Indy trucks need no introduction. No other company has the same name recognition and brand power in skating. Sure, they’re far from the only great trucks, but their dedication to quality is legendary. Well, usually that’s the case.
You see, I have a Landyachtz Dugout I got as a complete. It’s my favorite cruiser. But, I don’t like Bear trucks, and I got this as a complete as a gift. Had I set it up myself, I likely would have left the Bear trucks behind. The Polar Bear 130 trucks have the advantage of being low and feeling very stable and predictable, but they use a strange bushing shape. It’s neither a standard street nor a standard longboard bushing. As a result, it’s impossible to really dial the setup in. They offer a decent, slop-free ride, but because you can’t adjust them much, it’s difficult to get the perfect feeling truck out of them.
So, I set out to replace these trucks. I wanted something that isn’t too tall and is strong but lightweight. Something with a lot of turn, but only so I could control its range better with bushings. I knew of the legendary performance of the Independent trucks. Their forged trucks are lightweight, strong, and you can get them with a hollow axle for even more weight savings. I had a set on my street deck. Since I’m generally keeping my speeds under 30MPH on a Dugout, I wasn’t worried about solid axles or strength. But I am worried about slop, and in that sense, these disappointed me out of the box. So let’s talk briefly about these trucks from the company known for being the best.
Table of Contents
Height
The height of your truck defines a few things. It can give your trucks additional turn and lean, as well as a “surfy” feel, giving you smooth turns and lines you define. Shorter trucks force you to use risers or smaller wheels. They also limit lean and turn. Taller trucks can lean more and offer larger wheels. These forged and hollow Independent Stage 11 trucks are slightly shorter than the standard truck, by about 2mm. Still, they’re some of my tallest trucks, only shorter than my Paris and Bennett-Vector trucks. This isn’t so high that it feels difficult to push though. I’ve commuted for miles on a deck with these trucks, and ride them around frequently without much more fatigue.
Lean In!
The first thing I noticed when I installed them was an insane lean. I could get wheel bite with the same wheels, even though the Independent trucks are about 4mm taller than the Bear trucks. With that lean came an equivalent amount of turning. My Dugout, with the wedge up front and these trucks, could cut through a slim corner with ease. But I generally use my Dugout for commuting, which does involve a hill I usually get up to about 20MPH on. Loose trucks are great for the skatepark, but on a hill, you want dependability at speed. So, yes, I tightened them. Quell your gasps, street skaters, I tightened my Indy’s and I won’t apologize for it!
Bushing Swap
But I’m not the type to actually ride with squashed bushings. That’s a terrible idea. It limits your lean and turning and ruins your bushings. They’ll get shredded, break, or lose their rebound as you compress them. Instead, you should get some good bushings for your weight. That’s what I did. I went to my favorite source of bushings, Riptide.
You can buy bushings based on your weight, but I always think of the setup I’ll be putting them on first. Do I have a lot of leverage over the rails? Will I want to do rapid carves or long standies? How wide are the trucks? How wide is the deck over the trucks? With that in mind, I picked out Riptide’s street barrels boadside, in their turny APS formula, and their short street cones in the Krank formula. This gives me a good mix of rebound and compression. It means carving still can feel bouncy and fun, but not as much if I put high rebound Krank bushings in each location. And, yes, they fit perfectly right from Riptide. No need to try to pull out a planer or a belt sander and an N100 mask with goggles to get a now ruined longboard bushing to fit a Polar Bear truck. The bushing seat isn’t so restrictive that it’ll tear up the contact point with the hanger on your bushings either.
I consider my foot size, height, weight, and, as I mentioned above, intentions for bushings. As a 5’10” woman, with size 9.5-10(w) shoes (7.5-8.5, depending on the brand for men’s shoe sizes), and a weight of <redacted>, I went with a 90a APS Street Barrel and an 87A Krank Short Street Cone. I went with the lower duro because Krank formulas can be adjusted easily with an extra turn of the kingpin nut. I wanted rebound, but not so much that you have to fight it in a slide.
So Sloppy!
Part of the reason I went with the APS formula was that I knew I’d have to keep that nut down, but I still wanted a full range of motion. These are some of the sloppiest trucks I’ve used, full stop. I’ve never used a sloppier truck and I’m disappointed in Independent for shipping this.
Slop, in the case of trucks, is the side-to-side movement of a truck around the kingpin. Its the movement of a truck that isn’t due to user input, that is, leaning. Basically, it means that it’s turn is less predictable, because the truck could move independent of what you’re telling it to do.
I was extremely disappointed when I first got these, so I had to get slop in line. That’s part of the reason I went a bit lower on the duro for the Krank short cone, so I could tighten it more to reduce slop. I also grabbed one of Riptide’s Pivot Cups, hoping it may have slightly tighter tolerances around the pivot. It doesn’t. Unfortunately, RipTide went off of Indy’s shape exactly, and that means the Riptide pivot cup has as much slop as the Independent one. However, it is made of their WFB formula, which is self lubricating. You may still want to use it for the smooth turning it provides.
