4WD VS 2WD question..

the traction you can get from 9inch wheels far exceeds most riding conditions that most riders could possibly go through. 190kv motors are the nice sweet spot in motors and as i have ridden a board which had a top speed of 25ish and one with a top speed of 40ish the difference in torque is not really noticeable

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Another reason to get the helmet first. I know it sounds boring, but if have a rideable board and no helmet you WILL ride without one. I made this mistake and biffed it. I was lucky

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As others have said, this is why a helmet should be purchased long before your build is complete. Extreme speeds are not required to fall an hit your head, especially when you’re getting used to a board. Short, casual, low-speed trips down the street without a helmet have permanently changed many lives.

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How are they on sound though? Compared to belt drives, also less aesthetically pleasing imo… not sure I want to ride on something that looks like a chainsaw or meat grinder

that’s a good point. The trigger doesn’t work like one would think right? It’s pretty much as soon as it registers it’s going full throttle? Is there a remote where the throttle can be smoother?

I’m leaning more and more towards the 2wd 6374 route and upgrade later if I want. Still kind of just want the 4wd from the get go though and be done with it

If no belts for offroad would chains be better? Or directdrive? How about belts with covers?

2wd 60:15 belt drive 6" AT pneumatics 140kv 6374 flipsky motors?

Sounds about right, but perhaps get maytech motors instead? Where do people buy TB motors at? Read good things about them, like 6396 maytech is as powerful as 6380 TB, but the TB won’t overheat and is actually smaller. Is it diyelectricskateboard.com?

not sure why you are saying that, but if I gave that impression, it’s not it

I am just trying to get a clear idea of what’s out there and bounce some ideas off of people. :slight_smile:

interesting insight, I wish I could try some out to get that perspective. It’s so hard to figure this out just by reading stuff about it. Videos help but still not reflective of how the board would suit your needs. Did you ride both on roads or trails, grass, and or hills and still same the torque?

true dat, that’s what gets you. I’ll make note of that

yeah never can be too careful

You could alternatively set up 4 wheel drive, but set different throttle curves for front and rear.

For example, the rear will have a normal curve, but the front will only engage power if your throttle is more than 50%

Will save power if you are only using a little bit of throttle to move at a slow or speed or even maintain high speeds for long distance, but when you are ready to blast up hills or punch it, 4wd engages.

Only downside is slightly higher drag compared to 2wd, but you’ll have significantly more torque when needed. Your overall efficiency will be much higher than running 4wd the whole time especially if you are only using 20% throttle to maintain that long distance high speed.

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I didn’t know you could set that up. That sounds awesome. Is that pretty easy to set up on the VESC?

Does it really work as great as it sounds?

One thing I didn’t think much about is how to set up the VESCs to work together. If it’s two xeniths or two ubox’s how to connect them

Oh they’re pretty loud. I don’t even bother plugging in a horn onto my board because you can hear it from like a hundred feet away. If you go with a larger motor sprocket, it’ll quiet down some, but anything under 12 tooth gets pretty clicky.

Eh I personally like the way they look, they fit much better with the offroad vibe of a mountainboard than belts do. Not having to worry about debris breaking belts is also nice. The last thing I want is to lose brakes on road in bindings.

Both setups will haul your ass where ever you want to go tbh, and without bindings the board will drop you on your ass

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I cant speak on behalf of how great it works out of experience. What I do know though, is that a large percentage of the power loss going to 4wd is wasted on idle current. If I ever go to build a smaller board in the future it will definitely be 4wd direct drive set up how I said above.

Setting it up in VESC tool shouldn’t be hard. There are throttle curve settings that you can set for each motor. Basically just set front motor throttle curves to be at 0% from 0-50% throttle, and then after that have a steep slope to 100%. If you want check out throttle curves on VESC tool.

As far as setting up 4 VESC based chips, I believe you just need a single CAN cable to connect them all. It is a 2 wire cable, and as long as each vesc is connected to it in parallel they should work fine together.

How good are you of a diyer?

Not bashing, but it matters, if you are good your options go wider too.

Imagine building a 2500 dollar shit made board, in that case just buy a kaly second hand or something and be done with it, with this hobby you need to trust your creations.

If you are not used to making stuff yourself, i reccommend going for a cheap board first to get confident with building and riding.

You can use an expensive phone, car or computer off the bat, but a 2500 dollar eskate is something else, especially without helmet/protection.

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5a idle, plus drag, plus weight, but pure awesomeness

like the 4.2 flipskys, those are dirt cheap relatively speaking. I could get 4 of those for 1 xenith/ubox. But max A is 50, so would I be limited to 6355s? or 6374s are ok?

I am thinking to get 2 6374s and then upgrade later to 4wd once I master it. Seems to be a good compromise, what with a limited budget and lack of experience.

But I really want the inrunner combo, if I could just get a truck that works like a cars axle, and hook up each motor on each side, that could shoot the provervial 2 birds with the one stone, for the electric surfboard I also want to build down the road… but maybe it’s just not practical

That’s what I got so far.

I am ok I feel pretty confident in my skills. I got some background in electrical work and electronics, and 3d design, and grew up diy’ing a lot of stuff. Just my tools are limited so always have to use makeshift tools to do stuff, which doesn’t always turn out so great.

If I could have my own place, with a CNC, and a 3d printer, and nicer tools I am sure I could cut a lot of costs down and make things work with the inrunners.

So I might just settle for the 2wd and 6374s, and down the road add another 2 6474’s if I feel I lack the power.

I am thinking to go with the maytech 6374s 170kv. But should I get the TB or Flipsky 6374s instead? How fungible are they? If they are, I’d rather just get the flipski’s and maybe even get the 6.2 vesc they have, as they offer great savings for a bundle package with 6" wheels, trucks, etc the whole package…

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I wouldn’t go all in on a Flipsky package. They have notorious QC issues. However, I have had good experiences with some of their products. Their newest 6374 motors are great and I believe they are on-par with the other options you are considering. However, roughly half of the remotes and ESCs I have purchased of theirs have been duds or have shown issues that make me no longer want to use them.

If you can order from Amazon and have an easy way to get a refund/replacement if it doesn’t work just right, I think their stuff is worth more than what it sells for. I have a pair of 4.12FESCs that have been working great for going on two years of heavy use, but the first pair I received popped within a week at only 30 amps. I definitely wouldn’t want to have to get in line with their customer service department if I purchased directly and received a turd. Also shipping times for replacements would suck.

Motor current is what determines the power of your motor. A 6355 at 50A has the same amount of power as a 6396 at 50A. The only advantage of bigger motors is that they can take more power before they get hot because they have lower resistance and can radiate more heat. When your total power is spread to 4 motors anything over 6355 is only additional weight for your setup.

If you want to keep those narrow trucks you can’t fit air tires or 2x6374 next to each other. You could do a diagonal mount one motor to the front one backwards like I also did on my board.


Maybe one motor at the front truck one at the back truck.

Flipsky and Maytech motors are both great now. I have no experience with TB motors.

Flipsky vesc also have improved. I only had one out of 20 vesc die in my local community. The flipsky 4.20 have been improved with the help of some forum members and even come with a TVS diode preinstalled.


I like to buy them on Banggood because they have good customer service.

Maker X 4.20 or 6.6 are probably better quality tough.

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