Longboard Truck Placement : How to Put Trucks On A Longboard 

 September 25, 2020

By James Mason

longboard truck placement

Longboarding is a fun activity to pass your time. Now, to start riding in your longboard you need some setting up to do. Today I will discuss how you can set up the trucks in your longboard. You can easily do it by yourself at home.
Now there are several kinds of trucks and each of their setting technique is different. In this article, I am going to discuss two of them.

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Longboard Truck Placement

Top Mounting The Trucks

If your deck is newly jolted, you'll want to start by trying to poke using a screwdriver through the holes in the deck at the bottom. Do this with care, so you don't hurt yourself during the process. If you are working with a drop through deck, then just scroll down to the Drop Through Truck Assembly section for more guidance while setting up a drop through panel.

Any drop through decks, however, can be top mounted if you want it to be. When setting up a top mount deck, insert all eight screws from the top into the holes and turn over the board, bottom side upwards. Now you can slide the trucks through the baseplate onto the screws.

If you are working with regular kingpin trucks, then the trucks should be mounted in such a way that each truck's kingpin and bushings face inwards towards the middle of the deck. When you use reverse kingpin trucks, the trucks should be mounted so that each truck's kingpin and bushings face outward, towards the deck's tip and tail.

Tighten the screws in a "crisscross" pattern, using the skate tool to keep the nuts in place: if you start with the northwest screw, tighten the southeast one next, then the southwest, then the northeast. It guarantees an equal distribution of the hold over the entire base plate. If you are using a skate tool and a screwdriver, keeping the screwdriver in place and rotating the skate tool to secure it is best.

Drop Through Mounting The Trucks

First, loosen and remove your kingpin nut, then remove your top bushing washer, top bushing, and kingpin hanger, to drop through mount your trucks. You might need to jiggle the hanger to help pull out the top bushing from the bushing seat and remove the pivot from the pivot cup of the hanger.

Then, simply place the base plate on top of your deck, so that the kingpin, points through the mounting hole through the drop.

When using regular kingpin trucks, the trucks should be mounted in such a way that each truck's kingpin and bushings face inwards towards the middle of the deck. When you use reverse kingpin trucks, the trucks should be mounted so that each truck's kingpin and bushings face outward, towards the deck's tip and tail.

Line the mounting holes in the baseplate with the mounting holes in the wall, and insert the four screws from top down through the holes. Add the nuts to the screws to keep the trucks loosely in place before you can firmly fasten them.

Tighten the screws in a "crisscross" pattern, using the skate tool or the adjustable wrench to keep the nuts in place: if you start with the northwest screw, tighten the southeast one next, then the southwest, then the northeast. It guarantees an equal distribution of the hold over the entire base plate.

After all of the baseplates have been secured and your bushings have been picked, you will need to reassemble your bushings, hangers, and bushing washers.

Secondly, make sure that when adding your baseplates, you did not lose your bottom bushing and the bottom bushing washer. To keep it all together, the order of things from the base of the kingpin should be baseplate, washer, bushing, hanger, bushing, washer and finally the kingpin nut.

The best technique to reattach the hanger is to pivot the hanger into the pivot cup first, then lower the hanger into place. Assure that your bushings tightly fit into the bushing seat when reassembling your vehicles.

Finally, just tighten your kingpin nut until your hanger has no vertical movement. Too much tightening will reduce the output of your bushings, and leaving your kingpin nut too loose will give your turns a messy, unstable look.

Now that you've set up your drop through trucks on your drop through deck, you're ready to gear up your longboard with some wheels and bearings.

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About the author

James Mason here. Surfing, skateboarding, and longboarding enthusiast currently living in Rio, Brazil. Started boarding since I was old enough to wear a helmet, except I often didn't. Think that explains a lot :)