How To Tighten or Loosen Trucks On Roller Skates

Skating is life for me! From the first time I got on my aunt’s old skates and felt the wind in my hair and my feet gliding against the asphalt floor as I skated down the road in my grandmother’s house, I knew I was hooked. I felt wild, free, and confident, and this was how I started my skating journey. While it is nice to have my own wings, as I liked to call them, learning tips on what to use and how to use them in managing my skateboard has been a roller coaster ride on its own. However, over time I have mastered through combining various channels, reading tons of articles, and self thought maintenance practices which I continuously adjusted over the years.

Trucks are parts of the roller skates that allow me to drive around at monster rallies and jump over other cars. It holds my wheel unto the skates and is the piece of metal that the wheel axle passes through. I learned how to tighten and loosen the trucks on my roller skates because they come in different degrees of tightness that wasn’t the best for me. It didn’t allow me to customize the degree of control I wanted in my pair of skates. The skates can come either too tight or too loose or even the perfect fit for someone based on manufacturer setting, and learning how to adjust them is essential. One vital tip to note is that though I like my trucks tightly fitted to the boots, it is the skater’s preference to choose which suits them. There is no one size fit all or a set golden criterion for all skaters on how tight or lose the truck should be. Sometimes I loosen it up also!

Looser trucks help with edgework, which is the ability to lean to one side or the other with my boot which allows me to turn easier. The looser it is, the more I can lean on my edges that take me into a turn, depending on the direction I’m going in and how much I lean. Another reason I loosen my truck is when I go down to the skate park, and I want to carve the bowl or carve as I glide down the hill. On the other hand, the tighter the trucks, the more stability and structure I get, and inhibiting movement on my edges. When I want to do lots of turns, I loosen my truck while when I wouldn’t say I like the wobbles that come with having a loose truck, and I’m bombing down a hill, trying to show off my skating tricks and land them in a certain way with the most stability, I keep my trucks tight.

Now that you know the rationale behind why the trucks are kept light and loose, I will show you to adjust them in whichever will suit your preference or skating need. This maintenance tip is actually easy to learn and one that I did throughout my skating journey. At first, it seemed difficult because I didn’t seem to understand the basics of what they did and which was the best to have but later on, I learned that you have to tighten and loosen as you go till you find your perfect fit.

Parts of the skate

The anatomy of the skate is vital to understand how to loosen or tighten trucks. The various parts of my skate are listed below;

• Decks: it is the flat board you stand on when skating. The length, width, materials, and concave of your skateboard deck affect your overall performance. Once the board shows signs of splitting, get a new board.
• Toe stop: The toe stop is the big rubber piece bolted onto the toe of your skate boots. Softer toe stops have a little more bounce to them. Harder toe stops have better grips and are suitable for outdoor skating.
• Wheels: The boards roll on the skateboard wheels. Wheels are important as it affects the way the board runs or turns. Small wheels are slower and better for street skating, where larger wheels are faster and best suited for cruising and vert skating. There are 4 wheels attached to the truck and are categorized based on diameter and hardness.
• Trucks: Skateboard trucks are the front and rear axle assemblies that connect the wheels to the deck and allow the board to turn. They hold the deck a few inches above the ground, sustain the skater’s weight and keep the wheels rolling. It has various parts; the baseplate, the kingpin, the hanger, the bushings, and the axles. A truck’s width is determined by the length of its hanger (127-187 mm) and axle (193-254 mm).
• Baseplate: It is the foundation of the truck mounted by four bolts. The boot is mounted to the plates, and its material is usually solid and durable.
• Bushings: They are made of polyurethane material, and they are the part that controls the turning of the truck. It is found on the kingpin between the baseplate and hanger. They are small rubber cups that pivot when the skateboarder leans left or right.
• Axles: It is a continuous bar made up of steel or titanium. The wheels and bearings are mounted on the axle. Axle nuts are used to mount the axle to the wheels. They are adjusted when tightening or loosening the truck. Another name for axles is hanger shafts. A complete skateboard has 4 axle nuts and should be replaced over time.
• Bearings: There are four bearings each on both skateboards. It is a ring with small steel balls inside and fits between the skate wheels and axles.
• Hardware: they include the speed-rings, kingpin nut, top washer, risers
• Kingpins: it connects the hanger to the baseplates. The king pins a large bolt that sticks out of the baseplate.
• Hangers: It is the moveable part of the truck to which your wheels are attached. It is the area on the trucks which you grind. It is also the heaviest part of the skateboard and has a T-shaped body the leg goes into.
• Skate boots: usually made up of leather, and it is the shoe-like part the foot goes into.
• Tongue: The laceable part of your boots.

