I’m in the process of putting together a second longboard – there will be more posts about that in the next couple days, but I wanted to put up some detailed pictures of the
Some notes from the pictures:
- They ship with speed rings, which is both a nice touch and possibly important because the end of the hanger at the axle isn’t faced.
- In fact, there is no sign of any post-casting machining whatsoever. The finish is pretty good for a casting, though – they may be sandblasted or tumbled or somesuch.
- The Churchills are about 1/8″ higher than Paris’, but that may just be a difference of bushings. They look the same height in the pictures because the Paris’ are mounted on 1/8″ shock pads. The Churchills have the stock bushings in, and the Paris’ have 81a Venom standard barrels board-side and 85a Khiro barrels street-side (which should probably be the other way around).
- The bushings they ship with are cherry red translucent 92a double-cones of unknown origin. They kind of remind me of the ones Paris’ come with, which likely means they will be replaced soon, but I’ll give them a ride before passing judgement.
- The bushing seats are shallower but tighter than the Paris’, I’m not sure how that will translate when riding.
- The kingpin is an absolutely standard carriage bolt, 3/8″ – 24tpi, 1/2″ hex head, 1″ threaded length, 2.75″ total length. I suspect it could be replaced from stock at a home improvement store.
Conclusion: These trucks are $20+S&H per pair, and appear to be functionally equivalent to the classic ~$50 sets from Paris and Randall. I haven’t taken them out riding yet, but inspection says they are extremely comparable. I’ll have a more informed opinion after some riding, and only time will tell if the axle/kingpin steel is as good.
Edited to add disassembled picture and note from disassembly.
I was wondering if you had any trouble getting your kingpin out? I just got a pair of these guys and found that my venoms were a bit too big to fit on the kingpin. I was going to replace it, but it appears as though the truck was cast around the bolt head and sort of looks like there is a second set of threading at the top of the bolt.
My kingpins will drop free if I take the hanger off and flip the truck over, as far as I can tell they are normal partially threaded bolts just slid into place. I actually put a minor gouge in a friend’s deck that also has Churchill RKPs on it because the kingpin slid out and bound while I was screwing the baseplate to the deck.
I did have the same problem with the kingpin being a hair short for some bushings when I tried to put a set of Purple Orangatang Nipples on (which I then put on my Paris’ and determined that I hate…), but I’m running Venom Standards (barrel+cone) on my Churchill RKPs right now with no trouble.