Deck Wheelbase question...

[JohnnyK]

So I have been skating on one of those popsicle boards for a few months, and all was good. Well a few days back I put together a new board with an old JimmyZ deck I had laying around (I posted a pic back a while ago). Anyhow, this Jimmy Z deck was just huge, but I LOVED IT!! I mainly skate pools, but this board just felt great and I found myself trying tricks I wouldnt normally try. Its big, a bit heavy... and I am 99% sure its a bit thicker than my other board. Anyhow, its big, I love it. I also have a caballero board I just put together TODAY and I feel less stable on it, which Sucks because I love the Cab Boards design. This JimmyZ board was supposed to be my trashy "keep in the wifes car" board.. but this size difference is screwing everything up. So I actually measured them all from truck to truck (see image below) to see the difference. The Popsicle board is 14 inches.. the Caballero board is 14.5 inches... and this JimmyZ board is 15.5!!

So anyhow, to get to the question...

What decks have longer wheelbases? Aside from Longboards that is.. as I said I generally skate in bowls so I think I basically want as big as you can get before it gets wacky. I also made an image showing what I am calling wheelbase (even though its really just a measurement from truck to Truck). Are any of you guys riding large boards like this?

[Alec]

Well you've discovered the secret, longer wheelbases are more stable.

Your measurements are good too.



Boards with longer wheelbases? Depends if you want a popsicle or a board with a bit of shape?

Popsicles with >15" are hard to find…
Death - Dave Allen
Flip I think do some over 15"
Creature maybe???

I find anything under 34" length tricky to ride and prefer a 16.5" + wheelbase.

Skaterbuilt
SMA
Pool King
Pocket Pistols

all brands that suit me

[Woody]

Death - Dave Allen
Flip I think do some over 15"
Creature maybe???

Creature Logo Terrain Hunter
9.00 in deck width
33" Long
15.25" Wheelsbase

CreatureJuggz DD
10.00 in deck width
31.3" Long
15" Wheelsbase

Creature P2
Poster Navarette
P2 Construction
Size: 8.8"
15" Wheelsbase

Creature
Creature Pro Stu Graham 9inch Patch
Size: 9inch
15" Wheelsbase

Flip Mountain Tampa 20 Years F-50 Flip
Concave: Medium
Construction: 7-ply
Noselength: 6.5 in
Size: 8.9in x 32.5in
Taillength: 6.669 in
Wheelbase: 15 in
Length: 32.5 in
Width: 8.9 in

Flip Skateboards
Lance Mountain Springer
P2 Construction
Size 8.97" x 32.48"
Nose 6.64"
Tail 6.58"
Wheelbase 15"

Mini Logo
Deck Shape 181
Deck Bottom SST
Deck Concave K15
Deck Wheelbase 15’’
Deck Length 33.5’’
Deck Width 8.5’’
Deck Nose 7.375’’
Deck Tail 7’’
Construction: Mini Logo™
Bottom: SST™
Old Man Army
Danny Van Pro Deck
7 ply Canadian Maple Construction
Size 32.75" X 8.5" Wide
15" Wheel Base
7" Nose
6.75" Tail


enough to shake a stick at ?

[HarryR]

My first Popsicle board was (is) 8.5" x 32.5 and the first thing I did was re-drill it (front and back) to push the trucks out to a 15.5" wheelbase. Since then I've had a couple of other decks of differing sizes/wheelbases and never really got on with them. I always come back to that first board. I just repaired some de-lams and re-gripped it to keep it in service. I just love that deck. It's the wheelbase that makes the difference but it's not overly large like some pool/old-school boards that have larger wheelbases. I think it it's a tad thinner too so it's not heavy like larger boards.

[GoR64]

Hmmm... I'm looking for something in the 8" range with a slightly longer wheelbase to compensate for the lovely turny Aces...

Would love to have a do-it-all setup I can stick with instead of constantly swapping things around.

[TonyB]

Bulldog Skates decks rarely go under 17" wb if you are in to old school Pig decks with a modern twist. There are quite a few pool decks with 15.5" wb that seems to be as long as a lot of the manufacturers want to go. I guess it depends on whether you want to stick to the standard Popsicle shape.

[Mike9000]

I don't know what the wheelbase is on any of my boards, I think they must be short - 14" or so

(ETA - obviously not really contributing here )

[Nomis]

Just measured my Black Label Natas. 14.5 inches if you do inner truck bolt to inner truck bolt - am presuming that's the drill.

[Brian S]

My SMA Bennet Harada officially is a 15" wheelbase, but it only measures that if you go from the centre of each of the end truck holes, just measured my new custom made Core deck & by the same measurement has just a smidgen over 16" wheelbase, as I just wanted it a little more than the SMA.



I did get a modern pool deck a while ago, but the wheelbase was quite small, even though the deck was as near as dammit the same size, it felt way shorter due to natural foot placement on the bolts area, couldn't get on with it at al, it had a massive nose length as a consequence odd shape.

[SNAKEBITE]

I need to get a longer wheelbase deck.

The Santa Cruz Keith Meek Veteran one I have is excellent but I just want something bigger.

