SKS Longboards have been on my commuter for two years and they still haven't rattled loose once. Make sure whoever installs them uses the little rubber washers, that's what keeps everything quiet.

Idk, I kinda feel the opposite on this one. The old timer trick is fine but you can't catch everything with a screwdriver and a flashlight, because soft spots hide under the rails and near the doors where you won't poke. What worked for me was crawling under with a light and checking the crossmembers for rust flakes, and if the wood looks patched or painted over in one spot that's a red flag. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather pay a shop 50 bucks to look it over than trust a guy I just met at a gas station.

Man, that tab trick sounds slick in theory until you're on your back in a Dallas driveway with rust flakes raining on your face and no clean metal anywhere in sight. On those old rockers the steel is so thin and pitted that tacking a tab just blows a hole straight through, and now you got two problems instead of one. Honestly I'd rather spend ten minutes grinding down to good metal and cranking the clamp on that bare spot, at least you know it'll hold. Your mileage may vary though, depends how far gone the metal is.