Skateboard Trucks Compared: Weight, Height, Sizing & Turning for Every Major Brand

We've been selling skateboard trucks for over 20 years, and honestly? Half the time even we have to stop and think about what makes one truck different from the next. So we lined up every major truck on the market — Independent, Thunder, Venture, Ace, Slappy, Lurpiv, Grind King and Tensor — and broke down the stuff that actually matters: size, height, weight and how they turn. We even put every truck on the scale.

Watch the full video here: 

Whether you're buying your first set or you're a full-blown truck nerd, this one's for you.

What to look at when you're choosing trucks

Size. This is the first thing to sort out. Most people run a truck whose axle is within about 1/4" of their deck width. On a shaped board, match the truck to the narrowest part of the deck where the trucks mount — an old-school board might be 11" at its widest but 8" at the truck holes, so you'd run an 8" truck. Every brand numbers its sizes differently, so always check the size chart.

Height. Taller isn't automatically better. A taller truck gives you less wheel bite and more leverage to pop higher, but you have to snap further to get there and it feels a little less responsive. A lower truck feels quicker and more locked in.

Weight. Some skaters care a lot, some don't care at all. Plenty of people will happily carry a few extra grams for a truck that turns the way they like. Either way, the full weight chart is below.

Turning (geometry + wheelbase). Geometry is where the hanger sits on the baseplate and the angle of the kingpin — that's what makes one truck feel loose and darty and another feel smooth and stable. Wheelbase plays in too: think of a short wheelbase like a Corolla and a long one like a bus.

One more thing: within each brand, every truck shares the same height — except Thunder, where the height changes with the width. And while people love to say one brand is the lightest or turns the sharpest, the truth is it changes model to model inside each brand. There's no "best" truck. It comes down to where you skate and what you're skating — bombing hills, bowls, flat ground, ledges, tech flip tricks.

Independent

Indy is the biggest truck brand in the world by volume. It was started in 1978 by Fausto Vitello (remember that name — it comes up a lot), and it's been backed by the same "guaranteed for life" promise since the very beginning.

Stage 11 (a.k.a. the Standard). The most popular truck on earth and the go-to for over 20 years. If you're new and don't know where to start, start here. It sits at 55mm, one of the tallest on the market, and Indy's version with a six-hole baseplate is the one to get for retro boards. The Stage 11 comes in a few upgrades:

• Hollow — hollow axle and hollow kingpin, about 7% lighter than the Standard.
• Forged Hollow — hollow axle, hollow kingpin and a forged baseplate, about 10% lighter. The forged plate drops the height slightly to 53.5mm.
• Forged Titanium — hollow kingpin, forged baseplate and a titanium axle, about 15% lighter. Titanium gives them the best strength-to-weight they could get.

There's also a Mid. And because all the Stage 11s share the same geometry, you can swap hangers and kingpins between them and build your own Frankenstein Indy.

Stage 4 reissue. Originally released in 1986, the Stage 4 has a single-wing design (flip it over next to a Stage 11 and you'll see one wing instead of two). That gives it a much sharper, dartier turn — a lot of the newer brands have clearly taken inspiration from it. Same 55mm height, but a completely different size chart, so double-check before you order.

Our award: Most Popular Girl in School.

Thunder

Indy's biggest competitor, started in 1986 by — you guessed it — Fausto Vitello and partners. Back in the day Indy, Thunder and Venture were all made in the same factory (Ermico). While a lot of truck companies moved production overseas, Thunder stayed in North America and makes everything in Mexico. Thunders sit lower to your board than almost anything else and have a really distinct feel.

Team geometry:

• Team Edition — solid axle, solid baseplate, solid kingpin. 52mm tall at the 8.25" size (remember, Thunder heights change with width).
• Team Hollows — hollow kingpin and axle, standard baseplate, same 52mm.
• Thunder Lights — hollow kingpin, solid axle, forged baseplate. The forged plate drops it to 51mm.
• Hollow Lights — hollow kingpin, hollow axle, forged baseplate, 51mm.
• Titanium Lights — hollow kingpin, forged baseplate and a titanium axle. Strong and seriously light.

They also make an inverted-kingpin version of the Team Edition.

Thunder T2. A totally different geometry released last year — a much sharper turn than the rest of the Thunder line, and a lot taller at 54mm for less wheel bite and more pop. The baseplate was redesigned to stick out further, so it hits the ledge before your wheels do on tailslides and noseslides.

Our award: Light & Breezy — the Hollow Lights and Titanium Lights are two of the lightest trucks out there.

Venture

Started in 1984 by (who else) Fausto Vitello and friends to compete with Tracker and keep up with the rise of street skating. Venture claims to be the first truck brand to use the modern hole pattern on the baseplate. Like Thunder, they're now made in Mexico in the same factory.

Venture keeps it simple: one geometry, four styles, and everything comes in a High (53.5mm) or Low (48.3mm) — the Low is the lowest truck we found on the market.

• Team Edition — solid axle, solid baseplate, solid kingpin.
• V-Forged — forged baseplate. Unlike most brands, Venture's forged plate keeps the same height. It also pushes the wheelbase out quite a bit, which makes the turn noticeably smoother — Cadillac, not Corolla.
• V-Hollows — hollow kingpin, hollow axle, forged baseplate, with that same longer wheelbase.
• V8 — solid axle and kingpin, but an eight-hole baseplate so you can adjust your wheelbase however you want. The first truck to do it.

