How Trucks Work

All trucks have 4 basic parts to make them work. The base, the hanger, the king pin, and the bushings. The base is what is attached to the deck to hold the trucks in place. It also holds the king pin in place at a specific angle. The king pin is the large bolt that keeps the hanger in place. The hanger contains the axle where the wheels are attached and there is a hole in the middle of the hanger that the kingpin inserts through. The bushings are small urethane parts that are installed onto the king pin above and below the hanger.

For a skateboard to turn, the hanger will rotate and compress the bushings to one side. The bushings provide resistance to this rotation which allows the skater to stay in control of the turn. When the skater wants to come out of a turn, the bushings provide assistance in returning the trucks to the neutral position.

Bearing Compression

Each wheel has a nut that holds it to the truck axle called the wheel nut. The wheel nut's job is to simply make sure the wheel doesn't fall off the trucks. However, the tightness of this nut can drastically affect the speed of the bearings. It has to be just right to maximize the performance of your bearings.

If the wheel nut is too tight on the wheel it will slow the bearings down and prevent them from spinning freely. If the wheel nut is too loose and the wheel can slide up and down on the axle, this will decrease the lifespan of the bearings. It is common for the wheel nuts to be slightly too tight from the manufacturer.

Luckily, the skate tool has a wheel nut socket which can easily be used to dial in the wheel nut to the correct tightness. Don't have a skate wrench? A socket or crescent wrench will work just fine. If your wheels are a little slow out of the box, simply loosen the wheel nuts by a quarter turn to free up the bearings and allow them to spin freely.

Replacing Bearings

As mentioned above, bearings will wear out over time and eventually need to be replaced. You might also want to upgrade your bearings to something faster which will require you to remove and replace the bearings as well.

Replacing your bearings is a simple process that can be done by hand using a skate tool and the truck axles. If you don't have a skate tool and socket or crescent wrench would work just fine.

This video shows how easy it is to remove and replace your bearings in the following steps.

1. Remove the wheel nut from the truck axle
2. Pry out the old bearings using the truck axle
3. Slide the new bearings onto the truck axle and press fit them into the wheel
4. Screw on the wheel nut to the proper tightness