A longboard can be a sophisticated thing for you if you are too heavy. Therefore, the buying procedure of a simple longboard becomes talkative and takes too much time when the rider wishes to have a longboard with good weight-bearing ability. Recently, “how much weight can a longboard hold” has been asked several times.
Today, I will scrutinize all the factors and see the weight limit of a deck. Moreover, with different types of longboards, you will have various decks, and each of them will have its own load capacity. If your weight is stopping you to enter the longboarding world, tell Andrew Norris your exact weight and I will tell find a perfect longboard for you.
Which longboard has the maximum weight-bearing ability?
Our team have been riding longboards for a long time and we are familiar with almost all those longboards people are currently riding. So, there are some longboards that can hold around 330lbs at once. They are specially manufactured for heavy riders.
Most importantly, the deck is not the only thing that makes your Longboard better for holding weight. Its material, shape, wheels, and trucks must be evenly strong if you weigh 300lbs or above.
What’s the average weight a longboard can hold?
Flexibility of the longboard remains the major concern when we are discussing how much weight can a longboard hold. The average load that a longboard can hold would be between 200-300 lbs. As mentioned above, there are also some that bear weight around 330lbs, but they have the flexibility of almost none.
Therefore, the average capacity should be around 260lbs because the flexibility decreases when the load-bearing capacity expands. Lastly, if your riding style requires flexibility then you must choose a board that can hold around 260lbs.
What makes a good weight-bearing longboard
Rather than a deck, a longboard has many other essential parts in it. All of these parts make a longboard eligible of bearing weight more than 300lbs. These important parts include wheels, trucks, wheelbase, deck material, and designs of the deck. Let’s dive into this to see what would help a longboard last longer.
Deck Material
First of all, we are going to discuss the part that plays the major role in bearing more weight than usual. We have a long list of materials that manufacturers use while making a longboard deck. Here, we have put light on the 3 major ones and analyzed how they improve the deck’s stiffness.
Bamboo:
If you have been longboarding even for last few months, you must be aware of Bamboo material. It is a trending and the most suitable choice if you want to have both sturdiness and flexibility in your rides. The best longboard brands like using Bamboo material to build a longboard deck. An estimate says that Bamboo made decks can hold around 300lbs at once. Moreover, they are cheap compared to the other materials on our list and market.
Maple:
Maple wood is the second most used material in the construction of longboard decks. Furthermore, it has always been the choice of those who want maximum flexibility in their deck. With an average weight-bearing capacity, you will be able to perform all those riding styles where flexibility is essential.
Carbon Fiber:
In case, you are not tight on your budget, Carbon Fiber is the material you should go for when choosing a longboard. A deck or Longboard made with Carbon Fiber is for those who are not too heavy in weight and have some extra money to invest. In other words, this material is among the expensive ones and struggles while holding more than 260lbs.
Deck’s Shape and Size
The debate on how much weight can a longboard hold may move towards the types of longboards, but we want you to know that shape and size will also decide how much weight is a longboard going to bear. In simpler words; the bigger the size, the better weight it will hold. But it will not let you enjoy all the riding styles as many require shorter decks.
For those who love downhill longboarding, a longer board will be a satisfactory choice. Because it is very hard to control the rides and keep the momentum alive while you ride on a shorter board, wait, we are done here. It can be problematic if you have the same longboard but want to go up the hill.
Length apart, the width of the deck has to be near about 8 inches. If it goes over 9 inches, you will enjoy the straighter rides only because the wider decks do not suit the quick turns and other tricky stuff over a longboard.
For a longboard design for heavy riders, we must say you should invest in a carving type of board. The secondary thing you need to find is a suitable material with such a shape. This combo will work perfectly for heavy persons.
Suitable Longboard Design for Heavy Riders
Wheels
The rider’s weight gets distributed in deck, wheels, wheelbase, trucks, etc. When we are discussing how much weight can a longboard hold, wheels are among the major components that help a longboard bear more weight. We all know smaller wheels roll faster and bigger ones grasp the ground well and disallow shocks. We have seen many hefty riders choosing rollers with around 70-75mm diameter. These dimensions do both tasks easily; they don’t let you fall and also bear a lot of weight.
75mm Wheels
Wheelbase
The wheelbase is also known as the distance between the longboard or skateboard wheels. According to our experienced skaters, the shorter wheelbase will allow more stability to the rides, but you may struggle during the sharp turns with these settings. In this case, we recommend you understand your riding style first and then choose the wheelbase settings.
Trucks
During our recent research on longboard and rider’s weight, we observed that trucks are the most important parts of longboards after deck that play a huge role in bearing the weight or a rider. The rider’s load shifts towards the trucks whenever the rider does a flip, trick, or dance on the Longboard.
Trucks Settings
There are two 2 types of trucks;
Reverse Kingpin Trucks:
These trucks are considered a suitable pick for the high rider due to their fewer weight-bearing ability.
Double Kingpin Trucks:
These have more wideness than reverse ones. Ultimately becoming the best choice for heavy riders.
You have to be very careful with the quality of both of the trucks. If there is no quality, neither the reverse kingpin trucks will perform well nor the double kingpin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does weight matter on a longboard?
Yes, it does. If you are a heavy person, you should dig for a long time to find the best Longboard for yourself. Keeping in mind the quality of the deck’s material, wheels, trucks, and wheelbase. Deck’s material and size should always be the first priority for any heavy rider.
Are longboards supposed to flex?
You have to spend a lot of time finding a longboard with reasonable flex. The flex and weight won’t work very well together in the longboarding world because the sturdiness decreases the flexibility of the deck. That is to say; a flexible longboard deck will struggle in both going faster and bearing weight.
How much does a longboard weigh?
The longboards weigh an average of 12 pounds. Moreover, when you apply grip tape on it, it loads a bit more. If you want to use a skateboard or Longboard for portability, you should be worried about the length rather than weight.
Final Words
Due to multiple types of longboards, it is never easy to tell how much weight can a longboard hold. Our research team says that the average weight-bearing ability stays around 260lbs. I suppose you might be wrong if you think that only the deck will define the load capacity. The rest of the parts, like wheels, trucks, deck’s shape and size, all these parts matter. If you want to have a deck with maximum capacity, it would be around 330lbs with no flexibility. There are numerous longboards out there in the market, and you can easily find the best longboards for heavy riders.
