The current status quo
American companies have had the skateboard truck industry by the short and curlies for quite some time now. The big four players in the truck game are Independent, Ace, Thunder and Venture. Of course, there are other companies like Royal, Slappy and Jeremie Daclin’s Film Trucks (hailing from France), but you just don’t see these around anywhere near as much as the top four companies.
Indy, Thunder and Venture have been at the very top of the list for basically the past 20/30 years, and unlike deck or clothing brands, they have never had to worry about the ever-turning wheel of what is ‘cool’, making it difficult for new aspiring truck companies to make a name for themselves in the industry. Let’s face it, deck and clothing companies, for the most part, set themselves apart from one another with aesthetics and marketing rather than the out-and-out function of the product they are selling. This is not the case when it comes down to trucks. Hanger shapes, weight, height, width availability, turning circles and general geometry are all factors that result in a lot of skaters finding a truck that works for them and will stick with it for the majority of their skating. This is certainly true in the Supereight office, Sam has ridden Indy’s for the last 15-20 years and Nick swears by Thunders.
Changing of the guard
All that being said, over the past few years, there have been some openings in the market, mainly due to Indy losing its unbelievably tight grip at the top of the pack. Don’t get me wrong, Indy are still very much a big name within the industry, but they have had some big slips over the past five to ten years.
First and foremost, historically Independent Trucks has championed itself as the hardest-wearing, highest-performing truck available, and up until the 2010s I wouldn’t have argued against that opinion. However, once Indy moved their production from San Francisco to China, the quality of their trucks took an obvious dip, with hangers, kingpins and baseplates breaking at a noticeably higher rate than before. This combined with losing their OG “shield” logo has resulted in a lot of hardcore Indy heads looking for alternatives, with many of them opting for Ace Trucks due to them having a similar turning circle, as well as being based on earlier Independent designs. Before this, Ace was nowhere near as popular as they are now.
It is also really expensive to start a truck company. I believe it was Mike Sinclair who said in an interview a few years ago that when he started Slappy Trucks, he had to sell his car to just pay for the moulds used to cast the trucks. In a world of tiny minimums, when it comes down to deck or clothing production, it makes very little sense to start a truck company. That is unless you are incredibly passionate about making the ultimate truck design. This is another reason that the truck side of skateboarding rarely experiences new brands entering the fray.
Not as easy as it looks
Lurpiv Trucks has considered all this and has still bravely decided to throw their name into the rather uninviting hat of truck companies available to us lucky lot. Lurpiv is the brainchild of Polar Skate Co. pro Oscar ‘Oski’ Rosenberg and head designer J-Mag, both are based in Sweden and are brimming with knowledge about truck design and performance. They plan to break the mould of “normal” truck design and genuinely try to make a truck with features that have never been seen before – something we will get into later. Essentially, Lurpiv is the Volvo of the truck industry. This also makes them only the second European rival to the big US brands, with Film being the only other name big enough to make any noticeable ripples in the market.
Lurpiv has actually already had a first release of their trucks a few years ago, but due to some issues with the inverted kingpin design, they had to pull the plug and redesign the kingpin set-up. Personally, and perhaps oddly, this fills me with confidence when it comes down to the quality of Lurpiv trucks. They listened to the customer, and almost as soon as the kingpin had been identified as a weak point in the construction of the truck, Lurpiv added a ‘Grublock’ to the baseplate. This is a small screw that goes through the rear of the baseplate and pressed onto the kingpin itself, keeping it from wobbling around. A great idea, in theory, and it did almost solve the issue, the only problem was the fault had moved from the kingpin to the grublock itself.
I personally bought a pair of the early edition trucks with the grub lock addition and loved them. The turning circle was great, wheel-bite was very rare, they’d grind effortlessly and of course, they looked like nothing else. I was absolutely sold on them… until the grub lock fell out of my rear truck. Now, I did let Lurpiv know and they sent me four spare grub locks, in case it happened again in the future, but by that point, I’d lost confidence and could not rely on myself to make sure the grub lock was tight during every session. Reluctantly, I went back to skating Ace Trucks, yearning for Lurpivs to come back and solve that pesky kingpin issue. That is exactly what they have done with this revival!
Lurpiv 2.0 – Applying what they have learned
I have a lot of respect and trust for a brand that listens to the customers and ensures their product is as good as it can be. I’m sure Lurpiv took a big financial hit halting production of their first truck design and going back to the drawing board, but it proves to the customer that they really do care. Whilst other truck manufacturers are letting the quality of their trucks stagnate and diminish, Lurpiv is ensuring their product is the very best you can get.
It’s not just the R&D (if I can call it that) but what Lurpiv has put themselves through that separates them from the rest. As mentioned before, they’ve looked at every component of a skate truck and attempted to improve it as much as they could. I guess you could say they have made big steps in refining skateboard truck design, and I’m not just talking about the hanger that appears to have been designed using Minecraft!
What’s this anti-wheelbite stuff all about?
I’ll start with my favourite feature, the anti-wheelbite technology! This is something I’ve been suckered into believing before, and trust me when I say I was sceptical when I first tried these out, but it really does work. I can’t say I’ve never experienced wheel bite whilst skating Lurpivs, but the threshold at which you would usually get a nasty case of deck-on-wheel action is drastically different. I skate my trucks very loose and when carving hard on Indy’s or Ace it isn’t uncommon for my wheel to give the deck a solid kiss, stopping me in my tracks.
With Lurpiv’s you’ve got to jump up and down on the side of the board for any real contact to be made. This is achieved due to the shape of the hanger that sits both inside and right above the pivot cup. Rather than a sleek hanger sitting above the cup, Lurpiv trucks have been designed to effectively move the impact from between the deck and the wheel over to the hanger and baseplate, keeping the wheel free from any interference meaning it keeps spinning. I’ll be honest, this itself is enough to pledge my allegiance to the Swedes.
It doesn’t stop there
Once you’ve wrapped your head around the anti-wheelbite tech, there are a few more features that are definitely worth mentioning.
Firstly, the materials used are of a very high spec. The hanger and baseplate are made from AA357 aluminium which is injected into the mould rather than poured, creating a construction that results in a truck that is not only stronger than most others, it grinds better too!
The axle is made from SCM440 steel and travels right through the hanger, resulting in a super sturdy hanger ready for whatever action you throw at it. Another favourite feature of mine has to be the built-in hanger spacer, which means you now only have two to lose whenever you change over your wheels. I can’t imagine how many spacers I have lost in my time, so this is a great feature for those who find themselves placing their hardware in apparent black holes.
The kingpin is no longer inverted, but again, the metal used is of supreme quality, being made from SMC435 steel, so even though there is less grind clearance, it is, at least, as strong as a Volvo ready to decimate any moose stood before it.
One of the best things in life is having the freedom of choice, something the skateboard truck industry has a very limited supply of. With Lurpiv’s reintroduction to the scene, not only have we been blessed with some beautiful Swedish engineering, but skaters now have one more option of skate truck on the menu, something I’m sure we can all celebrate. Lurpiv trucks are back, and I can’t see them going anywhere, anytime soon.