1. Strip the setup and look at the deck alone
Trucks off, wheels out of the way. Put the deck upside down on something you actually trust to be flat — glass, a steel rule, a tile — not the table you session on. Check each pair of mounting holes against the edge of the deck: are they the same distance in on both sides, and the same distance from the nose and tail? Then sight down the length of the deck for twist in the ply. A twisted deck usually shows up as the board rocking on a flat surface, not as one plate rotated out of line.
2. Sit each baseplate on glass with nothing attached
No hanger, no bushings, no screws, nothing torqued. Press one corner, then the diagonal. If the plate rocks or the mounting face isn't flat, the deck cannot be the cause of that — you've found your part.
3. Mount one truck and watch what tightening does
Bolt a truck on with the plate sitting square by eye, then bring the screws down a little at a time, alternating, rather than driving one all the way home first. If the plate walks as you tighten, you're either pulling it around with uneven torque or the holes are a touch larger than the screws and the plate has room to rotate. Play in the holes is fixable: hold the plate square while you take up the last turn.
4. Re-seat the hanger, bushings and pivot
A straight plate can still carry a hanger that sits off-center. Bushings that have taken a set from months of leaning one way, a kingpin nut cranked past even, or a worn pivot cup will all do it. Back the kingpin off, seat the bushings properly in the cups, and bring it back to even pressure.
5. Spin the wheels
Watch the outer face of each wheel as it spins. A canted wheel — bent axle end, a bearing not fully seated, a wheel sitting on a burr — reads to the eye as a crooked truck even when everything above it is square.
If you get through all five and the plate or hanger really is bent, that's the point where straightening is the answer, and that's what the video is for.
