The real thing would be using car charging ports so you can charge at like 100A or something like that
I feel like that was considered / mentioned already tho
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Yeah definitely the easy option. Bit boring though, pales in comparison to theoretically infinite free range ***regardless of how impractical🤣
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I think the real question is whether a skateboarding duck discussing the merits of a free range lifestyle considered off topic in this thread? 
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Been wrestling with the bottom tarp piece for the past couple days, but finally have it nailed down.
Beginning of the folding puzzle. The tarp will not be cut anywhere, but done in one piece and folded to sit as flush as possible against the frame.
My method for making the holes accurately through the tarp was to use a scribing tool, that you use to make lines/scratches/markings on metal surfaces, to punch the initial hole after locating the nut in the profile slot underneath it. After I had put the tool through the hole to widen it a little bit, I used a 5mm metal drill bit in reverse to widen the hole enough that the M5 bolt could make it through it with relative easy.
From there it was pretty linear, starting at the bottom and then working mine way upwards the sides toward the top.
Now to figure out how to fold all the excess flabby bits at the top and corners.
But I think it came out pretty well.
I’m currently starting to work on the top half, the attachment solution for it and then it would be running the wires and connectors and putting the battery module + electronics in place and I think we should be good to go at that point.
I’m planning on making a test ride towards the end of this week to my parents house, which is ~130km in one direction and then coming back the next day. Idea would be to do a longer test ride with near journey gear to get a better feeling if something needs changing or something is missing.
I guess it did come out a little bit like it. At least it’s green.
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The top part will be attached with clips for quick latching and un-latching and I finally figured out a good adjustment method to adjust the length of the straps.
Latches into the opposite block with a satisfying click.
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After trying out the earlier shown strap tightening setup, I changed back to a simpler system, which I found out works better in this particular setup. The earlier setup needs too much vertical space to work with the top half of the tarp in the lowest position and causes the tarp to fold in/scrunch up, where as this new setup keeps it much more neatly pulled down. You can easily shorten and lengthen the straps with simple knots on this simpler, new setup.
Started with the wiring. Making first the end that comes out of the trailer towards the esk8 and then thought out about how I want to use it in the field. Was thinking of having some kind of switch/contactor, but decided to go with a simpler XT90 anti-spark coming from the battery trailer, which can then be hand plugged and un-plugged as necessary.
There’s a doubled up heatshrink on the XT90’s solder joint to give stiffness.
Then I pushed the collar as far in as it could go. Yes, it didn’t quite go far in enough to lock into the housing, but it still provides support.
And then to finish it off, a bigger heatshrink on top of the whole thing. Needless to say, it’s quite stiff.
There is a short in-between cable that runs from the electronics enclosure to the normal battery pack.
I’ll re-route this in-between cable to go towards the back instead.
Zip-tie setup that allows for good movement and mechanical suspension/separation from the vibrations on the motor mounts, but not allow the cable to shift around, as it’s running between the motors.
Trailer side external discharge cable. I’ll run the wires through the tarp near the front side bottom area with the shown cable glands. They have a rubber gasket, so they should provide a waterproof passthrough, as long as I don’t mess up cutting the holes for the glands into the tarp.
I can then just connect and disconnect the trailer from the esk8 electronics as I want and the anti-spark in the connector itself eliminates and in-rush current sparking.
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Battery pack wired.
The thinner wires coming from the pack terminals are going to be used for charging, whereas the thick wires are for the discharge path.
“Baby is in the basket! I repeat, baby is in the basket!”
I have the top half attachment figured far enough that I’ll be leaving tomorrow or the day after for a 250km+ test ride. I’ll be on a lighter setup, without all my gear with me, as this will be meant for more longer test ride purpose and not actual camping trip.
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Good luck!
Looking forward to hearing how it went.
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Whew, survived that.
