Who Killed the Chromoly Truck?

Guest Post by Peter Brown.

Who Killed the Chromoly Truck?

Who Killed the Chromoly Truck? Many months ago I posted a comment on Skate and Annoy having to do with the San Diego Trucking Company’s chromoly truck called the Stealth. I never saw a set in person and most of our readers had ever heard of this truck from the early 90s. They resembled the G&S chromoly truck almost exactly, and it turns out they have pretty much the same history, spanning three brief years between 1989 and 1991.

After digging through my extensive skate mag stash it appears that both G&S and San Diego advertised exclusively in Transworld. One of the San Diego ads listed 70s slalom champ, Henry Hester, aka “Bad H.” as a contact, and of course Bill Danforth (if not Phil E.) was the guy most closely associated with the G&S truck. So I was able to contact Bad H. and Danforth to ask them about these trucks, and Hester put me on to the inventor of the chromoly truck, Terry Myers. I also wound up getting snubbed by G&S, which for some reason didn’t surprise me. Most interestingly I corresponded through Facebook with someone claiming to be Phil E. After a couple emails the guy confessed to being a Phil E. imposter! I never would have guessed there was someone out there sick enough to live his life as if he were this late 80s curb gnarler turned legal prosecutor. After having divulged a lot of my personal financial information and innermost desires to a person I thought was the real Phil E. I feel taken advantage of.

Somewhere in the late 80’s, no one can remember exactly when, an inventor/engineer/tinkerer, Terry John Myers built the first chromoly truck on his picnic table. Chromoly is a high carbon steel alloy made of chromium and molybdenum, known for its lightness and strength. It’s widely used in BMX frame construction and in certain car parts.

Myers was connected to the skate industry through his work at Advanced Plastics in Chula Vista, CA which manufactured rails for G&S. Though he didn’t skate, his two sons did and he decided he wanted to make a truck that would not wear out. Through his business with G&S, Myers knew Henry Hester and showed Hester the homemade truck. Hester liked the idea of an indestructible truck and pitched it to G&S who apparently liked it also and released it in 1989. The first G&S trucks were fabricated by Zip Products, which Myers established purely to manufacture the G&S product.“

According the Hester, “the truck had close to Indy geometry that turned well according to my slalom sensibilities. The chromoly hanger provided a ‘slip grind’ capable of grinding curbs and coping that softer, conventional aluminum trucks could not.”

Responsiveness and an ability to grind almost anything were two attributes that should have given chromoly trucks wide appeal. I vaguely recall once trying someone’s board that had G&S trucks and they did grind the rough, old curbs in my neighborhood better than aluminum trucks. I don’t recall how heavy they were or how they turned though.

Around 1989 Hester recruited Danforth to ride for G&S. Danforth says “I liked the G&S truck for its responsiveness and ability to grind anything. Interestingly, the trucks were never really put to the test until after they were on the market. I guess I was the most abusive skater G&S could find [think Ohio Skateout acid drop]. My job was to test and improve the trucks and G&S would send me 20 trucks per month to destroy.”

The original G&S truck had a nylon baseplate, hardened steel alan bolt kingpins, and welded, hollow chromoly hanger parts. The hangers also had nylon end caps between the metal and the wheels; and a hanger pivot about the diameter of a pinky finger.

According to Myers, “the scale of our production, and the fact that I, the inventor was running things gave us a good deal of quality control. Through precise tempering and reliable workmanship, the trucks we made–the early G&S trucks–did not break.”

Despite the attention to detail at Zip, Danforth says there were a few problems with these G&S trucks, “The nylon baseplate cracked easily under Midwest winter skating conditions. I told them to just make a metal baseplate, which they did along with a metal reinforced nylon version. Aside from the baseplate, the endcaps wore down faster than the metal hanger and caused hang-ups. Now, the hollow axle was perfect for smoking weed.”

Zip Products had been producing the G&S truck for about a year when Larry Gordon of G&S decided to take production off shore, likely in an effort to reduce manufacturing costs. Hester recalls that “Since G&S was still under contract with Zip when they moved production, they had to make payments to Zip, and this arrangement led to disagreements between the two.” Apparently sweatshop production of the G&S product was not done as conscientiously as what Zip was doing. Myers traces the problem with the sweatshop G&S trucks to the improper tempering of the steel, which caused the chromoly to bend and break.

