Thunder IKP, Trowels and Taters

[@bananaclipper7692]

“he’s like the Mr Rogers of skateboarding” - my gf 10 seconds in

[@victorr2040]

Mr. DeGros’s skaterhood

[@derekgatzxx]

That's what I always said lol

[@brianp9268]

Definitely had the Mr Rodgers vibe, but then he stole those tomatoes…

[@Sickends_]

😂

[@No1hyp0cr1te]

Whats his name?

[@TheKb813]

Feels like watching Bob Ross paint, when Ben is putting a board together. Love it 🤘

[@marble1686]

I got unbelievably hyped seeing the trowels

[@grassgrow030]

gardening is such a great hobby to have. Youre a skilled and interesting person, respect!!!

[@memorysometimers3067]

Harvesting Taters in mid July!! Holy Vancouver Batman.

[@greenershoeswithalfredostb1677]

hell yea I farm - potatoes, hella herbs and lovely swedish strawberries. Ben, I appreciate the more loose format videos. Great insight on the trucks, interesting comparison with the trowel wheelbase and fun gardening stuff. Enjoy summer everybody!

[@leamon2501]

I grew potatoes this year for the first time it was so easy I couldn't believe it. A potato just grew a bunch of roots in the garage and I chopped it up into three pieces. Put it in the ground n bam food . I watered it n weeded it a few times. I've eaten them twice so far. God bless

[@jacksonwallace6211]

I've been growing tomatoes, peppers and herbs since I was a young adult, close to 20 years. If you cook, do yourself a favor and grow parsley. Fresh, homegrown parsley makes a huge difference in recipes. I grow more oregano than I can use; it grows like a weed. Chives are slept on. I love having fresh chives.

[@pjchmiel]

Garden looks great, glad to see you growing comfrey and some perennial fruits. Your soil looks really good! Appreciate your work on all fronts (skating, drywall, and now gardening, ha).

[@alexei4204]

So lovely to see this side of you. The comfrey near the potatoes, the bright blue borage towards the end, the black soil and all the growth, just fantastic.

[@bendegros]

:)

[@jcarlosrodriguezm]

Love the gardening part of the video, I am a agronomist and also love skateboarding. Keep doing real as always Ben.

[@dadboard]

Came for the trucks, stayed for the gardening. Lovely video. Had the same experience with these trucks. Summer bushing madness exactly as you described and completely threw me back into gear madness. I guess I kinda like it though, keeps things interesting.

[@bendegros]

I put them back together as they were before. Back on the regular kingpin.

[@benj6107]

The gardening section was great! I do dabble in a bit of gardening myself and as it is summer in the UK right now, I'm currently harvesting strawberries, raspberries and blueberries along with some salad. Like you say, it is super satisfying and rewarding to harvest your own food and I can also see myself getting more serious with this as I get older and pull back on the skating.

[@bransolo11]

Came for the skating, stayed for the squash!😂😂 glad you’re back big unc Ben

[@jamesholland6712]

Loving the change in content Ben, the skate stuff is of course always rad, but loving this green fingers edit. Hope you're well, keep up the good vibes 👌. Sending love & respect from the UK 🤙

[@Gabbycatty]

these are my new favourite truck :) with these I now have my perfect setup, the chocolate twin G096, thunder inverted 149's, and the spitfire reynolds 93a soft sliders 52mm!

[@marble1686]

I garden as well raspberries are my favorite so far since they can be very tasty and plentiful

[@bendegros]

Our raspberries are just suffering. I have no idea why.

[@vix_in_japan]

Broke your arm 7 times, duuuude... I draw mostly by hand so the thought of that made me wince! On the gardening front that's so rad and I agree 100%, I don't have much space here in Japan, in fact it's the concrete step, but I grow mame (beans) and tomatoes as well as some flowers, I'm no pro but it's rad, I like sitting out on the step after work, cup of coffee and having a bit of color and the occasional tomato snack is there to go.

[@Aleclott]

Love the garden, we like to grow chilis and I make pickled chilis when/if we get enough. Also love a fresh tomato one of my favorite things. Our blueberries haven’t done anything this year not sure what happened.

[@Robebabu]

Thanks for checking in. I'm excited to pull my potatoes--and garlic--very soon here in Milwaukee. I got them from someone who works in the potato industry, so it should be an interesting harvest. The plants are beast.

