Meepo v5 build/upgrades

Hey guys, I’m upgrading my meepo v5 and looking for any insight/advice you may have. In the future I plan to get an AT board for longer comfy riding and won’t need it to be portable/easy to carry..so I want to keep this board more portable, easy to take places, carry, strap to a backpack etc.

Current range is good enough for my normal rides if I ride conservatively (uses about half battery), but cutting it very close if I ride freely without thinking about conserving battery (haven’t run out yet but consistently feel like I’m very close). Road vibrations are a bit of a problem, and while I can handle most cracks, potholes, and random lips I encounter, I’d prefer the ride be more comfortable and less worrisome.

Ive got some meepo donut 105’s on the way which im thinking will make the ride more comfortable and larger cracks/crappy roads less worrisome. And I have an extended range battery on the way which I’m hoping will offset the range loss of the 105’s while also allowing me to ride my current routes freely without cutting it so close/ having to worry about running out. I’ve also got lights for dusk riding, better bushings, and extended hardware incase I decide to add a free ride binding/toe hook to the front for even more help handling road cracks/lips in the pavement/sidewalks if needed.

I can’t think of much else to do to it beyond that, but do you think I’m missing anything obvious that would make a meaningful improvement?

Once the wheels and battery are in I’ll need to adjust the wheel size in the remote, and probably mess with the speed settings/level thresholds, but I think that’s about it.

The 105mm donut wheels and hub motor sleeves are definitely more comfortable than the 90MM wheels.

I have bought the Puaida donut hub motor Sleeves, and much prefer their more rounded profile when new. They are a bit softer and more comfortable than the meepo 105 sleeves too.

Quieter too, at least until both lose their ‘tread’

The Meepo 105mm sleeves were kind of noisy the first few miles and took a while before the tread was gone and the near silence returned.

My Meepo 105mm sleeves came on the 540watt hub motor hanger kit, and they had the urethane cast onto plastic, which is not nearly as good at sucking heat out of the magnets as aluminum, but meepo said they no longer have their urethane cast onto plastic, and any wheels that are, are old stock.

My hub motors are slightly different design than those on a new V5, but they accept the same sleeves.

The Puaida motor sleeves are cast onto aluminum, and sit a little bit wider on my motors for a bit more track width, and they were significantly cheaper when I purchased them( 3 sets now) but have not compared prices recently.

The loss of range switching to 105s from 90’s was not nearly as much as I expected, and not really significant, but there are basically no hills in my area. I also expected there to be more torque loss than there was, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Be careful to fully seat the allen wrench when removing the Allen key sleeve bolts, and it is probably wise to do it with the motors warm to hot from a recent ride. Start the new bolts with your fingers, not any screw gun, to prevent cross threading, and when you retighten the new bolts, Do so slowly in the star pattern in stages, and do it again once the sleeves are hot from a ride.

Bring the allen key on your first ride after replacement, and if you hear a rattle or any new noise, stop somewhere safe, and give them a once over.

I have rarely found that any more regular tightening is needed after that second hot retorque.

You will likely need to add baseplate spacers and longer hardware to keep the wheels from biting the deck at full lean, and adding a wedged riser to the front baseplate to give it more steer and less wedge to the rear can increase higher speed stability, but tese modifications are personal preference, and requires experimentation, and can muddy the waters if changing too many things at once.

When you use new bushings the board side bushing should be the same height as the one you remove. shorter or taller will screw with teh geometry and put more pressure on the edge of the Pivot cup bushing and make it feel odd, and wear far quicker than it otherwise would.

Upgrading to a extended range battery is a viable strategy. Does it fit inside the original battery enclosure or do they ship it with a new larger enclosure? Looks like it is a 10s2p using 20 Samsung 40T 21700 cells, in the photos. For 288Wh total

https://www.18650batterystore.com/products/samsung-40t

Looks like the original battery is a 10s2p 188 watt hour battery made with 20 Samsung 20R cells(18650)

I have a few different range extension methods, and have built a 360 watt hour 10.0AH 10s2p made with Tenpower 50Xg cells and 0.2mm copper busbars, for minimal voltage sag.

More recently I got the Meepo Cyclone 107 airless rubber wheels, and if the 105mm donuts are a solid 35% more comfortable than 90mm urethane, the 107mm airless rubber is another 35% more comfortable on top of that.

I can get 12 miles of range pretty easily with the airless rubber 107s and a 360 watt hour battery riding agressively at close to 200Lbs weight.

The Cyclone 107mm airless rubber wheels and sleeves are closer to 108mm when new, and the torque loss is more noticeable, as is the loss of range and the free roll.

Traction on wet surfaces and over sandy / loose rocky sections in intersections is Much better than urethane, and transiting rough surfaces / sidewalk cracks, and light offroading is also much improved over urethane.

But smooth surface mindless carving, I still prefer the feel silence and free roll of urethane.

Exploring new areas, the airless rubber is much more confidence inspiring, but expect a 20% range cut. Exact % much is dependent on your weight, and the road surface temperature, with hot roads and hot motors making them far softer.

Dialing in a more precise carvy feel with Riptide bushings and pivot cups is a usual recommendation for prebuilt boards.

When you get the extended range battery, keep your original battery at about 36 volts for storage.

If you have some DIY skills or are willing to learn how to solder, it is possible to use that original battery as a range extender battery, BUt both batteries must be within 0.1 volts of each other and preferably less than 0.05v when you parallel the batteries.

You can’t just run one battery down and then plug in the second.

Thanks for all the info, it’s really helpful and definitely will be of use as I keep going.

really interested in trying those puaida sleeves you mentioned so will keep them in mind for next time, and had considered the cyclones as well but wanted to see the real world range loss of the 105’s before going even bigger and softer. The bushings riptides cs recommended for me with the shredder trucks were 93a .65 barrels for front and back, with small flat washers for the front, large cup washers for the back, and a set of Kodiak pivot cups.

The battery I ordered is a puaida 8000mah made from Samsung 40T’s. from what I’ve gathered the stock enclosure has some excess foam that keeps the stock battery secure, and when removed will handle the ER battery configured that way securely without additional mods.

I have looked a little into multi battery setups (it was the first thing I did when I realized I’d have two compatible batteries lol), but haven’t gone full research mode. I know parallel setups have their own rules, and wanting to keep this fairly simple I didn’t go too much deeper, at least in regards to parallel setups. But..

You mentioned you can’t just run one down and then plug in the second.. in a Y adapter setup where they’d be in parallel I know that’s definitely true. however.. I’m curious, could you in theory put a more accessible case on top of the board (say one that has a clamp lid rather than screws), run jumpers or solder extended wires from the battery in the stock enclosure, esc, and charger connection to that new case and connect them up there (exactly the same as how they would be in the battery case, but just in this new more accessible box) then run it down, open it up, fully disconnect one battery completely, and plug in a new battery since the 2 would never be connected simultaneously? I’m not planning to do that on this board as it’d add too much bulk, but I’m just curious if it’d work. I’d think that would allow you to use a second battery as a range extender (so long as it’s safe for the board) without any voltage matching or age concerns since only one would ever be connected at a time. I’d think that method shouldn’t be any different than swapping batteries on a power tool (again because it’s one at a time with a full disconnect/reconnect rather than in parallel) and still allow you to charge both from the boards charge port (again, one at a time). Again not planning to do it necessarily, more just a thought experiment. While it sounds reasonable in my head, it may not be in real life.