Are the TB 218mm trucks supposed to be compatible with Caliber pivot cups? I picked up some Riptide caliber pivots from the local skateshop but after install the kingpin is no longer centered and bushings don’t sit properly. Pulled the pivots out of some old caliber 44s to test and got the same effect. Thought the TB trucks were just caliber clones with wider hangers?
From my understanding they are . i did the same thing and didnt notice that. Hmm 
I survived a couple rides on them so they definitely aren’t unusable, but bushings are significantly misaligned with their ‘slot’ in the hanger. Didn’t notice until I disassembled to try and fix the horrible squeaking noise my trucks were making.
Id scrap the TB base plates. Im running randal 42° fronts and a 35° rear. I had horrible death wobbles at speed . (above 25 mph) now its smooth sailing . a lot of people use caliber 2 base plates as well.
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I’d hoped to use my 44 Cal baseplates but anything under 50 degrees is giving me wheelbite on all my dropthru decks. I’d like some Randal 50s but they don’t ship to Canada
edit: frustration with the TB baseplates inspired me to play around a bit more with the calibers. Managed to get the 44Cal baseplate+TB hanger+90mm wheel combo working in dropthru with some 93a+95a venom double barrels. Still bites on my LY switchblade, but the Rayne Killswitch has about 2mm of room between wheel/board without cranking down the kingpin too much
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I use “WFB Pivot Cups 96a, custom, Caliber II Trucks” from Riptide on my TB 218 as Riptide suggested, they fit very well.
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Didnt even think of the material mine are wfb too.
It has to be a Caliber II cup to fit the TB218 afaik.
I thought for a while that the skate shop dude might have given me the wrong pivot cups, don’t have the packaging anymore to check. They look almost identical to my og 44 Cal2 pivots though, and they work in every tb/caliber configuration except TB baseplate.
OK, I am not seeing what the problem is, please explain. Ours fit very tight so it will take some effort to get them seated since we design them with an interference fit.
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If you look at my first picture, is the hanger supposed to sit like that ? (with kingpin almost touching hanger).
Kingpin is centered in hanger if I put the pivot cups in Caliber 2 trucks, but on the TB trucks the hanger looks like its sitting way too high. If I use barrel bushings I can crank the kingpin down a lot and the bushings kinda deform into their seat, but with a barrel+cone the cone just kinda overflows out of the bushing seat
RipTide Caliber II pivots will work in Caliber I and Caliber II trucks and TB 218 but Caliber I pivots only work in Caliber I trucks since Caliber II pivots are slightly shorter. It is possible that the store got them confused. Castings vary also especially when mixing brands of hangers and base plates. Sometimes drilling a small hole if the pivots do not have one, in the end of the pivot relieves any airlock issues that can make installation extra difficult. My method for installation is to have the trucks mounted to the deck, install the boardside bushing and washer, place the pivot nose of the hanger into the baseplate and rocking the hanger back and forth as I force the nose deeper into the pivot till the bushing seat contacts the bushing. Keeping pressure on the hanger into the pivot, I install the roadside bushing, washer, and kingpin nut and continue rocking the hanger forcing it into the base plate, once the kingpin is set, I stand on the board and rock it back and forth to fully seat the pivot cup into the baseplate. I am rarely defeated using this method. There are rare occasions when the when all the tolerances stack up and make installation not possible so we offer to ship you another pair to try if you are in the USA.
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