[@ETANGSKATES]

The squish of the bushing is something no one talks about! Stoked to see this in depth taking apart of the truck. I know from skating inverted kingpins that they are very finicky as you will find they loosen as you skate causing you to thread lock the threads of the kingpins. I think many thunder skaters won’t want to mess with all that comes with inverting kingpins but I’m still stoked to see thunder’s take on inverted trucks.

[@ETANGSKATES]

lol also nice taters Ben. You definitely have a green thumb

[@bendegros]

I’m going back to the regular ones….if they go back together the same way

[@Yomanchamcru]

Around twelve years ago I discovered permaculture at a rooftop garden in north London. Didn't have a clue about growing, but the head grower there was a skater and I just figured I must be on the right path if I keep meeting skaters in this different setting. Hey, try one of those blue borage flowers the next time you're there if you haven't already. They're kinda cucumbery in flavour.

[@Robert-nf7lo]

I definitely recommend Polish "ogórki małosolne". It's when you flash pickle the cucumbers and it's like a perfect mix of fresh earthy and lightly pickled saltiness. If you like pickles you'll love them just as much. Thanks for doing your gardening in my current favorite skate shoe.

[@JohnWBlair82]

Fun video. I like the addition of the garden into a truck review.

[@SebustienT]

I loved the parallels with the trowels!!

[@MeisterburgerBurgermeister]

Loved the gardeners talk, this was me after my first weed plant back in the day.

[@ulukalakar]

The passion we now have for skateboarding has to be transformed into something else as we get older and can't skate that much whether it is gardening or music or whatever else. It is always good to have something to do. I love it! Growing blueberries at home is great. I remember when I was a kid I found some weird plant in the woods and it had only one blueberry in the middle of it. I wanted to eat it but I was told that it is Herb Paris aka True Lover's Knot, the poison plant that can kill you. 😮😅

[@fxm5715]

My garden is definitely a key aspect of my communing with the Higher Order, whatever that may actually be. My poor potatoes are taking a beating this summer, with serious drought and heat. Maybe I'll manage to have a nice, late crop under poly tunnels, but the early crop is not at all happy. It takes just a little bit of work... if you have gorgeous soil like yours, Ben! Most of my garden effort is put into trying to improve my terrible soil. In another few years, it will finally be decent.

[@memorysometimers3067]

Oh man that sucks. Taters need water bigtime. And Ben’s lettuces need to go in a raised bed because the slugs are too lazy to climb up into it. Carpentry and Gardenry 👌

[@drewseekford6968]

no matter what the content is its always good to hear from you sir. big fan of the channel and as always hope you and your family are well. cheers thanks for the content and have a blessed evening.

[@antonmyhrvold]

Love your content Ben! All the insight and details in your videos shows that you are really passionate about everything you do, and all the skateboard knowledge is just beautiful. 🔥❤

[@edwardking9373]

Please keep making comparisons between carpentry/ tradesmen/ tradespeople’s tools and skating. I love the overlap between the channels.

[@infoatnorcal2304]

Always a treat Ben, this one even more so with the extra content on the garden/life. I am sure there are a lot of 90's folks out there that feel the same. Good work on the new concave as well, stoked for you and he DLX partnership. Much love from NORCAL!!🌲🌱🐳

[@Rayjay009]

Ben has entered his Muska phase

[@rogerjerabek9574]

Thank you, Ben, for sharing.

[@P1Brand]

If you’re a curb skater, the IKPs are a must. Lots of us have been doing DIY conversions for many years, so it’s rad to start seeing some factory IKP options hitting the market.

[@bendegros]

The feebles on the curb did feel extra buttery

[@P1Brand]

@@bendegros I noticed that! U have bigger contact patch on the truck without the kingpin hindering it

[@patrick-gd3wi]

Good to see you back ! Real skateboards, good choice !❤

[@SkateSkateAndFun]

That’s so sweet watching you happily harvesting potatoes. Nice to hear about balancing life and skateboarding, very important! Too bad you went in to bushing Madness. I was gonna by the inverted but found regulars really cheap. NeXT time! On only Thunder after years of switching around. Thanks Ben!

[@ronniecreager2585]

This was great! Felt like we were just chillin haha. I stand by Indy bushings in thunder trucks. Works great

[@lewisbarlot4823]

I Frankenstein my Thunders 149s with a bottom indy stock orange cylinder and for top a bottom hard bones. (The bigger one). Medium tight, stable and only 2 threads. You will enjoy your Thunders...Great and grand content as always.

