🌠 Northern Light | Switchblade with Reverse-mounted Urethane Gear Drives

DIY Builds
33

Day 9, part 1

First thing to do today is assemble the drive-train, so that the threadlocker can cure. But before that, I wanted to mount the trucks to the deck to double-check I won’t get wheel-bite.

Both my Surf-Rodz baseplate, and my Bowery-Surf adjustable baseplate (Thank you @Venom121212 ) had their holes too wide! I couldn’t bolt them to my deck, nor my Davega baseplate. So after drilling the holes wider with a 5mm drill-bit I finally got them to fit. Not super straight, but better than them wobbling side-to-side, so I’m going to leave it.

7II09511
7II095116000×4000 4.32 MB

7II09514
7II095146000×4000 3.52 MB

I think I’m running 40 degrees in the back, and 50 up front. The front sits a bit higher though, so maybe it’s more like 38 and 52. Anyhow, since these hangers have rake (3mm I believe), I might flip the front hanger to have negative rake, and then the board should be level.

I also noticed that these FatBoy hangers have a slightly narrower bushing seat compared to original Surf Rodz, so my bushings don’t sit entirely flat unless they’re cranked down. I have some surf-keys, that I’ll compare with and without once the board is rideable.

Also, in the back I’m using these cheap deck protector plates I bought at Sickboards.

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7II095176000×4000 4.04 MB

Anyway, I stood on the board to check for wheel-bite, and it looks like I could even upgrade to 120mm wheels safely! :smiley: So I might try Onsra wheels in the future. I also think people who wanted to replicate this setup could get away with 240mm FatBoy Surf Rodz hangers, although you would have to forward-mount your motors then.

Speaking of, I assembled the drivetrain. Red loctite on everything, except for green on the motor shaft. Once the threadlocker is cured tomorrow I will apply grease and close them up. Having to adjust backlash is annoying, but overall it took me less than 2h to assemble them.

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7II095166000×4000 2.92 MB

Notice how if it weren’t for the hanger rake, these motors would not fit! They don’t fit reverse-mounted at any other angle, so I got really lucky. Of course, forward mounted you could probably do 100mm motors or something stupid. But for a street build this should be just fine :slight_smile:

Alright, time to do the internal wiring now…

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