I wanted to share my experience on my DIY build because I finally encountered an issue that is the result of, IMO, my plans working TOO well.
My motivation for a DIY was to build a more powerful version of the Boosted Mini. I wanted to go faster and with more power to get up steep SF hills.
So I landed on dual 6354 motors 170KV, with 83mm wheels, 36T wheel pulleys and 18T motor pulleys with a 10S battery. It’s essentially built for torque.
When I finally tried it out, I suddenly realized why most electric skateboards are longboards: the weight distribution that is shifted the back foot when the force of the motors propels you forward.
On a shortboard, it pushes you into a wheelie. I can’t use any setting higher than L. This also gave me an ah-ha moment on the Spud and Tayto decks. Those decks are probably the shortest that you can realistically go with powerful motors. Riptide uses 6S or 7S with 5055 motors. Boosted Mini uses 5055. I thought I was one step ahead of the manufacturer options, but they’re spec’d that way likely in part due to the limitation of that form factor.
Also, in case anyone is wondering, I used one of the Chinese ESC’s from eBay/DIYEBOARD that everyone seems to bash for being underpowered. Those ESCs are extremely powerful but need to be properly matched with a low KV motor in order to stay under the RPM limiter. Coupled with the RC7 remote or the MR Screen Remote, those dual ESCs are extremely powerful and smooth.
Anyway, I just wanted to rant a bit and give others who may be planning a similar build a heads up on my experiences with it.
For now, I am going to use a spare 36" downhill deck that I had as backup in case my shortboard wasn’t stable enough at speed. Coming from a long background of skating traditional short boards, I was not prepared for the esk8 forward momentum and am still getting used to it.
Update: Before I go the longboard route, I’m going to try extending the wheelbase on the shortboard. Factory settings are 17". I will start by re-mounting the back truck to extend wheelbase by 2.25", and extend into the nose if I want to go further. I may have to insert a shim on the back baseplate to maintain the same angle and height as the front truck. I figure I might as well experiment a bit with my current deck.