[@chrhadden]

wow those are some good looking trucks . thanks for the tip about the skate toll. i had a problem with my tool slipping on my kingpin the other day.

[@Owjdnskoakansbskk]

I'm 43. I've been skating two or three days a week for a few years now. It works for me. I manage to sneak in two workouts at the gym too. My kid is almost 20 now so that definitely makes it easier to make time for me. I feel like two to three days is a great balance for me. It's not so much that my knee hurts all the time and I essentially overtrain, but it's also not too little that I stop progressing.

[@Love4boost]

I’m 39 now and lost basically the last 4 years to a lingering knee and hamstring injury on my left leg. I also had a motorcycle accident about 2 years ago that almost severed my Achilles on my left leg. That had an odd feeling that I wasn’t confident in the stability of it for a while. But everything is feeling pretty good again so I’ve been pushing around again and popping some Ollie’s to get my confidence back. Not easy when you’ve lost so much time at this age and I was just getting my confidence back after a couple years of not skating when all those injuries happened. So I’m really taking it slow. But it feels good to ride again. I skate at 2AM when everyone is sleeping so I don’t feel like I have to try something I’m not ready for yet. I think that’s what got me last time.

[@guzzitwin]

Glad you are feeling good!! 💯

[@hyd..]

Now the trowel madness saga starts

[@not-hank-s]

Damn, 7 breaks and still goin. Three took me out for a while, getting over that injury-fear is really hard. I really like the 'stream of consciousness' and non-skateboarding related content here.

[@E_L1000]

The Grind King inverted kingpin replacement set was common in late 80’s and early 90’s. And the G&S steel trucks also had inverted kingpins. Then the inverted kingpins faded out. Although technically superior, they felt old and nerdy. So they went out of fashion. All good ideas comes back. The old inverted kingpins had normal nuts, but the new ones has special designed nuts and baseplates.

[@jl4689]

Ben! Throw some ace pivot cups and ace hard bottom bushings and medium top bushings in the thunder IKP! Did that with mine and it fixed all the problems 👌🏽👌🏽

[@Fortuna_716]

Im glad to see Ben uploading again

[@psych0billy6]

The top washer/ kingpin should be one piece or even no washer but a plastic core in the top bushing like a bones bushing. When tightening your trucks, the wheels are being pulled closer together and changing the truck angle slightly. I've had issues with the Indy mids where it felt like the truck loosened as I rode it. Another feel good video. I always enjoy your opinions and experience.

[@paullech6736]

Thank you Ben.

[@GC-ji3ye]

I loved this video. Thank you.

[@nvdrz4666]

Ben DeGrows potatoes

[@colinf7066]

We Need the Ben Degros Extra Medium after market bushing kit. Thanks for the share!

[@DellyAfriadi]

always good to see your video ben.. love the gardening section! greeting from your long time watcher in indonesia. and... Hi ! 😄

[@taneltolsting2900]

Yes, we do potatoes enough to consume them for almost all year round. Pickles and tomatos and other stuff as well. A tiny rock took me down badly. Gonna receive capsule deck soon, pretty hyped.

[@mx3gs]

Nice garden dude 👍

[@SchwappSchwopp]

Happy to hear that your Achilles tendinitis is gone🙂Do you still do the exercises and stuff I recommended? I feel like the combination of concentric, eccentric and isometric calf exercises is key! I don't have any problems anymore either, but that's only fair I guess since I did so much research about it. Edit: I didn't expect to like the gardening part as much as I did😀

[@fyjypko4207]

Some of my favourite things, thunders and potatoes.

[@Fortuna_716]

I used to skate Thunders a lot. I've been skating the same pair of Indys for years. They're so ground down my king pin catches sometimes, but I love they lock in. Might put some new handgers because my baseplates are nice and rounded, lock into noseslides perfectly

[@Jesticles85]

I love the abrupt shift from skateboards to potato harvesting lol

[@Jesticles85]

Also, i have a garden but my wife and the in-laws are the ones that take care of it.

