Due to the availability of multiple types of longboards, there is a possibility that you will come across different trucks’ adjustments and tightnesses. Therefore, the longboard riders must learn “How to Tighten Longboard Trucks.” Moreover, even if you buy a suitable longboard according to your riding style, you still may need to try different alignments of trucks. For example, for quick turns over a longboard, you will need loose trucks, and for safer rides, you will have to ride with tightened trucks.

Trucks Tightness and Longboarding Styles

Firstly, we will go through the most popular riding styles and trucks’ stiffness required for them. So, specify your riding manner to BoardsOnTop, and we will help you thoroughly. We’ve got a long list of longboarding styles, but we will be analyzing the most liked ones. Later, we will let you know how to tighten longboard trucks or loosen them. 

Longboard Cruising and Trucks:

Cruising on a longboard means you have to roam around the city or go forward on the road with pushes. In this matter, your board has to keep the riders safe, which means the tightened trucks will do their job very well. Whether you love to cruise or carve, you can adjust the trucks later after one or two rides. So, if you wish to ride at high speed, start with loose trucks and then change accordingly.

Trucks’ Tightness for Carving and Pumping:

Longboard carving has been the favorite riding technique of many longboard lovers. The most exciting fact about carving and pumping is that it’s a great cardio workout. You have to travel with your board in a zigzag or S shape. For such longboarding steps, we recommend everyone to have less tight trucks. This will help you pump and follow the pattern quickly.

Downhill Longboarding and Trucks Settings:

You must have seen video clips on YouTube showing how fast people go down the hill with their longboard. It would not be wrong to say that downhill longboarding is all about achieving maximum speed. For this purpose, loose trucks will surely help you but keeping them a bit tighter will keep you safe when turning the board.

Trucks’ Settings for Tricks:

Many people invest in a longboard to perform tricks and freestyle on it. We have to analyze the scheme before deciding how tight the longboard trucks should be. In most longboard freestyles, you will not need high speed, which means you can keep the trucks neither too tight nor too loose. Doing stunts on a longboard with such trucks’ alignments will prevent mishaps.

Longboard Dancing and Trucks:

Longboard dancing is a mixture of numerous moves and steps. Some actions require pace during the rides, and some require instant turns. There is no single best tightness of trucks for longboard dancing due to multiple techniques. The tip here is to make changes in the stiffness after the ride. 

How to Tighten Longboard Trucks

We’ve been longboarding and reviewing longboards for a long time. We came to know that tightening or loosening the trucks is more accessible than knowing how much you should compress your trucks. We have shed light on all the popular riding styles, so specify your type and see how much you should tighten your trucks. Let’s move on to today’s topic of “How to tighten longboard trucks.” Here are a few simple steps that you’ll need to work on.

1. Your Riding Method

As mentioned earlier, you can’t keep the same tightness in trucks with all riding techniques. Thus cruise, carve, dance, or ride your longboard down the hill and see what changes are required in the trucks. In this case, our guidance given above will help you thoroughly. Implementing this step is essential because wrong settings can be problematic. Here’s what you will have to do,

1. Ride your longboard at different speed levels to see if everything works perfectly well or not. 
2. Secondly, taking tricky turns will be the easiest way to know how much tightness is required in trucks.
3. You may need to loosen the trucks as well; you will do this when you struggle in taking turns. Riding a longboard with too tightened trucks may result in an injury.

2. Use of Skate Tool

Once you have noticed how much tightness is required in trucks, you will need the best skate tool to continue the procedure. Unfortunately, you can’t proceed without the skating tool. Before starting tightening, make sure you have ridden the board and know how much stiffness in trucks is required. Here is how you will use the skate tool to make changes in the trucks.

1. Turn your longboard or skateboard, and you will see a kingpin in the middle of the trucks. This is the point where you will be placing the skate tool and rotating it for different alignments. 
2. There will be a peg there as well if you want to remove it from the trucks. By doing that, you will be able to remove the hanger and its advantages.

Our suggested video below will help you understand what steps you need to follow for tightening the longboard trucks. In the end, we would like you to ride the longboard again once the changes are done. Notice if you struggle in achieving speed or taking turns, and use the skate tool again for suitable changes.

How to Loosen Longboard Trucks

Loosening the trucks is as important as tightening them in the longboarding era. We want to highlight “How to Loosen Longboard Trucks” as well. First of all, keep in mind to loosen the trucks only when needed. You will need it when the turns in your rides are not quick and accurate. You will require the same skate tool used for the tightening process to execute this plan. Here are the steps to implement,

1. Use a skating tool provided by longboard brands because it will fit the kingpin perfectly. 
2. Place the skate tool in the kingpin place and turn it right to the left for loosening the trucks. It can be an advantage or disadvantage; therefore, make sure if detaching the trucks is essential or not.
3. Again, run a test by riding the longboard in a way where you found something wrong in the ride. It will let you know if that error is solved or is still there. If not, try to loosen the trucks a bit more.

People Also Ask

Should Longboard Trucks be Tight?

There are several ways of riding a longboard, and each of them requires different trucks’ tightness. Therefore, it is never easy to tell whether your longboard trucks should be tight or loose. In simple words, the adjustment of the trucks is dependent on your comfortability.

What are the benefits of loose trucks?

Loosened trucks can be beneficial in multiple ways. Firstly, you must learn how to tighten longboard trucks or reduce them. With less tight trucks, you can travel at higher speeds and take instant turns if you are an experienced rider. Most importantly, it can be problematic for beginners. 

What are the advantages of tight trucks?

Tightened trucks are highly recommended for beginners. They keep the newbies safe when they take turns or try to ride a longboard at a higher speed than usual. Also, some of the longboard tricks require stiff settings of trucks. 

Conclusion

Learning how to tighten longboard trucks will benefit you for a long time. As you keep exploring the riding methods, you will need to ride the board with different settings of the trucks. Therefore, it is imperative to know the procedure of tightening and loosening the trucks. Moreover, we have shed light on different longboarding styles so that you can differentiate them whenever changing the settings of longboards’ wheels or trucks.