Complete noob first time mountainboard build

Hey guys it’s my first attempt at building an electric skateboard I have zero electronics experience and would love to be pointed In the right direction for my build I want to have a mountainboard platform with a dual motor set up I’d like to get at least 20mph out of it and maybe 20 miles distance considering I’m just under 200lbs just need it as a back and forth between public transportation to work hope I can receive helpful info I know this post is probably like most others but I’d love to get into the hobby so bad haven’t been able to stop watching videos and reading up on it

So it sounds as though you’d like a lightweight, semi-portable MTB, have you any budget specifications?

@Rickroba92 welcome to the forum.

Regarding your speed requirements that’s no problem, the distance at 20 miles will be a bit more of a challenge. As a rough estimate you get approximately 1km per 10Wh of battery on a pretty efficient setup in relatively ideal conditions (not lots of hill climbing, dry roads etc.). So if you’re shooting for 20 miles that’s 32km which means you want at least 320Wh of batteries. With lithium-ion cells you get about 2500-3000mAh per cell at 3.6V nominal, so going worst case scenario [2.5Ah * 3.6V] on that it’s 9Wh per cell, so take the 320 divide by 9Wh and you have 36 cells, so could go with a 9S 4P or get a bit more oomph and look for a 10S 4P pack. If you go with LiPo packs instead of LiIon cells you’re just looking for something with a max discharge rating (C-rating) above 100A, higher is better and can just multiply [cell count x 3.7 x amp-hours = Wh] to get Wh to compare capacity. [Ex: 10S x 3.7V x 10Ah = 370Wh]

As mentioned already budget will be key to recommending anything, also use the search on the forum here for ‘build threads’ and/or ‘mtb build’ to get a rough idea of what components are available and what others have used and why.

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Keep in mind that he is using pneumatic tires, and this will almost cut his range in half

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I did just think of this as I saw Okami typing and his avatar :slight_smile: I was giving numbers that are usually quoted for regular longboard wheels. Personally pretty sure I get better than the average but I’m on flat land around Chicago area and really light weight.

Pneumatics usually consume a bit more… at least 15wh/km in my experience (more realistically , 18+wh/km with bigger wheels).

U would want something with small wheels, to reduce weight and bulkiness of the board.

Im from phone but im sure others will be able to direct you in the right direction.

(Hah yes, i started typing because of this reason :D)


But yeah in terms of battery, something with at least 500wh would be recommended… (at 10s that would be around 14ah, so for Samsung 30Q cells, that would be 10s5p pack.

Thanks for the advice was thinking around $1000 for first set up and then maybe upgrading things later, the terrain I would travel would only be flat asphalt no mountain trails or offroad use just need to get over bumps and up curbs @wafflejock

Seen alot of boards trampa ext. 8inch seems to be the standard?

In that case bro I would go with something like 107 abecs or something but not pneumatics

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Dont want to run into rocks or anything that’ll knock me off my board

U should look for wheels like that. I think 6 or 7 inch might be the sweetspot…

Theres psychotiller who offers all in one solution for wheels but it might blow your budget fast if u with his set, i think

https://psychotiller.com/product/6-billet-wheel-hubs

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What about a 12s

1st thing would be to find a good used trampa board and start from there, that’s what i did.

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Yeah I have some 90mm wheels and they absorb a lot of the roughness themselves. With the budget being what it is I think it’ll be tough to get a full MTB setup I think typically the components are all a bit more expensive and it adds up, some of the people here who have made those can speak more to it. My setup was around $600 if I didn’t blow any ESCs (which I did) and it’s a single drive with relatively cheap components, on the plus side I’ve managed to keep it running.

You do have to learn to be aware of things either way as you’re cruising in any case. But think you’ll have to bump your budget some to get into MTB territory.

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Any advice on leads for those?

Also no idea about the laws where you are or how the police treat esk8 but around me they don’t want any motorized things on the sidewalks so I’m stuck on the back roads (which is actually fine by me).

Not sure u need 12s… it is harder on controller (unless u go vesc 6 route, which will cost close to 300-400usd probably) and some say 10s is nice enough unless u want that extra aggresive punch from your board…

Look on the forum in the ‘for sale sections’, Ebay regularly has them too! where do you live?

Personally, I think trampa is somewhat large board and doesnt qualify for portable anymore (if u have to take train or bus, the lenght of it makes it somewhat difficult to transport it / move around.

Here’s a few pictures ive collected on the forum, first one is the perfect commuter board, i think. fc29943b92e757454fa16431fd072e12e15fc537_1_375x500 After that some trampas can be seen and their size comparison… 6c7262da4f74840bd5f16dfba1761553edbb8395_1_666x500 75ceeadb30a3c03761ad3f7e67fa8bed98cc42aa_1_389x500 8f04ac4b0ee0fabb733e80a78694c5729e0cda4e_1_666x500 One more viable option would be mountainboard with short deck but it is troublesome and pushes deck height up. (board with red wheels and then the next one with blue ones)

Check www.esk8builds.com not a lot of forum boards there but helps when seeing many boards at once

Also, seems like @skatardude10 made these small wheel hubs also, maybe he can help with printing hubs, if u go this route Screenshot_2018-08-14-10-30-44


There’s also diyeboard airless wheels… but i havent had a chance to try them out yet… they run for around 300usd for whole drive set… though theres been a bit bad rep about them (wheels stretching out a bit at speed (not sure was it on different hubs but still) and trucks breaking (at least for longboard wheels)

Heres a pic of a buddy’s build:

IMG_20180928_164128

The board does look nice and is very compact

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I live in the US New York I’ve checked ebay I still haven’t found anything

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