Kingpin broke suddenly while riding, change your pins every 1000klm.



1500klm on this board.
The Chinese trucks use a splined kingpin and a quick google search shows many examples of them breaking at the end of the spline.
It sent me flying through the air on an empty road, if it happened near cars you could honestly die without having time to know about it.
You cannot visually inspect the bolt so I recommend replacement every 1000klm or replacement with a non splined kingpin.
Save your skin, maybe your life if you commute around traffic

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Yikes that seems nasty. You alright?
Did the board give any signs before breaking? Also if you don’t mind me asking how much do you and your gear weigh?

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I feel ya… only a few days ago.

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I’m glad that you are OK, as this could have been much worse. I have about 4,500 km on my Flipsky trucks now but also weigh about 170 lbs w/ gear.

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Oof @Saltyfingore I hope you’re alright. That’s a gnarly break!

This raises a higher-level question for me; there are a lot of lower-cost complete esk8 boards that look (and initially feel) pretty good, but aren’t designed with longevity as a key design feature. They use lower quality materials. They’re OK for a casual rider, but for anyone riding daily, or riding aggressively, they don’t hold up.

I’ve been skating and longboarding in some way for (a lot of) years, and esk8 for 8 years now. I have yet to break a kingpin. It never even occurred to me to regularly replace kingpins. Admittedly I’m not that heavy and I don’t ride that hard. But, for example, I have an old koowheel kit that I have friends borrlw once in a while, and will regard it more suspiciously in the future!

So - the question - should we all be re-thinking the entry-level market of esk8 offerings, if we’re planning to ride with gusto?

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I find it very interesting that both of ours snapped at the same place, its a scary thought with just how many if these are out there.

Ill be replacing mine with some chunky high tensile bolts every 12 months for a daily

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I think we generally are getting what we pay for, when we buy premium parts made by forum members we can have some confidence that they are not trying to scam us and that we are getting legit parts with appropriate materials, and when we go with the cheapest options we are almost guaranteed the lowest quality, I used to only buy the cheap stuff because that was all I could afford and I’m glad people have convinced and tempted me to get nice things

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Anecdotally, I’ve had this exact same failure on Evolve DKP trucks but never on any other trucks, and I’ve done thousands of kilometers. I’m 98kg

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Further proof that Evolve is built for small children

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Naaa, theyre fine as long as they arent bamboo, you change the trucks, motors, controller, battery, bms and wheels…

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Can happen to Onsra DKP as well. Source: a local rider, 1 month ago. Board is ~2 years old I believe

YES

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You can see every one of those pics the kingpin broke in the exact same place, at the end of the splines.
Therefore any truck using a splined kingpin can fail regardless of how much you paid for it or how much you weigh.

I found these 2 pics on Google image


I think the best insurance you can have is probably pneumatic tyres to cushion the shock the king pin is exposed to.

I’m doing ok but I’m on day 2 in bed, Ive got skin off my body in many places. I was very lucky not to break something.

I don’t even ride tha fast, because I came from a long history of non electric skating I don’t ride faster than I would on a regular skateboard. When I hit 30kph something inside my tells me to slow down and I do every time. As this crash happened at the bottom of a hill I guess I was doing probably about 30kph.

I don’t wear safety gear because I always ride within my speed limit and I’m never standing neutral on the board which leads to crashes. I’m either turning left or turning right which has proven to keep me safe over the years but something I obviously failed to consider was mechanical failure.

As for my injuries, it’s all the left side of my body as I ride regular stance.
Skin off left ankle, lower leg, knee, hip, wrist, elbow and shoulder. My head is ok but I’ve got whiplash on the right side of my neck.
The worst of it is my hip and shoulder, both kind of awkward to protect wit safety gear but if I was to wear safety gear I would be looking to protect my hip and shoulder more than knees and elbows.

I could actually see my shoulder sliding on the road, my Tshirt was instantly pulled down half way to my elbow. Any kind of shoulder pad would have to be strapped on tightly to be effective, if it’s just a tight fitting stretch material with pads it would have been ripped off.

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100% agree on this. If there’s one thing I see a lot of in this hobby it’s people trying to get away with the cheapest stuff and/or pushing equipment to the limit all the time. Most people don’t drive their car at the limit all the time. Race drivers do but those cars are maintained and rebuilt constantly. I’ve seen so many cases, even with people in my local city, of esk8 equipment failure with low-end stuff. I know there are budgets that people have to work within but personally for me, my safety is not worth the savings.

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Is swapping the stock kingpin out with something else viable? High tensile bolt instead of the stock?

*all four of ours

and mine was a different brand

You could take that approach but you could get burned by it too. I have a haggyboard setup here which was considered quality but upon inspection the trucks run a splined kingpin too.
It’s best to get to know the parts you should be worried about and replace them, this is why I bothered to share my experience here.

If I had my time again I would buy the same board but replace the kingpins at 1000klm

To the other guys with broken kingpins, can you please post how many klm you had on the board when it broke.
:pray:

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I’m trying to find pins that are the correct length but everything I see is too long.
The closest is this one from fireball supply but it is 4mm longer than stock. I’m considering installing a washer on it before pressing it in to the base plate to make it shorter.