According to Danforth, “The biggest deficiency in the design was the pivot, which bent too easily. I’d do demos in front of all these kids and these trucks would break on me. It was kind of hard to sell those trucks after showing that my 125 pound frame could bend them after a few launches and grinds. I think of a guy like Monty Nolder [also sponsored by G&S Trucks] who’s 200-plus pounds just crushing these things.”

Hester stuck with G&S for a while after their switch to sweatshop production, and through Danforth’s destructive testing, the two improved the design for G&S. Ads show the truck design evolving a bit between 1989 and 1991 when it was marketed as the Phase II. The Phase II gave skaters the option of an aluminum baseplate with a threaded slot for the kingpin; or a nylon, metal reinforced baseplate. It had solid axles, and a triangular metal plate welded to the hanger to support the pivot. The triangular metal plate does not appear in any of the ads, which show the truck only from the kingpin side. All of this bulk made a stronger truck, but made it heavier too and likely more expensive to produce even overseas.

Since Zip was tooled up to make trucks and was sitting on a mountain of chromoly piping, Myers decided to start his own truck business. Meanwhile back at G&S, Hester was frustrated with a poor product despite his and Danforth’s efforts, so in 1990 he joined Myers in forming San Diego Trucking and Supply.

Through San Diego, Hester brought with him ideas developed by Danforth and him on how the G&S truck could have been improved. Hester describes the San Diego as a “beefier version of the same [G&S] truck under the SDTS label”. Hester handled the distribution, promotion and recruited a team of riders. San Diego sponsored a number of amateurs around the country, but apparently none who had a signature model board with another company.

Despite design improvements, an ability to turn well and grind almost anything, neither G&S or San Diego trucks ever sold as well as conventional, mass produced, cast aluminum trucks. It seems logical that with all the parts and processes to manufacture and assemble a chromoly truck there would have been a higher labor cost than its aluminum counterparts. The chromoly companies also didn’t benefit from the economy of scale like their bigger aluminum competitors. The economics of it are evident in the fact that chromollies ranged in price from $18 to $20 each while conventional cast aluminum trucks sold for about $16 per truck.

Said Henry Hester, “A year in to it, I re-designed a hanger for the Stealth with the triangular shape. It was intended to enter curbs and coping easier using the angle. The kids in the ads were sponsored. We paid Bill Danforth to ride the trucks and I’ve always believed he genuinely liked the slip grind. He may have been the best curb slapper ever.”

Whether it was due to narrow profits, poor sales or a shitty product, G&S abandoned the Phase II within a year of its release, and replaced it with the Danforth designed, aluminum Road Hawg. Despite the new truck that he designed, Danforth left G&S and went back to his original truck sponsor, Tracker.

This all coincided with street skating’s blow up in the early 90s and the vert-centric G&S loosing most of its top riders Chris Miller, Blender, Steve Claar, Billy Ruff and Nicky Guerrero [and replacing them with a trio of budgies]. With the new Rocco-generation of street skaters coming on the scene, a company from the 70s named after two aging white guys, Gordon & Smith, was just too uncool compared to a market flooded by wise-ass upstarts like Blind, New Deal, and Foundation. Nowadays G&S resides in the nostalgia and campus cruiser market.

Considering a large, established company like G&S failed with the chromoly truck despite their existing distribution, relatively small sweatshop labor costs, an ad budget, videos and big name skaters, it seems implausible that San Diego could survive. Despite a product characterized by Myers as superior to its G&S counterpart, and Hester’s connections to the industry, it would have likely been difficult for a higher priced, unconventional looking product from a start-up to compete against juggernauts like Indy, Tracker, and Gullwing. Also, the San Diego looked a lot like the G&S, which had a reputation for bending and breaking. If that weren’t enough the introduction of the San Diego truck during the Bush I recession was just bad luck. Coincidentally San Diego released the cast aluminum Stealth II the same year G&S came out with its Road Hawg.

Hester and Danforth both blame the trucks’ unconventional appearance for its failure and not all the reasons that in hindsight might seem obvious. Danforth claims that “to a lot of skaters the chromoly trucks looked more like a bike frame than a truck.” Hester also admits it was “heavy and not Indy cool. Cool killed it.”

Who Killed the Chromoly Truck? Guest Post by Peter Brown

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