Is it possible to fabricate a differential for esk8, thus allowing for less motors but still getting 4WD?

The cleanest AWD is with hub motors/DD.

Instant monster.

I do like mini gear drives on each wheel too don’t get me wrong :joy:

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Come on now. Links? Pictures?
I saw a 3d printed one a year or so ago but never any updates on reliability or performance.

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Two motors is better than one motor and a differential. Cars use a differential because they can’t fit two internal combustion engines in there among other reasons.

Cars that are electric use a motor per wheel.

It’s just better that way. You could just use smaller motors per wheel if space or weight is an issue, and get better performance than from a bigger shared motor.

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Diff are used on air filled soft rubber tires urathabe and much lighter weight board and rider has a lot less friction and will alow it to skid around the corner on powered wheels. Look at go carts much wider wheelbase softer wheels works fine for them

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Useing a extended axle saves on motor and ESC but still gain more traction for acceleration and braking with only a little less Manoeuvrability.

In my opinion brakes are the weakes point of a single motor build and the weak point is the 1 wheel contact patch why iv upgraded to dule motor on all my boards.

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Agree 100%

But better than no tail :smirk:

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What about this one?

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My current build uses a single 80100 to drive both rear wheels without any differential whatsoever. It works totally fine, it does turn well, although obviously not as well as with two motors.
@janpom linked my build thread above.

That is not true, Teslas and almost every serious electric car have one motor per axle (or only one in the front or rear if not 4wd) and a single speed gearbox.

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Letting go of practicality can be hard sometimes.

I only say Taycan, with two motors and a two speed gearbox

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You all raise great points. I was just recalling @sofu build where she uses motors that are perpendicular to the axis. Was just thinking something like a 80100 with extended axles from both ends could power the whole thing. If one motor is to much stress to death with, then a couple… I dunno, 6390s might work for 4wd, or other similar motors that are very high powered.

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Ok, you’re right. But two speed gearboxes are pretty new (came with the taycan) and only used to achieve even crazier acceleration. And the taycan also has one motor per axle.

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I am still undecided if I would really recommend the “single motor - 2WD” approach to someone. I really don’t have any problems with it so far and it handles absolutely fine (for me). And it is somewhat less complex (one motor, one esc, only need longer shaft and a bearing on the other side).
But you also need a very beefy and expensive ESC. A single VESC 6 is not enough imho. In a dual drive setup it can handle half of the system current fine, but being limited to 80A total system current is not great.
I just did it because I had the components (especially the single ESC) anyway. And luckily it turned out pretty great.

Edit. What I am trying to say is that if you are starting fresh the best thing to do is probably go dual drive as everyone is doing it and it is more or less plug and play.

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Short answer, yes.

Longer answer: it would be more expensive to produce and more mechanically prone to issues than an independent wheel drive while offering arguably less performance. Yes it can be done but the question is why.

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Here in France some of us do this ! A few 2wd with one motors or 4wd with two powerplants!
Works really nice!


Hobbyking mount for the win as you can see😁

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Carvon had a running single motor dual drive back in the day.

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+1 this.
I am not sure a dif is really needed for a vehicle with such a large turning radius and such narrow track as an esk8, especially on rwd.
Go carts are the perfect example of how it can work.

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on penimatic tires I would say no on a urethane street board 70amp its a grate amount of power

70amp
VESC6 desin esc can handle it fine
2WD is good grip on urethane for brakes
4p Q30 its safe discharge

IMO its a good cheep build I think its makes a single motor board a option I would use and wish I considered it when building my spud.

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Do one of these and change the engine for a big ass motor

Definitely possible, but expensive. If you go big like these guys you can repurpose differentials from other vehicles, but for a compact one most parts would have to be custom

If you are inclined to have no brakes on one of the axles you can use a one way bearing and go single motors without the wheels skidding on corners, that’s my plan at least

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Rimac did it already 10 years ago.