I’ve been snowboarding in hard boots for a long time, and ever since I started playing with e-skates last summer, I’ve been wanting to mix the two. This might be the best idea I’ve ever had. (Also, it might be the worst idea I’ve ever had.)
Here’s the “deck.” It’s a 4080 (4cm x 8cm) aluminum extrusion from 8020.net.
To attach the trucks, a couple pieces of alumimum. Drawn in OpenScad on a Saturday, uploaded to SendCutSend.com on Sunday, and they were in my hands on Wednesday. What a time to be alive.
The battery (12s7p) will go into a box between the bindings. Stormcore 60 on top of the battery. Cables will run back to the motors in sleeves that attach to the grooves on the sides of the extrusion. And the more I think about this the more I think I should have ordered a second motor mount along with those trucks, because double the motors would be double the fun.
The battery is a few weeks away. Progress will be slow until it gets here.
Thanks! I have less clearance than I expected, but I think it’ll work. Countersinking is honestly going to help a bit. I don’t think it will need a lot, since this won’t get used much outside of parking lots, parking garages, etc.
And part of the idea behind this build is to be able to switch things around. Flip the beam over, flip the trucks around, swap the bindings for aluminum plates with grip tape… Boom, it’s almost a normal board! Maybe. We’ll see.
You can drop the heim joint to get more clearance. Thats part of the beauty of 3links along with being able to adjust the angles. Should really be able to tune in the lean to turn ratio to mimic your snowboards sidecut radius
So far, Qind 200x75 seems to be the least-bad option. I have a set on Newbee Pentagram wheels on another board, and those will probably get swapped to this board.
But still I’m keeping an eye out for an 8x3 kart tire that has a proper square profile. I’ve tried one set of kart tires so far and they’re shaped like balloons, but I still intend to try some others.
Thanks for the tip, I really should have thought of that… The next set of plates needs a hole for the heim joint, so I can sink it all the way through. Between that and countersinking, clearance should be no problem at all.
Ah, I see that you are wise in the ways of the snowboard.
Whiles designing the battery box last weekend I had a flashback to a ‘scorpion’ fall years ago, and started thinking about just how nasty that would be with 50 pounds of skateboard and 10 pounds of boots affixed to my feet.
(that’s not me, but I did that in heavy snow and thought my back was gonna break…)
If I use a lighter center beam (currently it’s got the strongest one I could find) and move the battery into a backpack, and stay with 2WD, the risk might be tolerable, but it might not be. I don’t know.
So I’m going to do this without bindings first.
In other news, the plastic case that I thought was going to be perfect for a 12s7p battery turned out to be just a hair too small, hence me sitting here pondering battery box design with FreeCad.
I still think it’s going to turn out pretty cool, I’m just not sure it’s going to turn out with bindings. Definitely not with the first version, but maybe in a second.
I don’t think it will need a lot, since this won’t get used much outside of parking lots, parking garages, etc.