[pete]

Hmmm... I'm looking for something in the 8" range with a slightly longer wheelbase to compensate for the lovely turny Aces...

Would love to have a do-it-all setup I can stick with instead of constantly swapping things around.

yeah, i keep looking for something about 8.25 with a 15" base, everything is 14.5 in the main....

[Woody]

Hmmm... I'm looking for something in the 8" range with a slightly longer wheelbase to compensate for the lovely turny Aces...

Would love to have a do-it-all setup I can stick with instead of constantly swapping things around.

yeah, i keep looking for something about 8.25 with a 15" base, everything is 14.5 in the main....

What you found that's 14.5 ? Most are 14.00 or at a push 14.25

[Tommy S.]

My Skaterbuilt Cult Parkrider has beautiful curves and a wheelbase of 16.25 with an overall length of 33.25 so it is still fairly nimble.

I think I shared this before, but here is some old pervert who talks you through wheelbases and all that jazz:

[Brian S]

Nice to see that they are slumming it at The Cove in Santa Monica, that pool is bigger than it seems in that vid

[pete]

Hmmm... I'm looking for something in the 8" range with a slightly longer wheelbase to compensate for the lovely turny Aces...

Would love to have a do-it-all setup I can stick with instead of constantly swapping things around.

yeah, i keep looking for something about 8.25 with a 15" base, everything is 14.5 in the main....

What you found that's 14.5 ? Most are 14.00 or at a push 14.25

your probably right, i was working from memory, which, well...doesnt work

My mate recieved that elephant deck earlier in the week, thanks Woody

[Jimbo]

Hmmm... I'm looking for something in the 8" range with a slightly longer wheelbase to compensate for the lovely turny Aces...

Would love to have a do-it-all setup I can stick with instead of constantly swapping things around.

yeah, i keep looking for something about 8.25 with a 15" base, everything is 14.5 in the main....

What you found that's 14.5 ? Most are 14.00 or at a push 14.25

Woody, the Mini Logo deck I bought from your shop at the weekend and promptly made myself disabled with is 8.25 and 14.375 WB so only about 3mm short of 14.5.

[Woody]

Hmmm... I'm looking for something in the 8" range with a slightly longer wheelbase to compensate for the lovely turny Aces...

Would love to have a do-it-all setup I can stick with instead of constantly swapping things around.

yeah, i keep looking for something about 8.25 with a 15" base, everything is 14.5 in the main....

What you found that's 14.5 ? Most are 14.00 or at a push 14.25

Woody, the Mini Logo deck I bought from your shop at the weekend and promptly made myself disabled with is 8.25 and 14.375 WB so only about 3mm short of 14.5.

R you see that not the norm' that's Mini Logo they do lots of different shapes and sizes not like the run of the mill company's, and sorry to hear your now a spaccer
But please don't mix your imperial with you meteric

[houston]

I guess many of us go through this? The first deck of my return was an 8.5" popsicle, the largest shop deck sold at the local mall. Discovered MAS, learned of the many options out there, bought the 10" Powell reissue. Definitely the wb increase (from 14.25" to 15.5") was the main difference.

But the 10" early-80's shape does feel a bit piggish, so went with a 9" 90's shape (Shipyard "El Capitan"). It has a dual 15.5 / 16" wb option, and of course went for the longer (which still leave more nose than I know what to do with, but certainly not a problem). Still getting used to it (a lot of concave), but feels lighter and more maneuverable, but still stable. The 90's shape (at least I think that's what they are) seems like a good way to go: around 33" long (+/- 1"), 9" wide (+/- 0.5"), and 16" wb (+/- 0.5").

+1 to Alec's suggestions. All good, although I'm partial to Deckcrafters (edit: confused with Skaterbuilt).

[wayne-ur]

Nice use of a period to define an imperial decimal point tho

[dave allen]

Here's the exact dimensions of my Death Board, although the shape is a little off in the picture!

Wheelbase 15" (381mm)
Tail 6.5" (165mm)
Nose 7.125 (181mm)
Length 32.75" (831.85mm)

[houston]

My first Popsicle board was (is) 8.5" x 32.5 and the first thing I did was re-drill it (front and back) to push the trucks out to a 15.5" wheelbase.

Considered trying that as well, but the concerns are that (a) you run out of flat surface to mount the front truck to in a hurry, and (b) you lose the benefit of the concave acting as a wheel well.

But please don't mix your imperial with you meteric

Over here, we call it "English". I'm just glad we at least decided we didn't need our own "US" versions for length/distance, as we apparently do for volume (and weights?).

[houston]

Here's the exact dimensions of my Death Board, although the shape is a little off in the picture!

DA, I kind of like that shape.

Still trying to figure out, what is the advantage of that much nose?

(Also, glad to hear you haven't melted into a small puddle down there!)

[Jimbo]

But please don't mix your imperial with you meteric

Is that similar to metric?

[Woody]

But please don't mix your imperial with you meteric

Is that similar to metric?

