Why Independent trucks are so DIFFERENT

in January 2021 I set up my first ever pair of  independent trucks only to have the hangar on the   front truck snap within only a few months from  that day on I vowed never to touch independent   trucks again and stay loyal to the company I've  been riding for over 10 years and in my opinion   is the best truck company in skateboarding which  is of course Thunder Trucks I've come to learn   that it's a common occurrence for independent  axles or hangers to either Bend or snap and the   reason why the quality of their products have gone  down so much is most likely because of a massive   change that the company went through in 2018. I'm  going to go over that in more detail in a second   but let's look at the independent Forge Hollow  trucks and go over the main differences between   independent trucks and Thunder Trucks and see  why they are so different to each other so with   all the egg boards that I've been riding lately  this is a 9.4 inch board I'm not riding anything   smaller than a 9.1 so these 8.5 wide trucks that I  have are just not cutting it anymore they just sit   too far in on these big boards especially when I  was riding that 10 inch board the other week so I   wanted to get these same Hollow light trucks in  a 161 which has an axle width of 9.1 inches but   I just couldn't get my hands on any of them so I  decided to give independent one last chance and go   for their forged Hollow trucks these are in a 169  so that has the 9.125 axle width that I'm looking   for so that'll suit these boards perfectly and  these are basically the independent equivalent   of the Thunder Hollow lights but there are a  lot of big differences between these two trucks   and I'm going to get into that now so like I said  these are the independent stage 11 forged Hollow   trucks in a 169 which has a 9.125 axle width  these have hollow axles and Hollow kingpins   as well as a forged base plate so the standard  Independence axle width is 55 mil but because   of the forged bass player it's made lighter and  thinner it makes it 53.5 mil High the standard   Thunder axle set at a 52 mil axle height with  their forged base plate being one mil thinner so   it sits at a 51 millimeter axle height if you're  riding the hollow lights like I'm riding now so   independent trucks sit higher than Thunders  with these being 2.5 millimeter higher than   the ones I'm riding at the moment a lot of you  guys have told me that the forged Hollow trucks   from independent are actually heavier than the  Thunder standard trucks which would lead us to   assume that the hollows an independent make are  much heavier than the hollows that thunder make   since these are heavier than the standard Thunders  but let's get into the geometry of each truck and   why they differ so much because that's the main  point of difference so on independent trucks the   axle sits closer to the center of the base plate  with the Thunder axle sitting further out closer   to the edge of the base plate here that alone  makes these trucks so much different to the way   they perform the first major thing that's going  to change is because the axle sits closer to the   center of the base plate on India so that's going  to shorten your overall wheelbase since the axles   are sitting closer that means your wheels are  going to be closer together now having a shorter   wheelbase is obviously going to help you pop your  tail faster and your turning circle is going to   be harsher too because they're closer together  you're going to be able to make sharper turns   another major thing that having the axle sitting  in further is going to help is when you're doing   those slides and tail slides I myself experience  this a lot when I'm doing back tails on Ledges   because the axle sits closer to the outside of the  base plate here when I'm doing back Tails a lot of   my wheels are sticking and rubbing along the side  of the ledge so because these are sitting further   in the base plate will be hitting the ledge a  lot and not so much of your wheel will be sliding   across the ledge when you're doing no slides  and tail slides so I feel like that's going to   be a big benefit for me because I've had a lot of  trouble trying to find out which Wheels to use it   kind of counteract this problem with the Thunder  Trucks so they're the main differences between   Independence and Thunders and since I've been  riding these Thunder Hollow lights for a while   now I'm going to be able to make a very detailed  comparison of how these both perform compared to   each other so I'm going to set these up right now  let you guys know how long it takes for these to   wear in how they feel first of all and then  I'm going to test all the differences I just   listed and then I'll go over what independent  did in 2018 that would change their company   forever and why the quality of their products  just keep going down because of it so let's go all right foreign sorry G all right first impressions of these  trucks they're so much heavier than my previous   setup because they were eight and a half inch  trucks these are 9.1 wide so there's obviously   a lot more truck even though these are Hollow  it wasn't too heavy to skate but I just had to   get used to the feeling of having a heavier  board so that was the first thing I noticed   second thing was how loose these are because  I run my trucks exactly how I get them I don't   tighten or loosen my Kingpin when I get them I  just ride them and wear them in and pretty much   never touch the Kingpin Bowl so these felt a lot  looser because they are brand new but it wasn't   like I was losing control there were still heaps  responsive and as Loose as they were I still felt   like I was fully in control that could be because  of the geometry of where the Kingpin sits these   turns sharper so it could be a lot looser but the  stability of them is still there which felt nuts   the hardest thing was doing the back 50 on The  Ledger stand there's so much more hanger space   here to lock in my grinds but I felt like I was  slipping