How to tighten or loosen trucks on roller skates

1. Get the right tools: I usually use a socket wrench, either the Y tool or the T tool, that is the right size, and turn it to loosen it or tighten it. A little goes a long way, so it could either be a full turn or half turn of the socket wrench. You can use any other skating tool that can get the job done.
2. Then I flipped the board over so that I could see both truck kingpins.
3. To check the tightness level, I move the truck around, and the amount of leeway or room it gives lets you know how loose or tight it should go. If the wheels don’t move freely, then the truck is too tight. If your skateboard keeps getting away from you, and it becomes difficult to control, you might need to tighten it up.
4. Loosen with the socket wrench: I do this by loosening or tightening the axle nut on the kingpin. Turn left or anticlockwise to make it more loose and right or clockwise to tighten it up.
5. I loosen all of my trucks to the same level and then adjust further. To either make both back trucks more loose or tighter.
6.  The front two trucks are kept at the same level of tightness or looseness and the same with the back two trucks. While tightening or loosening to be sure that both back or front trucks will be exactly the same, count the threads on the axle nut and replicate it on the other truck. Another method to be sure it is exact, that I do, is to count the number of rotations made while loosening one truck and making the same number of rotations on the other truck.
7. The front and back can either be the same tightness or not. I varied this on my skating journey at different times, but I usually keep all the trucks at the same tightness or looseness. Skaters’ preference also comes into play here.
8. I go out with my tools during a test run. The tools are portable and easy to whip out in case I desire to adjust the tightness or vice versa till I get the perfect fit I’m looking for.

Tips to consider when tightening or loosening trucks on roller skates.

• When the trucks were overtly loose, I found it harder to keep my balance, and my boots sometimes hit the wheel when I was skating, which is very dangerous. So while it is up to personal preference how loose your trucks should be, they shouldn’t be too loose as that is unstable and makes the skating experience unsafe.
• An extremely tight truck will also feel rigid and difficult to turn, although you will be safe while skating. It results in a stilted ride. My board felt sluggish and hard to drag along.
• The lighter a skater is, the less force they can exert on a skateboard to turn.
• Beginner skaters benefit more from tighter trucks than loose ones. The first skill to learn as beginners is balance, and tight trucks offer that. Loose trucks on beginners feel like a toddler learning how to walk and control his surroundings. With practice and time, loosen trucks to give room for more play.
• Downhill skaters can either keep the skates tight or loose depending on skill. Sometimes to enjoy the free fall of gliding down a hill, I keep my skates loser, so the whole thing synergizes well together,
• When I used longboards, I kept the trucks slightly looser to enjoy the extra maneuverability for slides and turns.
• Freestyle skating will benefit more from loose trucks. It lets skaters turn faster and are more forgiving when landing tricks.
• Loosening or tightening the trucks helps with my steering ability, but it has nothing to do with the wheels turning the axles.

Final words

Skating is an individualistic sport, so most times, just as I did, you’ll need to try and see what works for you. This can make the whole process seem like trial and error and quite tedious, but it is one that will be worth it because you get to understand what works for you and what wouldn’t fully. I applied this principle in all my maintenance tips, and it has worked. So whether you loosen or tighten your skates, remember to have fun and keep adjusting as you go till you find your perfect fit.