New to esk8s, but I’ve been longboarding for decades now.
I have a Loaded Tangent that I want to electrify, but the more research I do in DIY, the more I think I’d be in over my head. I’ve seen people do deck swaps of pre-built boards as a cheaper/easier alternative, so I started looking around.
Looking at a Meepo Flow, it looks like everything would swap over to the Tangent deck nicely, but I don’t really have any experience with this stuff. Can anyone tell me if there’s anything obvious I’m missing as to why it wouldn’t work?
The Meepo is currently $730. I tried putting together a list of DIY parts and it was over $1000 and I wasn’t entirely sure everything would play nice either.
As someone who has deck swapped a v3 it’s not very hard at all. The hardest part it just making sure the enclosure holes all line up and are happy.
Depending on what you want to do it might be easier to peruse the forum and look at secondhand deals. I’ve built a full board with parts from the forum for close to that $700 range.
I will preface it with this. Pre built boards are a completely different feel imo vs a diy.
In both my meepos i’ve noticed the remote connection will drop pretty regularly (I ride in a pretty high static radio area, due to an airport, and military base) to the point where I can stop and look at it before it re connects. I’ve never had this problem with my Puck remote.
I think deck swapping the meepo would be the easiest. But you might find yourself in the loop of “oh it’s just not perfect yet” to “let me order some parts” to “here’s my diy esk8”
Not all of us are fully addicted yet, but once you dip your toes in you will see what I mean
And don’t let your level of knowledge deter you. This forum has basically all the ins and outs of what to do and what not to do.
If you’ve worked with rc stuff in the past you will get used to vesc stuff right away, the scariest part of diy is hopping on a board that you built and just having to accept that if you have an off bc of a mechanical or software problem. That’s on you. (It doesn’t hurt any less the more you do it)
But that can also be a saving grace for others. Knowing you built it, your hands did the work, and you are able to fix any problem you come across bc of that.
I guess I’m not completely against going the diy route, but maybe you or someone else can provide some insight on some of my concerns.
I’m not a stranger to electronics, but I’ve never done anything rc, ever, so there’s that. Also, I’ve watched enough how to videos these past couple weeks to know I absolutely do not want to build my own battery. I dont have the right tools and I don’t trust myself to get it right lol Which leads me to… where do I source quality parts?
I’ve been going through so many threads on here, reddit, etc. trying to put together a parts list, and it seems like every time I think I found a good vendor, I find another thread about how terrible they are.
If I did a complete diy, this is what I was thinking:
Deck - Landyatchz Switchblade - already have one
Enclosure - eboosted
Battery - Should I also get this from eboosted? what about mboard?
Esc - MakerX DV6
Remote - MakerX
Trucks - Caliber II, already have a spare set
Motor mounts - Boardnamics
Motors - Flipsky 6354 Any other motors I should be looking at? A lot of vendors seem to be out of stock
Pulley - Boardnamics
Belt - Boardnamics
Wheels - Orangatangs, already have a spare set
This board would be used to cruise around my neighborhood and occasionally a paved bike trail.
Would love to hear opinions and different recommendations on what to use and where to get it.
Are you still planning to use the brackets from loaded i would be weary as the strength might not be suitable for esk8 tolorances keep in mind even steel breaks sometimes and those brackets are plastic otherwise it’s a cool shortish deck for dyi though your grond clearance is on the lowside for battery so single stacks the only possibility with scratches still
I’d love to use my loaded deck cause it’s a bit more unique, but if I did a complete diy I think I’d use one of my other more traditional decks first. I think ground clearance would be fine, but I didn’t consider strength of the brackets, so that’s def something I’d look into first
Nothing against eboosted, his enclosures are the best I’ve seen for diy, but I would go with Mboards for the battery as long as it’s guaranteed to fit your enclosure. Either that or there’s a trusted list of builders you can find in the forum with a quick search.
I’m not so sure there’d be a problem with the zee bracket to be honest. The tangent is rated up to 136kg with pumping and carving, and beyond that if you tone down the pumping. What approximate weight are you, and do you know what speeds you’d like to ride? You could also ask Loaded if they think it’s appropriate, they’ve built stuff for esk8 before
Clearance for wheelbite might be an issue, but the meepo flow trucks would extend the wheelbase too so it’s hard to say. Do you have any experience with CAD software? You could try to get dimensions for the meepo trucks and model the setup to see
I’m 160lbs, and looking to cruise and carve around 20mph. I’ve ridden a couple different propels (endeavor and ruckus) and anything over 25mph isn’t for me haha
I do have some very limited cad experience from college and 3d printing stuff. I should be able to mock up something basic just to see if it’ll all fit. Good idea, thanks!
The issue might not be with static load, but with shock loads. That deck might be rated for plenty of static load, but get it moving 25mph and hit a pothole? That’s a shitload of dynamic force.
That does sound reasonable. That composite plastic seems like a good candidate for shocks to me though, ductile and tough material in a dimensionally big part
I’m also not certain that 20mph roads and potholes are a lot worse than LDP applications. That might be a bit of a stretch though, I’m not super familiar with LDP. Pumping is a pretty rough repeated stress on them
Lot of good feedback so far. After reading through everything here, and doing more research, I’m moving forward with a full diy build using my loaded tangent deck. I just love the look and feel of ldp setup, so why not electrify it.
I think the biggest hurdle is going to be finding an enclosure that fits (I have about 20" x 8" of space to work with. Thinking I’ll be able to squeeze a 12s2p battery in there, maybe a 10s3p. If I can’t find an off the shelf enclosure, I do have a friend with a couple Creality K2s, so maybe I can make something off of thingiverse work.
That’s it for now. I’ll probably make a new build thread once I start getting parts in, but I’m definitely going to focus on the enclosure first.
No worries, his enclosures are well regarded and he has a bunch of sizes. There might be another one or two that suit as well, I just did a quick scroll until I found something in the right ballpark