back and forth between heels and toes   on The Ledger sand do they feel good they're  just a little bit of getting used to I'm going   to skate a bit more of the rails and ledgers  here just to get used to the Locking and try   and figure out where I need to lock in and where  I have to have my weight then I'll talk about   why Independence business has changed so much and  why their quality of their products have dropped all right right now all right so after a while I got used to where  the pinch point on my truck style for certain   grinds just because the hangar width is so  different to what I've experienced before but   it does feel good looking down at my board and  knowing right on the edge of the board there on   the inside of the wheel is my pinch point so when  I was riding the 8.5 trucks they sat a lot further   in I couldn't visually see from the top where my  wheels were so I was kind of just ollieing and   guessing where the Locking point was but now from  the top view I can kind of see the axle nut so I   know the distance of where my hanger is and where  I can lock in so it feels comfortable now but it   took a little bit of getting used to so in 2018  independent moved all their manufacturing out to   China and coincidentally that is when all of their  products dropped in quality so they used to be   poured in San Francisco like Venture and thunder  and Venture and thunder are still poured in San   Francisco in America so they were high quality  products and all of the materials and the way   it's put together is like really Top Notch so a  lot of people have lost respect for independent   because they've moved their manufacturing over  to China it might be cheaper for them to produce   their products now but they are a cheaper quality  product like I said at the beginning my hanger   cracked on me the first time I rode these  trucks a lot of people have a problem with   the axle bending or the hangers breaking off or  the Kingpin snapping so this is me giving these   trucks a second chance I'm hoping that doesn't  happen to me on these trucks but only time will   tell and they feel good at the moment though I'll  say that much for them so now that I've got the   lock-in points on my grinds kind of figured out I  want to test how it feels doing those slides and   tail slides because the axle sits in further I've  got some base plate clearance that can slide on   the side of the ledge rather than my wheels just  gripping to the side and then I need to test the   wheelbase because these egg boards have tapered  kicks they whip really fast when I'm doing tricks   like tray flips and three shelves and big spins  and stuff like that so now that my wheelbase has   been closed and made shorter I'm wondering how  my flip tricks and the whipping of my board is   going to go so no sides and tail sides first and  then I'm going to do the flip tricks after that thank you foreign I've actually been skating these trucks for  a little over a month now and I really like   them for the bigger size egg boards that I've  been riding so all the differences I talked   about in the beginning between these and Thunder  Trucks the way it was pretty incomparable since   I went from an 8.5 inch wide truck to a 9.125  inch truck these were obviously going to feel   heavier because they are bigger trucks but I  pretty much got used to the weight increase as   I was warming up I didn't feel any difference  at all with these being 2.5 millimeter higher   than the Thunder Trucks my Ollie's nollies and  flip tricks all felt the same I didn't notice   any difference with the geometry of these shots  giving me a slightly smaller wheelbase I didn't   actually feel the difference of that either when  it come to all of those scooping tricks that I   was talking about which was really interesting  to me because having a smaller wheelbase and the   tapered kicks of an egg board I thought all of  my tray slips and big fins were just going to   whip out of control but I feel like going up to  bigger trucks the extra weight of these kind of   compensated for that so my tree flips and three  shelves and all that didn't whip out of control   because my setup actually had more weight to  it but the main differences I found and what   I already expected from the axle of the truck  sitting closer to the center of the base plate   was my back Tails getting better and the ability  to carve and turn sharper got better as well so   having that little bit more base plate clearance  not having so much of my wheel sliding hard up   against the side of the ledge really did help out  the back Tails a lot and the trucks being able to   carve and turn better really helps at a busy skate  park where there's a lot of people around and you   can just weave in between everyone or whenever  I'm skating transition and I'm whipping around   in the bowl Corners it feels really good as  for the differences between these and Thunder   Trucks I would say that Thunder Trucks are better  suited to straight line type of skateboarding like   technical Legend manual tricks or big guts and  stair skating where you want your trucks to be   really stable and reliable and independent trucks  will be more suited to directional skateboarding   so skating balls skating transition but they also  help with ledge and rail skating as well since   they turn sharper and as a result a pinch sharper  as well so it's really good for grinding Ledges   and rails so neither one is better than the other  it just depends on what style of skating you you   do to what brand of trucks that are going to suit  you better to get a deeper look at the Thunder   Hollow light trucks check out this video right  here and I'll see you guys in the next one peace

Channel: Leon Paxton

Views: 37,565

Keywords: skate, skater, skateboard, skatepark, skateboarding, skateboarder, indian musicdent trucks, thunder trucks, skateboard trucks, independent trucks review, thunder trucks review, independent trucks vs thunder trucks, skateboard trucks review

Id: E0VY-x5Mkko

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2023