Just to elaborate my distain for channel trucks a bit more. Please don’t take it personally, they are great for anything but going fast. Derek was the guy speed testing channels. I’d like to leave it there for where I derive my bias from. I’m sure someone is doing it but have yet to see a set of channels running DH.
Feel free to elaborate.
I promise I don’t take anything personally on here, I’m just in pursuit of information on this since what’s being stated contradicts my personal experience.
I’m curious if the reports of instability come from inexperience on channel trucks, and if not I’d love to hear someone chime in with factual data to support it.
Discourse. 
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Here is a guy who could do it all. Meticulous and Methodical in his approach, driven. I still would put his builds in the world top 5. He spent countless hours and had endless problems trying to make channels work. I think he would have written them off earlier if it wasn’t for the fantastic drive system. I wish he would have. Read into it what you want, but Derek is no longer with us.
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Given that I don’t know the situation or the person at all, what am I to read into this? If this was your friend, my condolences for your loss.
I’m not trying to be dense here, I’m just searching for data rather than anecdotal testimony. Is the implication being made that channel trucks are so unstable at high speeds that they are deadly to even attempt?
I’m also not talking about attempting 50+mph on these. I’m not a racer, I build my boards for entirely different reasons and I don’t really need an everyday configuration that goes faster than 35mph.
This inquiry all started from the claim that channel trucks can’t do 25+ safely, which simply is not true. I’m not trying to say they are built for high speeds (45mph+)
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To be clear I’m not talking about numies and full mountainboard specs. I’m talking urethane on the trampa deck and trucks and my opinion is based on actual riding experience. My actual riding experience. Thats all. Given time I’m sure that I could have coaxed the thing up there but I personally wasn’t up to the task in the time I had but give me a full rkp downhill set up and in 10 minutes I will have it hitting 40+ if its capable. Its a completely moot point though because I’d rather chew off one of my arms than ride one again with urethane. Not my cup of tea so to speak.
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If your looking for technical “data” on truck dynamic stability there just isn’t much to be had. An engineered piece still has to be tested to be proven. A stable truck at 45mph will be more predictible at 25 but will not be as carvy as one would like at 15mph. It’s all about dialing in for what your trying to accomplish. Anecdotal testimony here with truck setup is about all you have to sort through. Sorry about your truck choice. Current Channel trucks are no bueno for speed.
You might want to rethink your opinion on channel trucks. @DerelictRobot tuned his setup really well. It changed my mind on how stable they can be. To be honest you probably don’t have enough first hand experience with anything other than your handmade trucks so your opinion might be less than helpful and purely anecdotal here.
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I dont think you took into account that the TRAMPA boards are purpose built. They are designed to be jumped, trashed, carved, and abused 100x more than a E-Board. With this design methodology their boards focus around the MTB toughness.
The gummies are comparative to aftermarket car wheels. Obviously there are specific benefits like weight, traction, increase in diameter/speed, but they cater to people who like to modify their vehicles for show, performance, or for fun.
There are skateboards, longboards, and mountainboards. Trampa trucks wheels and decks are the best mountainboards, even if the terrain is the big city. By focusing on this rugged design they are ready for next level eskating. A recent 20 mile plus ride around San Francisco was an interesting time to watch the Trampa boards chew up the city.
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I’m not.
My setup works great for exactly what I need it to do. Which includes routinely not having any issues going as fast as I need to.
The burden of proof lies in those making the claim.
I just want to let you know that everyone here knows that you’re a fast guy that likes to go fast.
My buddy is dead Chaka. He was on Channels when he was tossed from his board. I’ll think what I think, you keep being Chaka.
@MoeStooge Derek’s death was very tragic but you are out of line using his death in an attempt to prove your stance on channel trucks. If you want to talk about why we should wear helmets I could understand why you would reference the death of a friend who died because he was not wearing a helmet, but to blame channel trucks for his death is not cool.
It is OK to be wrong about your assumptions on channel trucks. I too thought they were unstable at higher speeds but it turns out they can be tuned just like other truck designs.
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I am genuinely interested in how to tune them.
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You get into an internet debate with a fellow engineer, but be sure to have zero flexibility in your opinion from day one. Then you just ride your board at whatever speed you want and adjust them until you don’t fall off.
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Thanks Brent. However this time I am not joking and I really want to learn how to tune this type of trucks. I have a vague idea how to tune normal RKP trucks (mostly thanks to the help of guys like @Alphamail ) but really know almost nothing about these trucks.
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The mystery with what happened to Derek is we truly do not know if a component or piece of equipment caused him to come off his board. Maby a bad piece of road? No one knows. I like to believe with correct PPE he would be talking about this with us. All I’m saying is he was a smart guy who did extensive speed testing with channels and never made stability at speed.
Me neither. I’m just after a participation award 
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With channel trucks tuning can sometimes start with deck choice. Most MTB decks have something like a 30 deg front and 30 deg rear mounting angle but some are available with a 20 deg rear angle for better stability and tracking. From there you can add wedges to make more adjustments. Adding urethane dampers or switching out for stiffer bushings is the other end of the equation.
More importantly you need to keep your weight forward and get low when going fast. However, a dual rear can get really sketchy no matter how good your setup. In a bad situation it can swing sideways and toss you in an instant. On pneumatics this may not be as big an issue as it is on skate wheels but still something to think about.
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So more or less the same stuff we do with normal RKP trucks apart from the fact we can’t play with boardside/ roadside bushings. What do you mean by dual rear?
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This is something I pointed out back in 2015, a dual rear motor design is extremely tail heavy. A tail heavy board will whip around on you the moment traction breaks while turning or carving at decent speed. Is this a huge problem on pnumatics? I do not know for sure.
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I definitely have run into this before… more than once.
Even with traction control, it can toss you like a fucking whip!
Thats why I ate shit the other nite racing a Litre bike light to light. Lol.
I was winning…
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