There was a time in 2017 when there were seemingly as many sets of Caliber trucks in the neon pink/green colorway as decks available on the local used longboarding gear buy/sell/trade Facebook group. Each set was set up individually, but generally the same overall: cranked down, squashed bushings, 7 threads showing on the kingpin, Venom HPF green/red Christmas combo.
I think that’s the last time I was truly happy. I was ignorant to my gear, my trucks turned enough (so I thought), and I was bad at sliding. We drank cheap beer at the spot and I was worried about getting home too late and getting grounded.
Specifications:
- 160mm or 184mm
- Rakeless
- 44° or 50°
- Stock 90a Blood Orange Barrel/Cone Bushings
- Stock cupped washers boardside + roadside
- Restrictive, stepped bushing seats
There were a number of trucks with exactly these specifications- Gunmetal V1, Gunmetal V2, Caliber V1, and every grey-market copy of those trucks therein. This was likely by volume the most common truck in the world at the time.
The 184mm hanger variant was the most produced spec and represented the most grip-less truck of the era. 184mm is wide by today’s standards, but it matched the 10 inch width that was commonly found on downhill/freeride-styled decks at the time like the Comet Voodoo, Rayne George Mackenzie (G-Mack), DB Lunchtray. Wider trucks means wheels further apart, which means a longer lever arm from the center of your weight, which means less pressure on the lips of the wheels you’re skating. More slide.
Rakeless (linear rate of turn from zero to full lean) meant you didn’t get very much turn out of these trucks. Once you cranked your lean, any extra effort turned into oversteer. More slide.
The restrictive, stepped bushing seats made articulation difficult. Going slow, they felt sort of dead. They came to life the faster you went. Once you got to a good speed, you could turn in, and then you had a very early point of maximum bushing deformation- any effort past this turned into oversteer. More slide.
This combination of specifications made Calibers one of the “driftiest” trucks on the market. Big power freeriders often skated these- Liam Morgan, James Kelly, Tyler Howell all got colored special editions of this truck.
A couple notes:
- Baseplates from Caliber V2, Caliber V1, Randal I, Randal II, Randal DH, Paris V2, PNL truck systems are all cross-compatible.
- Split angles are nice on some truck models, but I recommend not splitting these past 50°/44°. They’re already a pretty dead truck, and an even less turny rear would make turning in difficult.
- Soft bushings (85a-90a) are the sweet spot for the restrictive seats.
Are Caliber V2s still good in 2026? Yeah. They’ve always been good. The V3s are better, but V2s are still going to give you that linear, symmetrical RKP freeride vibe that a lot of people were after in 2017. They’re an excellent truck to learn standup slides on, and a decent truck to learn glove-downs on, too. They’re not my first pick as a cruising truck because they feel somewhat dead at jogging speeds but if you’re not picky, they certainly wouldn’t hurt you.
They’re the standard longboarding truck. They (alongside Paris V2s) represent the fundamental comparison we all make when we skate a new truck. The Aera K3 and K4 are described in terms of the Caliber V2. Every rakeless truck has been compared to them. Not many enthusiasts are skating Caliber V2s anymore, but we all remember exactly how they felt underfoot, and they certainly weren’t bad.
Still today, you can tell when someone grew up skating Calibers. They just do things a certain Caliber way.