ACS skateboard trucks

Vintage 1970s ACS skateboard trucks can be hard to single out from the eBay feeds because more modern versions are widely available. Where available, here’s are some of the pro 430, 500, 580 (awesome), 650 (tough downhill) and 651 ACS skateboard trucks.

The ACS 900 longboard trucks were released later than this website’s timeframe, so I’ve tried to filter those out.

 

 

Before bidding, please be sure to read the item description carefully so you know whether or not it’s a genuine old vintage 1970 pair of ACS skateboard trucks you’ll be buying.

ACS In Skateboard Industry News for Dec/Jan 1977

An ad for ACS explained that American Cycle Systems were “the country’s largest producer of aluminum hubs for bicycles” and they had used their experience in precision-machined casting to deliver 356 aluminum-magnesium alloy heat treated to the T-6 condition. “Against all competition, ACS has became of the world’s largest manufacturer of premium skate-board trucks.”

ACS was a player in a market that would become dominated – in the long run – by Tracker and Independent. (Source: Calstreets)

Typical ad wording for ACS trucks:

ACS 430 skateboard trucks
Near mint pair of vintage ACS 430 skateboard trucks.

The only detectable blemishes are very light mounting nut marks on the baseplates, the kingpin bolt is not original and the red rubber cushions are a bit dirty.

I see no other nicks, grind marks or curb rash.

Cushions appear to have no cracking and pivot bushings are like new.

Axles don’t even show any evidence of bearing marks.

Very old school small four hole mounting pattern the fits only the earliest decks from the 70s’

Axles are 4.3″ wide and hangers are 1.75″ between the wheels.

Very nice pair of vintage ACS 500 black and silver skateboard trucks.

These trucks have been assembled from original parts and now look unused from three feet away.

Baseplates have bolt marks inside the mounting holes, so they have been mounted at some point and appear to have been repainted – but very well done.

Axles have very light bearing marks so they have had wheels spinning on them and hangers have maybe a couple of very slight grinds or tool marks.

Kingpin bolts and cushion cups are clean with no detectable nicks, dings, grinds or curb rash.

Pivot bushings are new yellow Bennetts and the axle nuts are new with still virgin nylon inserts.

There appears to be some very light cracking in the original top red rubber cushions (I didn’t even notice this until I saw the photo enlargements).

Old school multi-hole baseplates allow for mounting on just about any deck from the 70s.

Axles are 5″ wide and hangers are 2.5″ between the wheels.

Unsolicited commentary: You may recall that a pair of ACS 500s like these sold on April 8 for $125. They were described as NOS. However, they were missing the pivot bushings and did not have the correct original big red rubber cushions. If you were lucky enough to have missed out on those, here’s your chance to score a nicer pair of trucks.

There’s a for sale on Etsy for a T-shirt:

“INSANELY RARE 70s ACS Trucks “Star Truck” Jay Adams Skateboarding t-shirt Original dogtown and z boys thrasher skateboarder Stacey peralta ”