Since I travel around the country a fair bit I wanted a board I can conveniently and inconspicuously take on planes. Because most airlines has free carry on allowances of only one item and up to 19 inches in length, and how most airlines are very unfriendly to mobility devices powered by lithium batteries (like my board), I needed something that I can strap to my backpack and not attract the attention of the airline staff at the gate. (surprisingly TSA so far has not given me a problem it’s the gate people who I need to avoid, and of course I don’t expect your average TSA guy to be able to calculate battery wh from volts and amps, so I just slap a 99wh sticker on my pack to avoid the airline approval bullshit)
The deck I picked for this build is the foldable deck from boardup. The folding mechanism is quite well designed and works like a charm (see gif), and I know many on this forum have attempted to make a build based on this deck. Another added bonus of the foldable deck is that the folding hinge has those rubber pads and makes the deck almost as flexy as a boosted.
Powertrain is the diyeboard 10s2p dual belt drive kit, goes 25mph on good pavements, pretty good performance for the price
If your battery causes any problem on airplanes, all of us will be involved. I wouldn’t fly with a non approved battery because I would be risking other people lives. Maybe you could buy some lipos and leave them in those frequent locations you go to?
The battery is a li-ion pack and it is less than 160wh, which means it is FAA compliant. This pack is probably a lot safer than lipos and isn’t any more dangerous than laptop batteries. However airlines have their own policies and most just choose to straight out ban esk8 on their flights, but they don’t seem to have a problem with 100wh batteries otherwise provided it’s not attached to a wheeled vehicle with a motor which is just absurd. Seeing how they selectively target batteries on esk8 and not other devices even if they are the same cell type and have comparable wh capacity, I think it’s safe to say it’s not really a safety issue.
Sweet bulid man! I’m surprised you manged to fit all those components in that small box.
On the topic of bringing battery packs on planes:
I took my 138Wh battery with me to the UK on a plane, airport security didn’t even blink an eye, despite me being one of the only people at security, and the thing looking like a black bomb made out of dynamite lol
Since my battery has been exposed to massive vibrations when riding, I am confident that the thing is safer than something like my laptop battery, especially since I make sure to discharge the battery before flying with it. However, for peace of mind, I bought a fire resistant bag to hold it in, although according to YouTube those don’t really help.
Parts list, please! The build looks awesome. I saw your feasibility post from earlier. How did you attach everything? You mentioned building a metal adapter for the rear trucks so as not to drill new holes in the deck.
