I want to route a cutout into the bottom of my deck (or possibly all the way through) in order to increase my ground clearance. For a 10" deck, how deep can I get it without compromising its strength? The hole would be 96mm/3.77" wide.
BTW, my deck does have a bit of concave, if that’s relevant… It’s a landyachtz peacemaker for the curious.
EDIT: I’d be using an aluminum top plate to seal everything in if I went all the way though - flush with the top of the deck.
Well the peacemaker is 9.75" wide. So the 3.77" should be just under 3 inches on each side which is fine. The deck is 8pys of 1/8 maple I would suggest not going all the way through because that will screw with the concave. I would suggest staying to 2 plys and under. It would be enough to get the battery to sit flat
a 1" thick deck??? really??? w0w!!!
What kinda setup are we talking here? I tend to agree with @Briman that the primary benefit of routing a deck is to get the battery to sit flat on the belly of a concave board. cutting into it more than that may stray into “diminishing returns” category.
There are other low-effort ways of increasing ground clearance, such as risers and increased tire size. Another solution would be to top mount the battery.
I have a single stack 12s5p under a drop-through microdrop-down deck that has decent clearance with 125mm gummies, and ample clearance with the dickyho 145mm airless (one full cm of additional clearance). If I was going off-road consistently with it I’d give a top mount some serious thought, for sure.
It is probably about a half inch to 3/4 as it is pressed.
Plan’s changed… I realized that even if I did move the battery up, my motors would be low enough that it wouldn’t matter much… Probably just gonna route flat now/