I’m not sure about this. Topmount always felt “better” to me, more in control. Drop mount seems to mute the control and agility.
Not so much of an issue for me with eskate because I tend to be going straight and fast most of the time. All this time, I still don’t like to take deep turns at any kind of speed on motorized boards, fearing glitches.
I don’t mind tons of riser either. I’ve had up to 1.5" on non-powered boards.
I can confirm this, but my personal preference is to the board to be dead stable, even if it’s not as maneuverable. In mine is this two times since the hummie deck is dropped. In the end I like being really close to the ground, my enclosure has a significant amount of scratches
???secrets??
Really, you shouldn’t be using too much riser. Ideally, only use as much as is required to eliminate wheel-bite or any other clearance issues you might have on your setup.
The main issue with too tall risers is the increased forces on your deck. Certain decks this is a huge issue. Drop through decks, top mounted, no reinforcements on the deck with tall risers- this is probably the worst case scenario. Something like an evo with wheel cutouts but no drop though cuts, not as bad but I’d be weary adding excessively tall risers to it. A top mount deck with lots of wood around the mounting holes, no cut-outs to reduce wheel bite, I wouldn’t worry about using too tall of risers nearly as much - and this is where those X-Thingies come in handy… They take the stress off the tiny hole and spread it out across the wood all around the mounting holes: Great!!!
But these X-Thingies are only as good as the strength of your deck. They will prevent your hardware from digging into/weakening the wood around the holes themselves, but on a drop-through/cut out style board, they won’t magically prevent your board from snapping at it’s weakest point.
So, TLDR, use as much risers as you need to prevent wheelbite. Going any higher is not really doing you any service unless your enclosure doesn’t clear the ground or something. If you need to use channel risers to route your cables, that’s fine, but if the only reason you are jacking your board up to the cosmos is easier cable routing and your board becomes excessively tall, maybe consider 3d printing an alternative cable routing solution.
shitty diagram for reference:
Since your board is a top-mount deck, being this tall is probably just fine. And you can probably loosey-goosey those trucks with some soft, high rebound bushings and get some crazy good carving action going… if you’re going to jack it up high, at least take advantage of it. I’d look into some of those X-thingies or at least use pan-head hardware (and even add washers) when mounting your trucks for sure.
Great info, also like the diagram showing the forces!
Just fill any crack, chunking, holes and whatever with superglue and your wheel will stay in one piece for a long time
is Krazy glue ok?
Take a look at the formula, if it’s cyanoacrylate or something similar should be fine
well I’m at about 30 deg in the back here and it feels way higher than the front so I’m gonna have to mess around with the front.
Edit: that might be more like 25 degrees actually 
Split angles are for stability, primarily.
Think of driving a car with the rear tires turning opposite your front tires. Better yet, try going fast in reverse… that’s an extreme example. Cars are stable because they don’t throw their asses out while turning: The rear has 0 degree turning radius and the front turns with the steering wheel… it’s inherently more stable that way- like a passenger airliner with trailing tail wings to keep it straight as opposed to a forward swept wing fighter jet that’s constantly trying to tumble from the rear and correct itself with it’s front canards… the forward swept jet fighter is inherently unstable, which makes it able to make radical maneuvers on a dime, just like a skateboard with high angle/turney/low turning radius trucks on the front and rear, for carving/pumping/people dodging and shit.
Having 50* front and 50* rear is fun for carving, but it’s not stable throwing the rear of your board around. Having the rear truck turn as much as the front, or more, or even any substantial amount depending on the speed is one of the key factors inducing speed wobbles. If you are going fast and want to reduce speed wobbles, we de-wedge/reduce the rear trucks angle so it turns less, throws your tail out less, induces less speed wobbles. De-wedge to 0 degrees and you will have a pretty damn stable board at high speed.
This isn’t the only factor when it comes to speed wobbles though, so don’t think that just extreme de-wedging of the rear will help make you stable. Rider comfort and experience, bushing rebound, slop in the trucks and wheel cores are other examples of things that even with 0 degree or low angle rear trucks can still induce wobbles.
