I’m still in two minds as to how to build my board. Battery and vescs together in the centre, or battery in the centre, and vescs/dongles etc at the rear in a separate enclosure. I have room in the battery enclosure (just, i think, we shall see), so that is my current plan. But I also have a smaller Peli 1150 which is the exact size of my battery, so could use that and put vescs at the rear.
Wondering how much of an effect this might have when jumping, sliding and cornering. Are there any pros or cons of either setup that i might not have considered?
I’m not concerned about the “long battery or motor cable” side of things, just the weight distribution.
@rich@Creavenger@Lee_Wright@NoWind - I hope you guys don’t mind me tagging you, but I know you’re pretty experienced eMTB riders, so figured you might have some useful input on this…
(apologies to other experienced riders I forgot to tag… it’s not you, it’s me)
I have to confess I have only been riding eMTB since May last year and have almost all of my experience on my own board, which has always had the vescs at the back. I have ridden the trampa boards with everything in the center and for me there was no difference, but then I’m not pushing as hard as some of the other guys. I think if you have the heavy drives and motors at the back anyways the vescs at the back doesnt really make much difference except reduce the complexity of cabling.
I’m going to have E-toxx mini gear drives and Maytech 6374 motors (approx 3kg total I think), so I see what you mean.
2x Vesc6mk3 = 324g, plus dongle plus enclosure… Perhaps 600-700g?
I’m not overly worried about cable complexity, as I’m planning on routing a channel for these anyway. I cant even decide which setup I prefer from an aesthetic point of view either. It all comes down to ride quality/comfort.
Just like Lee also mentioned, I only really have experience with my own setup (all the guts in the middle enclosure). Mostly I chose to put everything in the middle for simplicity and a cleaner look. All cables are routed through the same hole which means there are less holes for water to potentially come in. And I found the wiring to be simpler. Im guessing the extra weight of the back doesnt make a big difference, for what its worth ive driven boards with a rear vesc enclosure and didnt feel a difference in riding our maneuverability. Having everything in the middle does mean there is less room for cooling.
I have and had both configurations, difficult to say which is better. I slightly prefer 2 separate enclosures because then you can always swap batteries or change battery enclosure if needed. Also the (hot) esc’s don’t share the same enclosure and you can have better cushioning for the battery. If you use the same enclosure for everything I would make some dividers. Depending on the deck the rear enclosure could hit the motors/drivetrain.
I didn’t recognize a difference between 1 or 2 enclosures during riding or straight jumping but if you plan to do rotations then the middle position is better.
Sounds like I’m overthinking things again. But I’d rather over-think than under-think.
My plan is to have the vescs mounted flush to the outside of the lid of the case (facing inwards), with a sheet of 1mm kydex over the top to weatherproof, and then make two small cutouts for some red anodised aluminum heatsinks I’ve found (60mm x 30mm) mounted directly to the rear of the vescs.
Already got 10mm camping roll-mat foam around it, so all good there.
Sounds like the centre is the best option for me. I’ve got the Trampa bigboi deck too, so the larger enclosure doesn’t look out of place in the middle of it.
Yeah, I love their builds.
I want to build a tank of a board for general use. Maybe in a couple of years I’ll finance a lighter board thats similar in design to theirs and Rich’s, but for the time being, I want to build one board that will last me a lifetime
I was riding both as well and I couldn’t find better words than @rich
Made exactly the same experience.
Personally I like the look of the escs in the back more than in the middle.
Didn’t like the long phase wires over the bindings, but that’s an other story if you route them through the deck.
