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Waterborne Rail Adapter Bushings Guide: How to Upgrade & Customize

by | May 27, 2023 | Upgrades & Customizations

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Watch My Waterborne Rail Adapter Bushing Guide on YouTube

The Waterborne Rail Adapter is a device that you can attach to the rear truck of any surfskate to give it more lean. It makes your wheels hug the ground during tight carves to give you greater control.

The Rail Adapter uses four bushings that you can upgrade and customize with RipTide bushings for the Waterborne Rail Adapter.

Upgrading your stock Waterborne Rail Adapter bushings to RipTide bushings makes it feel a lot better because the urethane is much higher quality. So it gives you a wider range of motion, higher rebound, and smoother turns.

I haven’t used the Rail Adapter a lot in the past, simply because the stock bushings on the rail adapter are very soft (85a durometer). At my weight, it gives it too deep of a lean for my personal preference.

But when I customize the durometer using Waterborne Rail Adapter RipTide bushings, I really love it.

So having RipTide bushings for the Waterborne Rail Adapter in four durometers enables you to customize the lean based on your weight and preference.

Waterborne Rail Adapter Bushings Sizes

 
The Waterborne Rail Adapter uses barrel bushings on the boardside and cone bushings on the roadside.

Both of them are the same size, 0.6″, which is a very common size that you see in most typical longboard bushings.

So you can actually find bushings for the Waterborne Rail Adapter in a lot of different places, but it’s convenient to have them in one package for you.

Waterborne Rail Adapter Bushings Durometer

 
The stock Rail Adapter bushings come in 85a durometer.

You can get RipTide bushings for the Waterborne Rail Adapter in four durometers: 85a, 87.5a, 90a, and 92.5a.

The closest match in feel to the stock bushings is obviously the 85a.

Waterborne Rail Adapter Bushings Weight Guidelines

 
These general weight guidelines are useful. But take them with a grain of salt, because your personal preference may fall outside these guidelines.

I recommend the 85a durometer for riders who weigh 165 pounds (75kg) or less.

I recommend the 87.5a durometer for riders who weigh between about 165 and 200 pounds (75 – 91kg).

I recommend the 90a durometer for riders who weigh between about 190 and 225 pounds (86 – 102kg).

I recommend the 92.5a durometer for riders who weigh 225 pounds (102kg) or more.

How to Replace Waterborne Rail Adapter Bushings

 
To replace your Rail Adapter bushings, all you have to do is remove the two kingpin nuts. The easiest way to do that is to use a ratchet wrench.

With the kingpin nuts removed, you can now pull the Rail Adapter plate and truck hanger off the kingpins.

Replace the barrel bushings on the boardside, then replace the Rail Adapter plate with the truck hanger.

Replace the cone bushings on the roadside, then place your washers on top of the bushings, followed by the kingpin nuts. Screw the kingpin nuts onto the kingpins until the nyloc is all the way engaged with the threads.

Mix and Max Durometers on the Waterborne Rail Adapter Bushings

 
A final note is that, if you really want to fine-tune your preference on the Rail Adapter, you can mix and match the bushing durometers.

For example, you could put a different durometer on your barrels than you do on your cones.

If you do that, as a general rule, I’m going to say you probably want to go with harder barrel bushings on the boardside than you do on the roadside cone bushings.

The reason being, your boardside bushings take the most weight and get the most deformed, and you’ll get more range of motion out of the softer roadside cone bushings.