YOUR TRUCKS ARE PROBABLY TOO LOOSE... ROOKIE MISTAKE #8 

The thing most people miss is that to get your trucks more stable, you need to get harder bushings rather than krank the trucks to see kingpin threads. People are afraid to get trucks tighter after their bushings blew up in the past. It takes time and better bushings to tighten the trucks the right way.

this lesson is GOLD. when you are learning, you want stability, then you adjust your trucks as you get better. you go from tighter to loose as you get more control... not the other way around...

Absolutely loving the vids man. Your very blunt, matter-of-fact way of conveying things is refreshing. No beating around the bush, just telling it how it is. Good stuff bro

A few tips for those wanting to skate harder trucks. For reference I’m 160lbs and ride Indy’s on an 8.5in board and found bones hard bushings great(your board and shoe width affect how tight or loose your trucks feel). I found a few things that really helped dial my trucks in. 1. Bones bushings inner diameter is larger than the kingpin so I used aluminum foil to wrap around the kingpin to increase the diameter so they fit snugly. This keeps the bushing from shifting and clicking which makes the centering feel more damped. 2. I put a washer under the bottom bushing to keep the intended geometry of the trucks, even after tightening them down. 3. I 3d printed a washer from nylon that goes in between the two bushings, inside the large hole of the hangar. This keeps the bushing from smooshing into the hole, which would effectively loosen the trucks in a vicious cycle. Along with #2 also helps keep them from breaking. 4. Wax your pivot cups and potentially on the surfaces of the bushings that face each other. This helps keep everything running smoothly. 5. Get a yardstick and place it lengthwise along the side of each baseplate to align the trucks so they are both parallel. If your board has ever felt different skating the nose instead of the tail mis-aligned trucks are probably the reason. This drove me insane until I figured it out. The end result is a much more stable feeling while still being able turn tight.

I had a hard time with pressure flips with loose trucks. Tightened it specifically for that trick and never went back. I like it now.

I just tightened up after riding loose enough to where the trucks would jiggle, it did make my pop a little less. Loose made my ankles way stronger and got my balance and centering wayyy better. So now that I tightened to a medium tightness my pop is way more consistent and high, 360 flips are also a lot easier with the tighter trucks

Holy crap, this was a night and day difference! Tighter trucks even helped me hold grinds longer. I just changed my bottom bushings to cylinder shape , so it's even more stable when I do flip tricks

Norman droppin' the truth. Love it

Just started back after 15 yrs out and medium/tighter way better to start back! Thank you and love the channel!

Mate, I am 27 and I skated a little bit when I was 16. My partner got me a skateboard today. I managed to ollie again, but holy it was hard to balance because the complete she got had SUCH LOOSE TRUCKS.. Your video seriously helped me.

Great lesson. I'm learning this now and I started with bones hard and then bones medium and then bones soft for a long time. Now going back to mid. Especially getting into vert and I seen a video Christian Hosoi had them on his set up.

Not too tight, not too loose, just right.

really happy you talked about this

Beginner skater here and didn't realize my trucks were too loose. Def struggled to stabilize on my ollies before the pop. Thanks for the video.

I had to come back to this video because I’ve realized that loose is best for me because not only it makes style better but I have a lot more control and saves when it comes to landing smooth. What I’ve learned so far is that I have to start jumping/popping different, has to be a push/pop, not that pre-squat pop. And I have to sacrifice some pop, but I can’t have it all. I’m not trying to be Norman woods or Tyshawn anyway😂😂😂

Correct, as usual! Between the super loose truck trend and the huge board trend, kids are making it extremely difficult on themselves for no reason.

starting over after 15 i was never too good, and now im having issues with my trucks. It seems once i turn, the bushings don't recover the initial position so i find myself always over three wheels and something like that. I dont remember this thing happening to me back in the day...ill try to tighten it a little more and see how it respond. Nice video BTW

Thanks. I tried hard bushings but then i switched back to soft bushings. I'll give the hard ones another try because I still can't oliie right. I thought I should look steezy like when I see Yuto Horigome land a trick but I think you're right. As a beginner, it's not about looking cool. It's about learning how to do the trick.

Norman's right about trucks in the 90's. I would break kingpins and baseplates all the time. Hangers would crack easier too and axles slipped like crazy. Be thankful for your modern trucks.

Tight the trucks is really a great advice, thank you my G, other thing is to use harder bushings

Funny enough I ran my trucks tighter when I was younger and trying bigger things. But as I’ve aged and basically just sticking to smaller stuff, I’ve run looser trucks. One thing I’ve noticed it helps (at least with me) is slappies. But now that I’m in my 40’s, even with my dad weight I’m skating looser than before. I also tried going super loose (like Daewon loose) but more or less just to see how his board must feel. Obviously he is in a league all his own! And I literally changed it back after one sesh. It gave me a whole new respect for the madness that man puts out on a skateboard!

always very interesting [to listen to this loose vs tight debate] 😁 I ride my trucks very loose but I'm also very balanced on the board-- the only time most people can tell my trucks are loose is if they ride my board, we skate a set, or we're doing something the requires hella speed. Good vid

You got power! 😮 dominating those spots 💪

I run the indy medium barrel on the bottom, and bones hard bottom bushing on the top. I think I could play with it a little more to get it closer but this is the best setup I've ever ridden so far.

I skate Indy. I don’t change the bushings. I crank my back truck down to where I can see 3 treads, and I crank the front truck to where I can see 1 tread. And that is perfect for me. 👍 pop with good turning.

Dang you're good at this. Stand Tall you fall hahaha learned that the hard way 2 days ago, these pesky pebbles, just rolling to the park and boom, on the back. At least I got that out of the way before the park so all went smooth later but the butt and the wrist hurt still

Another thing that worked for me is try different bushings. I ride indys and the stock medium bushings were way too soft. Bones hards were way to hard and gave me a tough time kick turning on ramps. Got the black indy hards and its perfect. My turns feeling way better but also feels more stable on flat. But try what works for YOU.