With everything tightened well, I found slop was reduced, but not eliminated. There’s still a lot of slop in the pivot, as you can see above. Bushings and pivot cups do their job to reduce slop, but in the case of this setup, the design of the truck isn’t helping them. Independent should have better defined pivot cups and a little bit more depth on their bushing seat. While Bear has too deep of a bushing seat, Indy’s is too shallow, and too wide. The trade-off is that Bear trucks don’t slop, but they ruin bushings quickly.
Not All Independents Are Sloppy
I have a few other sets of Stage 11 Independent Trucks. None of them were as sloppy as this one. One’s a set of cast hollow trucks I got for my street deck setup. Those I’ve had for a while, I don’t have a strong opinion on them, as I skate street rarely (the last time I tried a kick flip I actually kicked my skateboard across a parking lot). However, after skating these for a while (with my bushing magic), I did decide to get another pair. I grabbed 169mm Stage 11 forged hollow Independents. Those are for my oversized street-like deck, my Zenit Morning Wood V2, and for more technical sliding. These didn’t have any slop. In fact, I’m still using the stock pivot cup, though I did dial in the bushings. I skated these for hours without feeling slop or slippage, and trust them in long standups and hands-down slides. It’s like they’re trucks from a different company. They’re far more reliable than Indy’s smaller forged trucks.
Still Good at Speed?
I found The Independent Stage 11 forged hollow trucks far less reliable until I swapped out the bushings and got slop reduced. If you’re getting these, I think replacing the bushings and pivot cups will be a must. Don’t skate these stock unless you’re only riding them street and at street speeds. However, once you dial them in appropriately, they, surprisingly, feel stable and predictable. With the bushings dialed in to my weight, it’s like skating a glove. Or wearing a truck. Something like that. The enhanced carvy, almost surfy feel of the slightly tall Indy trucks and the wedged front really makes this setup with the Dugout a joy to skate. They turn great, they’re surprisingly reliable, and they’re lightweight. I don’t pretend I’m putting the same strain on these as a street skater doing a 5 stair would, but I’ve put a lot of lateral play into them through sliding and hard skating. I commuted on this setup for a few weeks before the shut down. I still use this setup as my grocery runner or for when I just want to go on a nice thrash up and down sidewalks and the like.
So, yes, the Indy’s are trustworthy at speed. But you have to put some serious bushing science to work to get them that way. Before I did, I noticed the slop when heading down a hill on a sidewalk. It wasn’t enough to yank me off my board, but the slippage was worrying. I had to stop and check my trucks afterwards, because it felt like something came loose. But, no, it was just the slop in the hanger.
Do I Recommend Them?
Actually, yeah, I still do, but cautiously. Once you get these trucks dialed in and remove the slop by replacing the lousy bushings they come with, you have something that feels stable, predictable, smooth, and versatile. There’s a lot of turn but there’s also a lot of control. I found I could hold standup slides longer on these than other trucks, and even trusted my Dugout setup with a few glove-down toe slides.
When you buy from a company that isn’t making their trucks with higher speeds in mind, you lose a bit of focus. Independent is thinking about quick pivots and speeds under 10MPH when they design their setups. But correct for the incredibly soft bushings, and it makes a great cruiser setup as well.
If you’re setting up a cruiser, I often recommend Paris trucks. If not for their irregular bushing sizes, I’d actually recommend Bear trucks. They feel great on a cruiser. But that irregular bushing makes them incompatible for many riders. If you want something that’s a bit lower than a cruiser truck, light, strong, and, with a few tweaks, stable and predictable, you can’t go wrong with Independent. If you’re willing to put the extra work into it, you can make something that’ll behave well anywhere. With a cruiser, you could have something that’s great for the park or the hills with just a quick bushing swap. That’s versatility that makes the higher price of this setup worth the coin.
Overall
I like these trucks. Enough that I’m going to keep them on my favorite cruiser. They both have a taller platform and strong turning capabilities with taller bushings. My other two sets of Independent trucks haven’t had as much slop as these, so I believe it could be something to do with the baseplate in this size and the forged hanger. In other words, it could be an issue specific to this forged, hollow, Stage 11, 129mm truck. I always recommend dialing in any setup anyway, and, as long as you’re going to do that, the Independent Stage 11 setup is still a good platform for that.
After dialing these in, they became one of my favorite TKP trucks, but before that, I was shocked at just how poorly it all fit together. They felt like knockoffs you’d get from Amazon, not quality trucks purchased from a reputable company. Keep that in mind if you’re choosing an Independent truck for your cruiser setup, some of their smaller hangers, like this 129mm truck, may have a disappointing amount of slop you’ll need to correct for. If you do, you’ll be able to enjoy them. These are a decent truck, but I feel like this size category could do better. If I were to rate them, I’d probably give them a 7/10. If those slop issues were resolved, they’d get a perfect score. They feel great to skate, but I know they could potentially slip and force me to quickly course-correct or take a tumble.