It's the Imperial version mate, they use more letters to make it look bigger

[JohnnyK]

Thanks everyone for the info, lots of good stuff. I have been poking around and found a few good sites that list the Wheelbase of boards. I know most of you guys are not in the US, but the best site so far I think is:

http://www.strange-house.net/

I can not vouch for the site other than the deck section pretty much lists wheelbase for all the boards.. its a good reference.

[Alec]

I'll vouch for the site.

Frank is a good guy, great service.

[sam]

wheelbase for me makes all the difference .bought a new deck..exactly the same dimensions as my last but struggled with it..figured out it had half inch less wheelbase. redrilled it and it was great

[Hagwag]

I'm on a 15" wheelbase at the moment and finding it hard to adjust. It's definitely more stable than what I'm used to but I find I have to concentrate on foot positioning for ollies whereas brfore it was jyst natural. Only half a inch more than my old deck but seems to have madr a difference

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4

[warwick]

I think a shorter wheelbase is better for ollies. I ride 15" wheelbase boards but I don't do many ollies - i'm looking for stability on ramps. I tried my daughter's shorter board at the weekend and was surprised at how much easier it was to ollie.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Hagwag]

I learnt in the late 80s when your average wheelbase was 17-18" though so thought I'd be more comfortable.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4

[SNAKEBITE]

Is it me, or do "mainstream" manufacturers only produce conventional wheelbased boards, whilst it is the more underground manufacturers that produce longer wheelbases?

[Woody]

Is it me, or do "mainstream" manufacturers only produce conventional wheelbased boards, whilst it is the more underground manufacturers that produce longer wheelbases?

Its just you .. Don't get more "mainstream" than Element and they produce loads of different shapes,wheelbase,size,concave and quiet a few more do. The thing is not many get brought into the UK

[SNAKEBITE]

The thing is not many get brought into the UK

That'll explain it then!

Shame really as there is obviously a market for it.

[Brian S]

The thing is not many get brought into the UK

How about an enterprising skate shop imports stuff not available here, but is wanted, themselves then, then also cuts out the middle man mark up as well, brands, board types etc?

[Woody]

The thing is not many get brought into the UK

How about an enterprising skate shop imports stuff not available here, but is wanted, themselves then, then also cuts out the middle man mark up as well, brands, board types etc?

Good luck in finding one that is willing to do that,
1 shop importing a limited number of boards, by the time VAT, Import Duty and Delivery cost are added even to a trade deck the RRP would be ridiculous ... take for example a Flip P2 RRP £60 .. would enough customers buy them at (and I am guessing ) between £10 and £20 more per deck, I think not.
The number don't add up, you need to bring containers full in to make it work from a business point of view. That's why the distributions have the buying power

[Brian S]

The thing is not many get brought into the UK

The number don't add up, you need to bring containers full in to make it work from a business point of view. That's why the distributions have the buying power

You can buy shared space in containers via brokers, you don't need to have a full one, only pay for the space needed for what you are actually shipping in.

[Woody]

The thing is not many get brought into the UK

The number don't add up, you need to bring containers full in to make it work from a business point of view. That's why the distributions have the buying power

You can buy shared space in containers via brokers, you don't need to have a full one, only pay for the space needed for what you are actually shipping in.

Still got VAT, Import Duty to contend with there is no way it would work, if it would shops would be doing it

[Hagwag]

Rollermania in Bristol used to bring in Vans and Indys unofficially and sell them cheap. Whether they had all VAT and duty paid though???????

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4

[houston]

You can buy shared space in containers via brokers, you don't need to have a full one, only pay for the space needed for what you are actually shipping in.

Not really true, actually. There are a lot of fixed costs involved, and the freight cost itself isn't proportional. For example:

For me to ship a 40' FCL from China to the US is about $2500. Duties and fixed charges (about half a dozen various fees) will be maybe $700. I don't know how many decks fit into a 2400' cu box, but my "jellybeans in a fishbowl" guess is 5000. $3200/5000 is $0.64 per.

To book a single deck by LCL will be at least $300. Nobody would do that of course, but just to illustrate the need for "economy of scale". You may not need to hit a full container load, but you probably need to get well into 100's of decks before it starts to make any sense. Which of course means you're at distributor quantities.

[SNAKEBITE]

The number don't add up, you need to bring containers full in to make it work from a business point of view. That's why the distributions have the buying power

You can buy shared space in containers via brokers, you don't need to have a full one, only pay for the space needed for what you are actually shipping in.

Still got VAT, Import Duty to contend with there is no way it would work, if it would shops would be doing it

To be honest Woody, if you say it's impractical them I'm willing to take that as gospel. It is obvious you know your business.

Still a bloody shame though.

[Woody]

We tried it with OMA decks .. still got the odd one that we are now selling at a lose because people were put off at the price we need to sell at to make margins worth doing, won't be bit again

[SNAKEBITE]

Fair play, at least you tried it.

[Goat]

Just working all this out ourselves. Being from the UK originally I want Half Dead to have a good solid brand presence there so am going through all this to figure out a way to get it done. I'm sure it's possible - just need to find that workaround.

[Martin-d]

Sea turtles?

[shindigz]

I've been looking for some longer wheelbase concave decks recently, and this thread has just given me loads of ammo to fire at google.

Thanks for the info guys!