too big. Main reason for that is that this old guy I know bought about 80 sets or something..He's really cool, he also started an acount at SKF; bought 300 friggin bearings to get it, and sells em for like 20 bucks for a set. As for pics, well, as I said before, no access to planer at the moment, but I'm working on it. Hopefully gonna start sometime in december, and have a couple by the end of January, but you'll get your pics silversurfer, I promise .