While testing out the feel of my board (unpowered) I quickly discovered that the springs in my vertigo spring trucks have very little give. It takes quite a bit of effort to move them at all, and this is after loosening the tension screws and the kingpins.
I briefly looked into design a custom set, but, at $280 for four springs, that’s well out of my budget right now (I could probably get a full set of MBS trucks for that! Rather not, though).
I’ve only seen this issue raised once before here:
…and the guy also had MBS trucks which turned way better.
So am I in the minority here that I think trampa trucks are hard to steer on? I’m not expecting to turn it into a street carver (although…), I just want to be able to have a turning radius of less than fifty meters.
Has anyone else had this problem? How did you solve it?
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it gets easier to turn at higher speeds
Do you have dampas inserted? I have Red dampas and they were too stiff in the first days. After some days they perform much better and my radius gets smaller.
I’ve got yellow ones. I was hoping to use this board mostly for low to medium speeds on everything from pavement to light dirt and gravel tracks, so decent steering is kind of a must have.
So the springs just need to be softened or “broken in”?
The picture I posted on the linked thread was not an accurate representation of the truck’s turning radius. They turn much better than what’s shown. The problem was caused by me damaging several bushings during assembly.
Again, apologies @trampa for the misrepresentation. To my defense I did first email a picture (showing how tight it was), and I was told that it looked normal, so I figured it was. I was probably a little salty when I posted it too. Had been riding around like that for awhile, and eating a fair amount of shit throughout 
But yeah, the dampas will loosen up with a little bit of riding. Bindings are a must as well.
Whew, that’s a load off my mind! Thanks @benjammin, I was starting to think I’d need to bulk up just to move the thing, and at 67kg I’d have a lot of catching up to do!
About the bindings- does it matter which? I’m thinking of getting the Freeboard S2s. I like the ease getting in and out of them with no fuss.
There are two positions where you can sit the springs on, the closest to the center one should require a much softer steering effort than the farthest from the center
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Yeah, I noticed the second set of tapped holes on top, but since there wasn’t a corresponding set on the bottom I was a little scared to try it. Will the springs hold without being anchored from the bottom, just the top?
if you got a board without bindings, you really cant use dampas! on my urban carver I used the outer spring positions without dampas and pre-compressed the springs with the spring seat grub screw type until it was just about right for me (82kg, grub screw nearly flush with top of the board).
if you are a lightweight (67kg is fairly light), use the inner spring positions and play with the pre-compression again.
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Because without bindings and with dampas I’m more likely to get thrown?
Yeah, I’m definitely a lightweight- if I’m going to get thrown, it’ll be for distance 
I’ll try moving the springs to the inner position.
You can get much more lean into your turns with bindings than you can without. As whitepony said, if you’re gonna ride without bindings, lose the dampas and just ride with springs.
fwiw, looks like there’s two types of baseplates (one with a second spring position, and one without): http://www.trampaboards.com/baseplates-c-86.html
As far as bindings go: I’ve been happy with my f5s with skate shoes. Feel like I’m less likely to fall when strapped in; however, falling strapped in sucks 
As heavy as these things are, it’s pretty much impossible to do any kinda ninja shit. Best to invest in some good padding.
@okp has a emtb build going with freebord bindings though. Maybe he’ll fill us in. Been thinking about trying these for a minute.
But if for trampa MTB spring hanger. There is no inner position to sit the spring. I found that abit stiff for me.
You mean the missing lower screw holes? Yes, they’re the mtb trucks.
On my Vertigo mini carver trucks I do have both holes and inner and an outter, I switched to inner because with the outters I could even turn at low speed
You won’t see both holes here as the outters are covered by griptape, buy I assure you guys they are there:
Here you can see both holes on the right end:
Now it turns much better
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but for MTB vertigo truck, there have no any inner hole to switch the spring position like @High-roller photo showing tat hanger.
Exactly the problem. I’m debating whether I should try drilling a second set of holes.
maybe can, but the base plate and hanger are quite tick. not sure will affect the integrity of the hanger or not.
@trampa and idea?
Another option is to drill holes down through the center of the dampas.
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That softens them further?
Yeah, quite a bit depending on how large of a drill bit you go with. I went with 1/4 inch. Don’t think it was really necessary though for my setup. Did this before I realized I was having an issue with the bushings.
