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How to Adjust the Carver C7 Surfskate Truck
The Carver C7 is the first surfskate truck ever invented. Here’s how to adjust the Carver C7 surfskate truck for your personal preferences.
Watch How to Adjust the Carver C7 Surfskate Truck on YouTube
In 1996, Neil Stratton and Greg Falk launched Carver, the first surfskate company, using their patented C7 surfskate truck.
They had made the C7 adjustable. However, to this day many surfskaters don’t even know that the Carver C7 is adjustable. In fact, it has a very wide range of adjustment that makes a very big difference in the ride.
I’ve had many people ask me if I keep my C7 on factory settings or if I adjust it. My answer is that I’m always adjusting.
I recommend you always be adjusting your surfskate truck. You want to experiment and fine-tune your ride to suit your application, environment, and preferences.
Let me walk you through how to adjust the Carver C7 surfskate truck.
For help with learning how to ride your Carver surfskate, check out my video course, “Surfskating for Non-Surfers.”
The Carver C7 surfskate truck is a “dual axis system,” which means it has two axes, or dimensions, of movement.
The first is the lateral arm that swings back and forth.
The second is the kingpin nut adjustment, which, just as on any skateboard or longboard, changes how much your truck leans from side to side.
Adjusting the Kingpin Nut on the Carver C7
Let’s start with the easy adjustment, the kingpin nut.
It’s just like any kingpin—obviously the looser you go on this, the more range of motion your truck will have, which means the more lean you’ll get on your surfskate deck.
If you want less lean, simply screw that kingpin nut bolt down by turning clockwise.
Personally, I like a lot of lean, so I like to go as loose as possible on the kingpin nut adjustment. To loosen the kingpin nut, turn it counterclockwise.
However, you don’t want to loosen the kingpin nut too much. If you do, your truck will have too much play and will be unstable.
The rule of thumb I use is that I loosen the kingpin nut just I can’t spin the washer beneath it with my fingers. If you can spin the washer with your fingers, tighten it up a bit. That will give you maximum lean, but without excess play in the truck.
Adjusting the Lateral Arm on the Carver C7 Surfskate Truck
The lateral arm on the Carver C7 determines the range of motion, lean, and feel of the truck. The looser you adjust it, the wider your range of motion. The tighter you adjust it, the narrower your range of motion.
This adjustment actually makes a very big difference and it adds a lot of versatility to the C7 trucks.
To adjust the lateral arm on the Carver C7, you use a skate tool to turn the bolt right here, which tightens or loosens the internal spring:
To tighten the Carver C7, turn the bolt clockwise. To loosen it, turn the bolt counterclockwise.
I recommend that you only adjust a couple turns at a time, then test it, rather than turning it many times before testing it.
Just as with the kingpin nut adjustment, there is a danger in loosening the lateral arm bolt too much.
If you loosen the Carver C7 too much, the spring completely disengages. This creates a flopping sensation in the truck, since the spring is not pulling you back to center.
So if you like a loose surfskate truck, just make sure you don’t loosen the Carver C7 too much. Make sure the spring is still engaged when you pump back and forth.
Here’s what the Carver C7 surfskate truck looks like underneath:
The tension in the spring creates our range of motion. As we tighten this, you can see how that’s going to tighten up that spring.
When you loosen the C7 too much, you can see how it’s not engaging the spring at all, which will create that flopping sensation.
Why Adjust the Carver C7 Surfskate Truck?
By adjusting the Carver C7, you can use it for a wide range of application.
For example, if you working on tight surf maneuvers in small areas, you probably want to loosen it up quite a bit. But if you’re just starting to learn surfskate bowl riding, you might want to tighten it as much as possible.
I’ve tried several surfskate trucks for surfskate bowl riding, including the Smoothstar Thruster, YOW Meraki, Carver C7, Carver CX, and Slide.
You might have a completely different preference, but for bowl riding I want a tighter, more stable truck. So my personal favorite surfskate truck for bowl riding is the Carver CX.
However, since the Carver C7 is adjustable, I can use it in the bowl as well, in which case I tighten up that lateral arm to give me more stability through turns.
Then, when I want to go street cruising, I’ll loosen up that truck because I want as wide of a range of motion as possible.
So that’s how to adjust the Carver C7 surfskate truck.
For help with learning how to ride your surfskate, check out my video course, “Surfskating for Non-Surfers.”
I just got into surfskating at 52. Trying to get back into surfing too. Let me know if you ever are in the San Francisco area. You’ve put out a lot of great info and I would like to return the favor if you’re in the area.