To lead this to further discussion, and maybe @deckoz can chime in and expand upon the science, but split angles also play a role in grip. I have noticed that de-wedged rears are harder to break free and are less predictable when they do so. I have also noticed that slalom riders run extremely low angled if not 0 degree rear trucks with high angle front trucks. They also place a lot of their weight on the rear truck, using the front for their quick turning and maneuvering. Slalom requires a crap ton of grip. I don’t ride slalom, but there are some connections here ime… not throwing your rear out with the momentum of your body with steep turning radius from the rear, instead keeping the wheels tracked straight with low-to-zero turning radius means the wheels will just keep gripping as much as they can. Try it and see if you like it.
TLDR: It’s not for changing the height of the trucks. It does, as a side effect of the design. This is one reason I was working on adjustable baseplates that keep the axle at a constant height. I don’t personally want to have to deal with heights changing when adjusting angles, so for now, personally, I just pick an appropriately angled truck, and wedge/rise from there. Plus this design is probably weak as hell:
Picture link to post:
@Skatardude10 Wow, thanks for the detail you provided and the parallels, the examples are super helpful for my learning style. Dude those baseplates look sick, you made those?? Have you tested them? Also:
by “harder to break” do you mean they’re more grippy? How does this make for unpredictable? Thanks again!
Haven’t made them, no manufacturing experience and probably not cheap. Anyone that wants to make them is welcome to the files, just send me a set and do what you will.
Sorry, another text dump, beer:
Harder to break free, yes more grippy. Predictable as in feeling the transition from straight grip into slide, and how abrupt or seamless that transition is.
When you get into powersliding, there are a few things that affect how wheels break free into slides and how predictable it feels. Offset wheels tend to break free easier from what I can tell, rounded lips help a ton being able to feel the wheel starting to slide out slowly from grip as opposed to hard edged wheels really hugging the pavement hard until skipping or sliding depending on the urethane formula.
Really, the angle of the trucks is just one of many factors that affect grip. Raising the height of the board by adding more risers (on topic!) means you get more leverage over the top of the wheel, pushing it down more vertically into the road for more grip. A double dropped (drop deck + drop through) deck during a turn means a lot more force going diagonally or towards the side of the wheels and they will break free a lot easier than a platform higher over the wheels, leading to less grip, more sliding, and more predictable sliding. Hard edged wheels on a low platform and high rebound urethane tends to skip, like HARD GRIP to chat chat chat. When reflex thane was released, we were all running drop decks mostly and had a ton of chattering skipping time, because drop decks and grippy formulas don’t mix well. Low rebound urethane like the old offset 85mm kryptonics on a low platform tends to just butter out and transition from grip to drifting to sliding almost imperceptibly, with low rebound urethane and a high platform being somewhere in between. I have to say, that feeling of low rebound, rounded offset wheels on a low platform, taking a corner feeling the grip transition on a smooooooth gradient from grip all the way into a slide perpendicular to the direction your traveling is one of the best feelings in the world.
Take all that, add wheels tracking forward in their grippiest way and kinda stir it up good with some cooking… there are so many options for whatever your riding style. These are not hard and fast rules, look at downhillers these days, they run low angle trucks in the rear, super narrow trucks which also tend to add grip, hard edged wide contact patch wheels, and they still drift hairpins like mad. Lots of factors… I think they have found a balance over the years of top mount leverage for grip, rear de-wedge for stability and grip, narrow trucks for agility and grip, perfectly formulated thane for as predictable slides as possible without sacrificing on rebound which would reduce speed, with relatively sharp edges for grip.
Risers on a drop down deck with pneumatics look amazing even a thick ones, on a drop through deck on urethane I prefer to use no risers at all
Hell yeah, I’m really diggin the history lessons this is awesome stuff.
Love this, it’s kind of how my TB110’s are when i’m huging a curve fast; like they’re so grippy I know if they lose traction it will skip like that rather than slide. By I love those wheels, just not optimal for sliding.
There’s some light at the end of the tunnel. After you break in your wheels really good they won’t do that as much.