So on Saturday I went 125km southbound and then on Sunday I came back 128km northbound. I used a 34km/h ERPM limit, so flat ground speed was hovering around 31-33km/h based on incline and wind.
Southbound trip. I pumped up all the tires before leaving, so I think I might have had a little bit less flattening on the rear tires (less rotations for given distance → shorter reported distance), which explains the 120km Metr vs. 125km gps logged difference.
Northbound trip. Unfortunately Metr decided to stop for some reason in the middle of the trip, so that’s why there is a gap there.
I also logged the battery voltages at the start and end of each trip and then based on my battery capacity test I based the real energy used amounts on that. The energy numbers between Metr and voltage based differed somewhat, but not anything huge.
1st trip 49,6V → 44,4V ; 2318Wh
I charged for couple hours with a MeanWell HLG-150H-48A (@4Amps) just to have a little bit more of a safety buffer in case the energy usage was higher.
Charged 44,4V → 45,5V ; 574Wh
2nd trip 45,5V → 42,6V ; 2202Wh
So total energy used 4520Wh for 253km, which then averages to 17,87 Wh/km. Based on this the max range at the used speeds would be around 270km without going too deep on the discharge.
Board and trailer performed otherwise without any problems, apart from my tow bar looking a bit worse for wear at the end of the trip. The AL.profile tow bar apparently got hard enough hits to start going into plastic deformation.
I think these were caused by either the back end of the esk8 rising quickly in a response, like going over a curb, or by hitting road surface imperfections at high speeds, causing a very sharp jolt/shock. The curb climb lifts the tow hitch end by a centimeters in a very short time, providing a short one directional impulse, but the road surface imperfections don’t really have a real height difference once you go over them, just the shock, so I don’t exactly know what specific movement/road feature caused this.
I’m going to be switching to a tube/pipe for the tow bar and just picked a chromed clothesline rack for this purpose. I believe due to the shape difference (all material on the outside → bigger lever length to resist bending torque) that it should be able to resist much more of the bending forces it’ll experience. Note that on this trip there wasn’t anything else in the trailer except for the battery pack, so once you add the charger and any luggage it’s gonna be putting more weight on the tow bar and hitch, so this needs to be solved.
I’ll need to re-engineer the bottom mounting points on the trailer and the tow bar end, so it shouldn’t be that hard.
How did it personally feel?
The travelling challenges could be generally boiled down to two things, heat and riding ergonomics.
On Saturday, it was one of the hottest days recorded this summer at around 28-30 Celsius for the air + clear skies, so I was pretty toasty for the whole trip (t-shirt, shorts, elbow+knee pads, full-face helm, backpack). I drank about 2 liters of liquid, which is quite a lot, considering that esk8 isn’t the most sweaty sport/hobby, but you’re just constantly sweating, which gets almost instantly evaporated, so you can lose a surprisingly lot of fluids. Didn’t need to even think about taking a piss the whole trip.
Sunday was easier on the temperature side by about 4 degrees, which really made a noticeable difference. Still went through about 1,5 liters of liquid. Also remember to keep electrolyte levels up by having snacking on something salty. I went fine without a bite during either leg of the trip.
Numb feet and taking breaks. I think I averaged about 30 minutes between taking breaks to let the circulation return to my feet. The problem is that you’re riding on the shoulder of the country roads, so you don’t have enough lateral space to do any carving to help shift the pressure points at the bottom of your feet, so you’re essentially just focusing on keeping your heading very steady as you don’t have a lot of room to ride in. This means you’re keeping the pressure points on the bottom of your feet very static they will go numb. I also had a couple kilograms worth of stuff in my backpack, which added to the weight on my feet.