[@Allen.Saylor]

Navigator is an old truck comapny that used those inverted kingpins. I'd get them medium tight and they loosen way up after awhile. Always had to retighten. Funny enough I went to Thunders and never went back

[@yesmaybe630]

Can you please talk to thunder and venture and tell them they need to put out some quality bushings for both these brands. Back to the drawing board! Skateboarding, carpentry, and farming! Your adhd is all over the place! 😅

[@mouthgina3213]

highly recommend independent 78A bushings (white) they make any truck feel amazing.

[@Bleseddd1]

Never had a problem

[@yooomarie]

@@Bleseddd1thunders def have a issue wit bushings they be mad loose out da box and if u tighten at all they will bust first day

[@diplenski]

@@yooomarie you shouldn't tighten them at all until they break in, or at least as minimally as you can tolerate

[@diplenski]

i like venture stock bushings, no issue so far

[@BraxtonRoberts-lp9iq]

Video quality seems like it went through the roof on this one mate badass

[@cavf88]

I also was having 340 issues with thunder... I realized my issue was more needing to put more weight on the front foot to have that tension. I ride Thunders 148s with Primitve 8.125(14" wb) and the thinnest riser pad. I like that setup a lot it's snappy.

[@viracocha03]

Reminds me of the Grind King king pins, love them trucks.

[@SatelliteSoundLab]

really tapping into the music of the spheres with the trowel comparison... haha... it's true though - the board madness eventually effects how you look at everything physical. skateboarding will change your brain and life will never look the same again.

[@Poltergits-Lampost]

Never heard the wax tip before in the bushing 👍👍👍❤edit pivot cups

[@majkel012]

Ben, i love your videos, keep it up!

[@lilecheng]

You are the best man love you❤❤❤❤❤

[@KevinHenkelMusic]

Came for the trucks, stayed for the potatoes.

[@amberruby4896]

I feel you with the peaking last summer. Mine was actually 2 summers ago 😅 Skating almost every day and then BAM! maybe getting to skate once a month when I go into the city for tafe and meet up with my friend 🍻🇦🇺

[@_Maxten]

i actually DIYd some IKP thunders the day before i found out these were coming out. I used slappy hollow kingpins. Also i always run thunders with risers. Feels better than venture highs to me

[@MigMigusta]

Since i've put Riptide KranK bushings in my Thunders, my madness with them is over. Don't need to touch them at all. 93a Short street cone top bushing and barell bottom sanded to the original height.

[@Dude-i5w]

great socket hack. the mind of a machinist.

[@liam_dawson]

i need a pair! It would be full circle from grom days, krux cow trucks with the invert kingpin

[@l.j.i]

Dude, I think you should make a video about the parallels between trowels and/or talk or collaborate with Zach Dowdy about that (which would make such a sick video, btw), because that's totally relevant to concrete skate DIY stuff! That was some of the most interesting stuff in this video for me personally, as I love building my own obstacles (I've built a lot in Vancouver and Richmond, hope you've found some and enjoyed 😉). I love it and love seeing how jacked you got talking about it, also love it when I see the parallels between skating and other stuff in my daily life. Very cool 👌

[@Herb_St]

Last winter I tried the orange conical Indy bushings in my thunders and it was the best upgrade ever! They don’t freeze up like thunder bushings and they break in way sooner! 👌🏼also using the 92a blue cylindrical Indy bushings with a bones top washer (curved washer making contact with ventures drives me nuts😅) drastically improved my ventures. I don’t know why but the orange bushings in ventures make them feel way too loose and I don’t like any threads poking out on my kingpins.

[@Herb_St]

To add onto that my ventures with 92a Indy bushings feel a little more loose than my 90a Indy bushings in my thunders.

[@patrickodea]

Ben got your board. Love it. Have to try a flight deck (Broke 3 board in like 3 weeks Not Easy riders) but I think I found a home on the easy rider shape. Been two weeks on it now landed a few times thought I cracked it but no. I have to show my son your garden that is all hes has been wanting to do this year. I have only grown green beans well. I got to try potatoes.

[@bendegros]

I’m glad it’s working for you 🙂

[@JadedGenXer]

Simple question, what size is the Alan key for the king pin ? Myself i have like a swiss army kinfe of Alan keys for any hex bolts i may encounter for hardware and so on in my skate tools bag but just for anyone that already have a few T tools and really dont need to buy another just to get a single Alan key, their cheap as i single tool. Btw, love having a veg patch. Gardening has happy drugs in the soil, scientifically proven ❤ But once you plant potatoes in a bed, they will always just come up . I do mine in a tube of chicken wire and layer up straw and soiled with spuds in there like a layer cake and just un hook the wire of spunds and they just fall out. No dig method

[@bendegros]

Cool method! You can use any Allen key that fits. Not sure exactly what size.