Our award: Stability.

Grind King

After our Best of 2025 Skate Tech video, the comments were loud: where's Grind King? Fair enough. Grind King has deep roots — back to guys like Jay Adams, with legends like Daewon Song — and they were the first company to put graphics on trucks. They also invented the reverse kingpin, so a lot of the tech we see today traces back to them. (The full story is wild — check out our 14 Things You Didn't Know About Grind King video.)

After going quiet for years, they came back around COVID with the Disruptor, a pretty plain truck that didn't land the way they hoped. Then this past year they dropped the Lockers, and those shook things up:

• An adjustable-wheelbase baseplate, similar to the Venture V8.
• Super light — just a few grams heavier than Thunder Hollow Lights.
• Pre-cut grind grooves in the hanger, so feeble and 50-50 skaters don't have to spend months breaking them in. (Heads up: it could throw you off a bit if you cross-lock.)

Our award: Fan Favorite — you asked, we added them.

Tensor

Good news: Tensor is back. When Dwindle was bought out, Tensor went with it, and it didn't work out over there. They've announced a return but haven't said exactly what they're launching with. Right now the catalog has a regular and an inverted-kingpin truck.

We put them on this list because the old Mag Lights were a fan favorite and, as you'll see on the chart, still the lightest truck we weighed — the only one under 600g. We're hoping they bring back the Mag Lights and the slider plates, and put together a killer team.

Our award: None — not until you give us the Mag Lights back.

Lurpiv

A small, skater-owned brand backed by Oskar "Oski" Rozenberg. Their first run had a rough start, so they went back, redesigned and rebuilt, and came back with a strong design made in the same factory as Ace and Indy. They're easily the most interesting-looking trucks out there, with features like an anti-wheel-bite design (maybe still a work in progress, but a cool idea). The big surprise was the weight — the Lurpiv Hollows are one of the lightest trucks we measured.

Our award: Skater Owned.

Ace

Ace was founded in 2007 by Joey Tershay, who worked at Ermico where Thunder, Indy and Venture were made, and Steve "Shrewgy" Ruge, longtime Spitfire team manager. Between them there are decades of hands-on truck experience. They built a cult following with the Classics (inspired by the Indy Stage 3) because of how they turn, then changed the game in 2021 with the AF1 — the strongest cast truck on earth.

Important: a size "55" in the Classic and a "55" in the AF1 are not the same width. Two different size charts — check before you buy.

• Classic / Classic Low — solid kingpin, solid axle, regular baseplate.
• AF1 — solid baseplate, kingpin and axle.
• AF1 Hollow — forged baseplate, hollow kingpin, hollow axle.
• AF1 Inverted — hollow axle, forged baseplate and a hollow inverted kingpin that threads straight into the baseplate instead of using a nut. That means way more room to crank your kingpin down without it hitting your board, and it's only possible because the AF1 is so strong.

Sam, our shop owner, has ridden the AF1 since it came out and the AF1 Inverted since that dropped. He's ridden and sold a lot of trucks, and he says it's the best inverted kingpin out there.

Our award: Sam's Thumbs Up.

Slappy

During COVID, while the rest of us were watching Tiger King and The Last Dance, Mike Sinclair was out doing slappies and Frankensteining trucks together — this hanger, that baseplate, those bushings, rethreading everything — until he decided nothing out there was quite right and he'd have to make his own. The ST1 came first, then the ST1 Hollow, the ST1 Inverted, and this year the ST1 Inverted Ultralow.

Levi rides the Ultralow, and here's why: hollow kingpin and axle for lightness, a forged baseplate that keeps the full height, and an ultra-low top for crazy grind clearance — no more hanging up on backsmiths. The turn is on the darty side, but more controlled than Ace.

Slappy is also designed so your wheelbase stays true to what your board says. If your deck says 14.75", that's what you get. And they make goofy stuff like 13" trucks — throw them on a penny board and go wild.

Our award: Levi's Thumbs Up and the Have Fun With Us award.

Truck weight chart

We put every truck from the video on the scale. Here's how they stack up, lightest to heaviest (measured on a size 8.25" truck). Also note, the Tensor Mag Lights are not in production anymore, which makes the 3 lightest trucks on the market from these brands:
#1- Thunder Titanium Lights Trucks
#2- Slappy Titanium Trucks (new)
#3- Thunder Hollow Lights Trucks

The takeaway: weight varies more within a brand than between brands. Thunder has trucks near both ends of the chart, and so does Indy — the upgrades (hollow parts, forged baseplates, titanium axles) are what really move the number. Hover any dot for the exact weight.

So which truck should you get?

There's no wrong answer — just different feels. If you want the safe, proven pick, it's hard to beat an Indy Stage 11. If you want to sit lower and save weight, look at Thunder. Want a smooth, stable ride? Venture. Want the strongest and sharpest turn? Ace, the Indy Stage 4 or Slappy. And if you're counting every gram, the chart above tells you everything.

Come by the shop in Cochrane or check out the full truck lineup HERE — and let us know in the comments what you're riding and what you want to try next.