At Eeb-it a couple years back on the e-prix track (tight technical flat track) my 4WD board did pretty good, but on the Enduro track (much rougher with actual trails) the additional weight on the front made it quite a bit harder to manoeuvre around roots and just deweighting the front. Plus you gotta get off the power when you do to be nice to your gear drives, whilst the 2WD I actively use power to lift the fronts up.
Since moving to 2WD for off-road it’s been much more enjoyable, and I’ve realised my front wheels really don’t spend much time fully planted anyways so it probably wouldn’t be of much advantage either way.
There are already but there should me more, offroad racing is a blast. Checkout some videos of Eeb-it there’s some on YouTube as well as @eeb.it on insta.
@Dinnye and @TZDKB thanks for the info. The bit about race braking makes sense. Giving how important RWD is for acceleration it makes sense FWD is just as important for braking.
I’m a bit of weight freak so I’ve kind of been avoiding 4WD for personal riding, but I noticed it matters for climbing. Beyond a certain power, climbing is limited by traction, not power. Even though the front wheels don’t do as much as the back for climbing, every little bit helps.
With respect to weight, I had one proto down to the 18kg range, but with all the bells and whistles of the production model it’s up to 19.9kg. I’d love to reduce that, but I’m starting to learn that with electrics it’s not so much about weight, it’s more about how you use power, similar to freestyle motocross. Those bikes are heavy, yet they do such incredible stuff. An inspiration for this next phase of electric mountainboarding.
And yes, heel side turns, full throttle, in grass, front wheels hovering slightly… it’s my favourite thing about electrics so far.
In my limited offroad experience, as a noob mountainboarder, downhill can be scary on 2wd because its so easy to lock the rear wheels and slide rather than offer a controlled descent. So I could imagine that part being nice. If I ever do go 4wd it would be with smaller motors
I like your idea to use smaller motors for 4WD. I was tempted to use smaller motors for our AIR version to get the weight down further (especially the rear end weight), but I wanted to keep things simple for production to begin with, and Al’s wisdom said to be VERY careful with smaller motors on powerful 2WD boards. But for 4WD, with less load per motor… Thanks for the tip @ShutterShock .
Also, we’re still testing smaller motors for 2WD AIR model. If we can find the right mix of power limit / motor size I think it could help push the freestyle side forward. The difference in the weight of the motors we’re testing is 800g, located in the worst possible location for freestyle. But the freestyle side of this is small for the time being, so I think we have plenty for testing. Team riders can ride protos in the meantime.
Thanks @poastoast ! Currently testing 6370. I haven’t personally had problems, but I don’t ride as hard as others, so waiting for other team riders to do more thorough testing… I think the fact we use 18S definitely helps though. Lower amps/heat is always a good thing IMO.
55’s upfront will be more than enough up front especially off-road. Should be less than 2kg added to the front axle.
No idea how it carries over at race pace but I was really surprised how well my track board crawled up hills off road with 4wd. As long as the bias for power and braking was user adjustable it would be a great option to have.
i’ven’t had 2wd on any of my DIYs since maybe 2021
and ditto on using 55s up front if anything, they don’t actually do much for acceleration so anything larger is pretty moot
if power or thermals are a concern increasing motor size in the back is a great way to go
i currently use 85s out back and 65 up front for racing
@MBS Some additional thoughts about 4wd I didn’t see already mentioned, so want to add.
For context, most of my riding currently happens on a track, so this is going to be mainly from a asphalt-racing perspective. Not sure how much this translates to dirt.
I frequently switch between Ankle Wreacher (4wd) and Nothing Fancy (2wd).
Power in the rear “pushes” you into a corner, while power in the front “pulls” you around it. What I mean is if you stand on a deck, tilt it to one side, and look at the direction that the trucks are facing, only the front motors are pointed in the direction that you’re actually trying to go. The rear motors are pointed to the outside of the corner.
When applying power through a turn on 4wd, I’m able to feel my front wanting to pivot around the corner, pulling itself around, and back under me.
I can add to this that it’s an extremely similar situation off road.
It’s super easy to lose traction and spin out around corners with 2nd in gravel, but the front wheels of a 4wd do a LOT for keeping momentum in the direction you want to go, effectively mitigating the rear wheels drifting.
My 4wd build feels noticeably more planted versus my 2wd setup. The 2wd feels like it’s all over the place and ready to oversteer on gravel while turning, while the 4wd gives you some of the front wheel understeer that keeps you going where you wanna go
it’s my favourite thing about electrics so far.
Thanks for the tip 