[@christiankarafyllis4538]

I'm making the perfect truck Ben. Venture Titanium hanger with a cast baseplate. I love the 53.5 mm height for my 8.25 setup but using the standard Venture 5.6, I do find them heavy. I have 53mm classics. This means that I'll have to buy two sets of Ventures to get my Titanium standards and so, I have an 8.125 setup with standard hangers and forged baseplates. I'm stuck between an 8.125 setup and an 8.25 setup. This setup is slightly lower at 52mm axle height and will have 52mm classics to avoid wheel bite. The cast baseplates have a shorter wheelbase,(which I enjoy). Madness is well within my blood cells. 💉

[@mrWhite81]

Almost as big wheelbite grooves as me, . the same trowel and the same knife. I just changed from really worn thunders to new tensors. But thoose trucks look dope.

[@michaelgrier6365]

We need a Muska/Degros gardening video ASAP.

[@jazzmanworkz]

love the trowel vibes....

[@BobWeaver3000]

trowelchat was epic

[@derekgatzxx]

I was buying these next time I go to the shop. Perfect timing!

[@bransolo11]

“Like this” *me in my head”chopper style” Ben- “Like a dog dragging its butt😌” ahahahah

[@JarrodRodosTaylor]

A month ago I inverted both sets of my Ace trucks best decision I made cause I was over catching on feeble grinds once the grooves get lower.

[@jwest88]

Once my deck supply dwindles(5 or so spares) I may go down from my 8.75 to a 8.5 setup. My ankles are not what they used to be, so a smaller lighter setup may help out with that. I'm currently on Indies, and I am totally fine with the stock bushings; I used to skate Bones bushings until they kept blowing out after about a month(I don't skate that hard/do big drops). I also skate my trucks I think fairly/ medium loose, so It's not me cranking down on bushings. Anyways, I may try out these Thunders if I end up downsizing, I grew up on thunders and indies, so am fine with either. Have considered Aces, but not sure I'll try them or not. If it works for you why change it. This summer heat is making skating not likely to happen, so that 8.75 supply may last a while, since winter is soon after summer and it's also hard to skate in the snow. That fall window will be super nice though.

[@mrhogei]

I so want to try these trucks, i have the titanium trucks - the bushings that come with them are surprisingly good, i’m prob gonna swap hangers after buying these trucks

[@chaddsinclairofficial]

It was sick meeting you finally at Rail side a few weeks ago, if you ever want to skate or film let me know, I'm also always down to film you any time!! Come to rail side Ill be there more often!! would be sick to chat it up some more and skate it up!!

[@bendegros]

Send me a DM on insta:)

[@mayedization]

Hey Ben, I also think 2 to 3 days of the week is totally enough skating. Still you have progress, but your body does not degrade that much 💪

[@jeffli480]

Might be over the top, but you could measure the length of the kingpins to figure out exactly how tight your trucks were before. if the kingpins are the same length, you could probably judge by how many threads showing underneath

[@KarstenThoughts]

@Ben DeGros Don't use wax in the pivot cups, use a tiny bit of lithium or silicongrease. It will stay in the cup. I think the heat prob melted the wax differently and made your cups feel weird.

[@leafyconcern]

I’m also into wide trowel short wheelbase

[@balandadnadangg]

I think it would be cool to see a video of your morning and workout routine Benjamin.

[@joshmandracken7623]

Wait, so, I can put my old hangers onto these inverted kingpin/baseplates? I was skating the hollow lights.

[@bendegros]

Yup.

[@jouhajohnny]

Love these longer videos!

[@nickcarty7]

nice, man. good stuff.

[@rollfastranchwear1289]

Great video thanks!!!

[@richardbrewis436]

Broke ur arm 7 times!!!. Ben ur a vet. at broken bones, sir! Have a sort of serious wrist fracture presently (in a cast), from a salad grind-where I had no wrist guards at hand, no pun intended! Still working on my technical skills i.e. flip tricks. Don't worry I've got my Heelflip on lock! Still stoked. KZbinrs keep the passion alive, Thnks.

[@garrisoncampbell7014]

Love the new thumbnails