Unless you’re an electrician, there’s a pretty good chance you don’t know what grounding is, or why it’s important. Well, here’s a quick crash course for you:
Most heavy-duty electrical appliances are connected to the power grid with 3 wires – Positive, Neutral, and Ground. You probably recognize the ground pin as the middle bit that’s usually not needed on power coords:
Well, the truth is – yes, your device will work just fine without the ground pin connected to the wall. But doing so can be dangerous! Let me explain.
The purpose of the ground pin is to create an electrical connection between the chassis of the device you’re using, and the literal ground. This provides the AC current a pathway to be neutralized and not cause any harm by instead shorting against a human or some critical component! For example, if your toaster wasn’t grounded, and you put a knife in it (don’t do that btw), the electrical current would go from the knife, through your body, and then down to the floor you’re standing on! Whereas, if the toaster was grounded, the current would go from the knife to the chassis of the toaster, likely trigger a breaker, and protect you – the innocent toaster user 
So, now that I’ve explained why grounding is so important, you might be wondering – why don’t we ground our electric skateboards? Aren’t they dangerous electrical devices too?
Short answer: YES! We should!
Long answer: Well, as with many infant industries, us esk8 builders have been obsessed with power and speed more than we have with safety. And although some might think that grounding a skateboard is impossible, it’s actually a pretty easy problem to solve. Let me teach you how!
Step 1: Use a metal wheel hub
Plastic cored wheels like kegel, abec, MBS rockstars, Trampa hubs, etc. do not conduct electricity. Unless the hub is conductive, you’re not going to get a connection to ground. So if you’ve been saving pennies in your wallet, now is the time to invest in some metal rims. Did I mention they look good too? 
Step 2: Use a conductive tire!
Some cheap airless tires from china actually have such hard rubber, that they are conductive. Or you can buy a set of tires from Trampa, who wash their tires in UK tap water which is full of lead, which will give the tires a nice, conductive coating. Or, there’s a 3rd option – use aluminum foil!
Yep, you heard me right! Aluminum foil!
Turns out that aluminum foil is made out of the same aerospace material as airplanes – aluminum! This makes it extremely durable yet lightweight, making for a perfect solution for grounding your wheels.
Step 3: Connect your negative battery terminal to your trucks
This step is pretty self explanatory. I prefer soldering a wire to my truck hanger, but some people say spot-welding is better. Pick your poison. The electricity will make its way through the metal hanger, metal bearings, metal hub, and metal wheel to reach ground.
If you use Riptide bushings or pivot cups, they conduct electricity, so you can even connect your battery to the baseplate.
Step 4 (optional):
As many of you know, another reason for grounding is to let high voltage spikes from lightning to pass down to the ground without causing damage. Vehicles like cars and buses aren’t affected by this, because you’re essentially riding in a metal box / frame, which conducts the electricity down to ground. That’s why you often see a ground cable hanging at the back of larger vehicles:
But since we don’t have a cage around us, we need to improvise! Fortunately, each of us wears a helmet, which makes for a perfect solution – just add a lightning antenna! I connected mine with 12AWG wire down to my board to protect me
And that’s it! Let me know if you have any questions!
P.S. Turns out Future Motion has patented this helmet lightning rod technology. Bastards!
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