Hey all,
I’ve followed this forum for several years now, but am posting for the first time. I got into eskate somewhat recently in 2019, heard about it before then but had no idea that boards could be set up for riding off road. That knowledge has turned into a death sentence for my wallet and free time, but totally worth every penny and minute spent.
This forum has been a huge help along the way so I wanted to make this post to show you guys what I am riding, along with a few recent changeups in preparation for a third build on the upcoming MBS Agent deck. While we’re at it, some constructive criticism would be great too. These builds are nothing groundbreaking compared to others on this forum, but they are a hell of a lot of fun and have been as reliable you can ask of something that gets the shit kicked out of it during every use.
There are 5 of us riding together in Santa Barbara County, Ca. It started with just me and my brother and has slowly grown over the years. Probably adding a 6th member (and our first non-electrician) soon so that’s part of the reason I’m changing things around on the builds and getting prepped for a third. Always helps to have a “gateway” board…
Anyways, let’s get to it.
Here are the builds as they were a week or so ago before the recent changes.
Setup for this one was
Trampa big boi deck with wings
Apex Airs
Apex Chain Drive @ 1:5
MBS F5 bindings & heel straps
Trampa Phatladz with L-Faster 9" tires
Maker X DV6 Pro
Flipsky 63100s @ 170KV
VX4 remote
Motor Amps - 95
Battery Amps - 60
Here’s the other board. Setup was
MBS Pro Warren III with Trampa wings hacked on
Apex Airs
Apex Jump Drive
MBS F5 bindings & heel straps
Trampa Phatladz with L-Faster 9" tires
Stormcore 60D+
Flipsky 63100s @ 190KV
VX4 Remote
Motor Amps - 90
Battery Amps - 60
I have two batteries that can go into either board depending on what type of ride we’re doing. One is a 12s 6p of p45B and the other is 12s 4p of P42A. We’re all still stuck in the 12sverse but plan to change that in the near future. Battery photos below are from a 12s 5p P45B pack for one of the other guys but they’re all built pretty much the same. I’m no pro builder, but have built 9 packs that have held up well.
A couple of notes on the battery…
Cambric tape is used in place of fish paper for insulation between P groups and general abrasion resistance. It is used in the electrical industry for basically the same purpose and is a proven product for insulating and protecting conductive metal in tight spaces subject to vibration.
The brown goo you see on the cells is called Skotchkote. It’s another product used in electrical applications. Main purposes are water proofing, abrasion resistance in industrial applications subject to vibration & just generally locking things together.
Cambric tape is woven. When combined with Skotchkote, the “cells” in the tape absorb it really well and create an extremely durable non conductive shell. This stuff wouldn’t be practical (or necessary) for most battery builds as it’s pretty expensive, but I have a large stash of both leftover from projects over the years so decided to use it.
First priority was the chain drive build. I wanted to convert this board to gear drive and decided to try out the Boardnamics M1AT steel gear drive @ 5.2.
A couple of trial runs and I was happy with it. A little disappointed to receive helical gears instead of straight cuts like the website says, but life goes on. I’ll have to be sure to check the pinions every few rides or so.
One of the 170kv motors was taking a shit. The can was spinning lopsided, probably from bashing a rock riding at Refugio Road. Great ride with a mix of single lane asphalt, plenty of dips, banked turns and hills, then as far as your battery will take you on some rough rocky dirt roads with plenty of small jumps sprinkled in. You’re riding a mountain ridge with a great view of the Channel Islands and Lake Cachuma, and it’s rare to see anyone else up there. If any of you are in SB county and looking for some fun scenic off roading, hit me up.
Flipsky is having a flash sale and the increased ratio from switching to the BN drive made me want a higher KV so ordered some more 63100s @ 190kv instead of 170. You know how it goes, if you’re already changing the motors & drive, might as well go deeper…
Already had extra grip tape laying around since it was ordered at longboard length and I only use enough to cover the Trampa wings.
The Newbee case was looking old and so were the hubs so decided to put a quick coat of orange enamel on both. The wife was busy in a zoom class all day so I was able to expedite the hub cleaning. If she comes out for a break, she’ll just think I’m doing dishes…
Two new tires, a lot of scrubbing and this thing is good to go. I haven’t had a chance to take the new motors out for a ride yet because the other board really needed some work. Hoping to get it filthy in the next few days.
Now on to the other board. This thing really needed some maintenance. I used red permatex 21700 instead of green loctite 648 on the bolts that mount the slave gear to the adapter. This resulted in bolts backing out inside of the tubs and a lockup. One of the bolts tore through the tub cover, everyone made fun of me, nothing good about this situation.
I did just receive a box wrapped in Apex tape with all of the replacement parts needed to get the drive running again, but decided to save the Jump Drive for when the Agent deck comes out. The Warren deck is just begging for a chain drive and my life would not be complete without a functional one so cleaned up the drive previously mounted to the Trampa deck and put it on the MBS.
The existing motors on this thing were 190kv which seemed a little too high for the ratio. A lot of our rides are sustained steep uphill for miles so wanted a slightly lower KV with the 9" tires. Ordered two 6485s @ 173KV from SKP, along with some Solos in the 3d Servisas enclosure. There was nothing wrong with the Stormcore but it probably wouldn’t let me take advantage of the higher current Reachers. Added another set of #10 wires from the battery to the 3D Servisas enclosure since each Solo requires a connection to the battery.
Setting everything up was painless with a little help from SKP. It was throwing ABS overcurrent faults when bench testing unloaded. All that was needed was a firmware update then everything was good. I’m comfortable using the VESC tool basics but am always hesitant to fuck with firmware without confirming it’s OK to do so.
Four new tires and it’s good to go. (photos are before I put the mounting plate under the enclosure.)
New Settings
Motor amps - 125
Battery Amps - 70
I was able to take this thing on a quick test run yesterday. It was only a few miles but immediately noticed an insane increase in torque going from a Stormcore 60D+ with Flipsky motors to the Solos with the Reachers. Guessing this is due to the higher current settings ceiling that Solo offers more so than the motors but would be interested to learn more. Either way, I’m looking forward to taking this thing on a proper ride later this week.
Big thanks to all of you guys for making this forum. We’ve been able to build quite a few boards over the years without having to ask too many questions because the search function on this site has it all. It’s really cool to see how much advancement has been made even during the short time I have been doing this. Building these is almost as fun as riding them so if you continue to come out with new stuff I’ll have no choice but to buy it!
Next build plan
Agent deck
Apex Airs
Renewed Apex Jump Drive
Solos
16s 5p of whatever cell is the cell when it’s close to build time.
Not sure about the motors yet. I’ll have to see if the leftover Flipskys can handle 16s.
Damn, that was a little longer than expected…
Dope, lmk when. I’m down for a ride.
.