I had a couple of different soles for my shoes with me on the trip. The normal foam based soles that came with the shoes, that I have been using for this whole time and then I bought a gel soles to test them out. I would say that the gel soles felt the worst and at the end before taking a break, it felt like the whole bottom of the feet were burning. Note, that there probably is an effect caused by the fact that I have not ridden on the gel soles before, so my feet haven’t had a chance to get used to them. The foam soles, that I’m accustomed to, felt like the burning was more localized on the balls and heel. I also tried without any soles at the very end of my return leg of the trip and it was actually pretty good overall, but can’t exactly say if it was better or worse due to the limited time riding like that.
At the end of each leg ~125km, I would say I wouldn’t want to go much further like that based on how my feet were feeling.
Today, front leg’s calf feels pretty sore and it feels to be pretty deep in there. Walking would probably help in the recovery.
I would say I feel pretty confident that the 2200km trip would actually destroy me, but I have some ideas about how to improve the riding ergonomics, although… I’m not sure if it could be called skating anymore after those changes…
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Gosh me too looking at all dat!!
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Now I’m just floating the idea out there, but… (also, 'xcuse my hairy legs)
Now, butt skating isn’t anything new, but I’m pretty sure that anyone who has ever tried have found the stability especially at speed to be lacking… to say the least. It’s very easy to get into speed wobbles as the speeds increase, but what if there was a way to add more stability to the setup? I’d say the core instability lies in the fact that you essentially have only one point of contact to the board, which is your butt and there isn’t the same kind of movement available at your butt cheeks as you have through all your leg muscles and feet when standing on the board, there is a lack of strong connectiveness(?), so what if we could add another contact point that we could also use to connect our upper body to the board?
What I’m essentially talking is adding a handlebar that is attached to the deck of the board.
This would allow to connect/anchor the upper body to the board’s frame giving you much more leverage and allowing upper body leaning to be properly translate into the board’s behavior.
This is the same reason why there’s a add-on handlebars available for kids, so they’ll have easier time learning to control a skateboard, as they can involve their upper body as well, giving them more leverage + another support/anchor point.
Anywhoo, I’ll be doing a simple test setup to just see if this idea is worth pursuing any further, or if it still proves to be too unstable at speed. There is also the added benefit of presenting a smaller surface area for the wind, so you could possibly lower the aerodynamic drag, meaning you could either go faster for the same amount of power, or further at the same speed.
Not sure though, if this could still be called skating… Name suggestions welcome.
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I didn’t know Lidl made socks 
I think you should get rid of the backpack, strap it onto the trailer. Also get rid of the bindings, so that you can move around on your board, and do feet exercises while riding.
I do think a box or something to sit on is a good idea. You can’t go super fast due to wobbles, but fast enough for it to be worth it.
The other option: go faster, so that you make more distance in less time 
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All this plus maybe add some concave to your deck using 3dp inserts
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just jumping throught the thread, imo the problem with wobbles while sitting is that you’re applying too much pressure on the rear axile bushings, which makes it “sorfter” than standing on the board, where your weight is split into the front truck as well as into the rear.
so best is to sit in the middle of the board, or to have some incredibly hard bushings 
If you want to butt ride, stability depends on your center of gravity. Street Luge and buttboard ride with the butt right behind/over the front truck leaving your CoG more towards the front of your board overall, leading to much better stability at speed.
If you were to retrofit a seat, I’d say either dewedge the rear to zero, or put the seat faaaar forward and make some foot pegs that extend off the front, or some blend of the two.
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btw, kudos for the long distance trip I’m waiting for some custom parts for my 8.1kwh build, so I’m itching for endless czech roads
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What are you building the pack out of?
Is this relevant only to longboard trucks and not MBS trucks?
Probably worth a try. I think it’s partially also because of the slight slope in the length direction, meaning that your legs would want to slide towards the ends of the board.
Felt worse faster when I tried
I wonder how well this would work if he locked the rear truck steering and put soft bushings in the front
I just love following your progress. I keep going back to this thread every dar. Making my own plans for a trip next summer.
Since nobody have mentioned it. What works best for me to fight sore legs is to wear a pair of Pit Viper sunglasses