I totally agree, I love tight trucks. helps with a kickflip, I can turn fine, and have a blast on transition. loose does help when I need help landing a 180, but I end up getting wheel bite because I like my big wheels so I just keep em tight all night.

I did the same thing in the 90s skated really tight trucks. Now that I'm 44 i skate them medium. But my bag of tricks is limited these days so im more focused on skating clean and consistently.

Good tip!! It does work!

My fav setup right now is the ACE-AF1 with the hard bushings they sell separately.

Thank you man Wisdom from a guru

Watching this made me miss working at a skateshop

This was EXACTLY my problem. I started skating again 6 months ago and trying kickflips were awful. I was getting wheel bite just bending my knees getting read to pop off. Fast forward to a couple months ago I realized my trucks were too lose. I still cant kickflip lol but my pop is much better. I still prefer loose trucks but for now I have them a bit tighter.

Funny enough I ran into this issue when picking up vert skating. I've always skated transition and liked my trucks pretty loose but I found I was wasting so much energy on vert just trying to remain stable when trying to chain airs and build height. Since tightening I noticed my flatground consistency became way easier too. I also would add that experimenting with bushings is really helpful for finding a truck feel that fits you. I ride the soft indy bushings, but tighten my trucks a bit more and they feel really stable but also can turn really well, just requires a little more lean.

Went to Indy Medium-Hards on a new board this week and it's been a journey, lost more tricks than I've gained recently but my freestyle skating feels almost as good as it's ever been

this is wisdom

I have such a problem with bushings crimping or blowing out. My trucks are either- 1.Tight for a literal minute 2.Ghost turning 3. Fairly loose to avoid destroying the bushings and avoid ghost turning. I usually opt for #3 just because I'm tired of fighting the fight for tighter trucks. I've tried med and hard/ conical and cylindrical bushings. I don't know what's wrong with me.

Thanks again Norman for share your knowledge!!

I just learned kickflips stationary. I noticed that it’s really hard to kickflip rolling with loose trucks. To the point where I don’t even understand how they do it

It’s crazy that people don’t understand that! My first tricks were learned on grass for stability and 26 years later I can skate loose and do all my tricks no problem, but I wouldn’t want to be learning how to skate on my board right now lol

You are very specific my brother I appreciate it 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

lmao brought back memories of those 90's trucks

I am a half pipe skater, always loved transition. I have been trying to learn flat ground without much success. It’s disappointing to go from being able to blunt and then not even getting my front side 180’s. I think this advise will help me a lot - skating transition you need loose trucks, and I hadn’t thought about tightening them up for when I do street. Thanks for the advice! Hopefully I get to speed in flat ground soon

I like loose trucks because the turning is smoother especially when i want to turn with one foot while im pushing. i tend to fall off my board more when my trucks are tighter because i have to use more force to turn especially because im relatively light (around 130 pounds). Norman is spitting straights facts tho, i like tightening my trucks around a quarter to a half turn when learning new tricks.

Great tips!

Bro. You are amazing, thank you for such great content! ❤

Wtf am i just seeing this guy for the first time???? Great video

Thanks couldn't pop my board properly until I tightened my trucks today.

Have you seen how loose Daewons trucks are? I think tight is good for tick tacking and beginners . If you like to have a more surf style, carving, etc. Ioose trucks are the way.

This is what I tell Al all times of the day. Dude has loose like super long hardware.

I didnt wanna hear this but it was definitely time i did tight them up to be fair i need new bushings

even as a 9 or 10 year experienced skater, i still get scared to Ollie the HIGHEST possible bc it feels so weird

Damn dude I just now realized that my bushing aren’t getting blown out, my waistline is and that’s why my wheels are biting more 🤣

Solid advice.

Whats up Norman! Would love to see how many threads you have showing on your tighter truck. I weigh around 180lbs and I ride Ace AF1 55's on a 8.5 but i put in hard bushings to get a little more rebound on my "medium tightness truck" without having to crank it to where i feel it "looks" nasty.

I like riding transition… so it’s tough medium

so, I'm new to skateboarding and here in my city (Brazil, Brasília City) there is this new bowl. I'll tight the trucks as much as I can, so I don't learn bad habits, am I right?

thanks so much guru👍

grreat vid, helped me a lot

Goated bro thank you

When would one be considered intermediate. Currently see myself as a beginner.

new sub here.. very interesting content!!!

Back to Medium yessir

Totally unrelated but you look familiar. Work for Street League??

my shit so loose it be wiggling out of nowhere

Isn't it like camber vs rocker snowboard. Camber gives power but its unforgiving, rocker gives float but Has got less power. I don't know... Maybe...😊😊😊

probably good advice but also the execution matters. i can see people tightening their trucks to the point where the bushings break and then they have tight trucks but also dead trucks

Can you make an Ollie tutorial for beginners?

Loose trucks good for bowl skating

Can you do an Ollie tutorial for beginners? I only have one called „how to Ollie higher“ but u know a video where you explain Ollie step-by-step step

Cruise Loose. Skate Med/Tight.

I'm so conflicted because this all makes a lot of sense, but I skate a lot of transition now, and tight trucks on a quarter is wild.😢

How do I get medium Trucks?

next rookie mistake: your pants are too baggy

is bones 96a bushing good?

I never could skate loose trucks

When you skate loose you just have to skate faster and everything balances out. Tight trucks are dangerous in my experience unless I’m trying to slowly approach an obstacle and be precise

DAEWON and Evan Smith. TFunk. KADER ride loose AF my boi. GONZ too.

Enjoy sk8