Epic Skateboards are either good or bad

Hi esk8 builders

I recently acquired an EPIC 3200 Pro. I have been zipping all around my home town with a smile on my face. It is way cool…with only a few issues I want to tell you about.
I weigh 72kg and 6’3’ – I was hoping to get 35Kms plus per hour but can only squeeze 28Kms. The EPIC site tells me the board goes 42km/h max speed - the board doesn’t come close to this speed at full throttle. I’ve tried super flat, super smooth paths. The torque is good. It keeps a constant speed up inclines and I feel confident riding up 20-30 degree streets. The overall build of the board is ok but there need to be a few improvements like wires being fully covered and sealed. The main lead into the battery compartment was exposed (now fixed). It could also do with a bumper so I can rest on its end without damaging the board (now fixed – I added a small rubber nose). It is a beast when it comes to range – and the charge time is low. The build of the board is good with it being nice and tidy, clean and easy operation. Epic could improve controller though. Say some soft padding encasing the controller would be useful when dropped. Love the small torch…think lights on board next.
Happy Zipping. Henza

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Congrats on discovering the exhilarating world of ESK8ing! There shouldn’t be any reason why a 72kg rider would slow a dual drive board down to 28kph. They are using there own custom ESC to control things, so I wonder if it is an inherent problem with that. They do look great in the press shots, but the fit and finish is probably representative of the fact they are a made in china production board.

Personally I would call Epic and ask them to explain why your board is only getting to 28kph. They may say their top speed is in ideal conditions with a a 50kg rider, or they will offer a solution… maybe send you a different board?

Yeah i contacted epic and they said there boards are for younger age bracket, which doesnt make sense because they’re heavy for a young person and very tourqey Would anyone know how to make the board faster???

How much did you spend on it so far? I think their “yonger age bracket” is a total crock. You’ll need two VESC’s to improve the performance which will run approx. $300. If they won’t take it back I’d sell it onto a “younger” kid, take a loss and move on. This assuming you are underwhelmed by its performance…

It cost me $1000 to buy i choose it over other boards because of the speed. Its not a bad board its just doesnt have enough power for my liking. What do you mean by two vesc’s like two speed controllers (esc)??

@Henza64 You can try to replace the motor pulley… you will probably have to open up the ‘‘gearbox’’ thing… - take the cover off… and the take a look at what diameter axle the motor has and how the sprocket - pulley is mounted onto the axle…

Otherwise - Ask do they offer other sprockets…

Im not sure what gear ratio these board have, but for example, if it has 15 teeth motor pulley and 60 wheel pulley, then by going with 16 or higher motor pulley you would get more speed, as the gear ratio would decrease.

And since you said it has a lot of torque, then there should be plenty or at least some room for speed increase while sacrificing some torque (cuz you said you got plenty of it, it should not be a problem)

Though, there are a few things you should consider -

A) will you be able to find a larger motor pulley B) will the same belt (and housing - cover) work for the larger pulley…

y

This is what i got out of it pretty sure it has 16 motor pulley and 36 wheel pulley. Correct me if im wrong!!

@Henza64 Good pics.

Id say you need to find out how wide is the belt… and also what sort of pitch (teeth spacing) it is using…

Perhaps there are some letters / words on the belt which might give you more clues…

On a side note… im not sure how bigger 18 or 20 teeth pulley will be as it looks like there’s not much space left in the cover… Also, I have not had the chance to fit a different size pulley on my setup, so im not sure how that might influence belt tigthness… Im mentioning this because it looks like your motor cannot be adjusted, so you would need to get a really good fitting belt size in order to for it work…


Ok, so for now:

1) measure belt widht is it 9mm or 12mm… as that will determine what pulley you might need to find.

2) After size is known and some similar pulleys are found, some calculation / considering can be made to decide whenever everything (the new pulley) is gonna fit on the same axle, with the same belt…


if this does not work out (the mechanical part)

your options would be to increase the battery voltage (if you can guess what the max specs are for that specific esc - motor controller)… if there’s not much ways to increase the voltage (as that would also require to get - add a new battery), you might just wanna switch to a different esc, though not entirely possible to know would this increase the speed, if the voltage stays the same.


One more option - get bigger wheels, though im not sure how much bigger can you really go… and that would require for you to fit the same pulley to the new wheels…

I actually think a good way would be to write an email to them and ask what is the maximum voltage their esc’s can handle… perhaps there’s is a little bit of headroom and you can add 1-2cells more in parallel, if you get the chance to get a matching battery / cells, to the existing battery you got there…

Otherwise, if they dont tell you the esc’s maximum voltage there’s a risk of burning it / damaging it and having a need to get a new one instead… so yeah, for now there’'s like 3 options:

1) Try to change the gearing ratio 2) Consider fitting the pulley to bigger wheels (if you can get them) 3) Consider increasing the battery voltage, if the esc can handle that 4) Get new esc (also receiver for remote + remote, too, possibly) and tweak the settings or install higher voltage battery…

To sum it up, so far, the mechanical procedure looks like to be the least costly… but it might require some tweaking (your time) and searching on the net for the neccesary parts…

Im not an expert though… these are the options I can come up with… perhaps someone can give you an even better advice… so yeah, see for yourself, how it looks on your side…

Otherwise, if you fail to mod it the cheap way… I might actually recommend for you to consider the following advice:

As yeah 28kph instead of 42kph is a bit lame… I would get away perhaps with 35kph (if they lied by 7kph) but 14kph is a bit too much…

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I found out the specs of the belt there 15mm have 89 teeth, 267 in length and have a 3mm pitch It doesnt really make sense becuase they have an 36v 8.8ah battery which could put out enough power to go 40-45km/h max (weighted) according to one of onloops posts. Could i put motors with higher Kv maybe??

If i do get higher kv and wattage motors will they work? Would i need anything else?

Epic boards are rubbish. Years behind the DIY community. Its a shame you found out the hard way.

Sell it and build a decent board.

Yeah i suppose, it’s really hard to find stuff about them like videos and reviews So is there still an option to mod the board making it go faster??

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these things are just rebranded boards from china. sorry you got ripped off this is a $400-500 board at best.

The easiest way to get more speed would be bigger wheels. 90/97mm flywheels or clones but since this has htd3 finding pulleys would be difficult.

I think youre best to leave the board as is…and build a custom board if you want more speed/range. you’d have to replace so much on this, so its just not worth it.

You could change out the esc and motor. But you will need to mod the mounts etc.

By the time you fiddle round with it you will probably wish you started from scratch.

Actually i had a look at the model you have. Its probably one of the best in their range. Its 36V so maybr 10S You might be able to overvolt those motors a bit so just replacing the battery with a 12S and ESC’s might do it.

If i did get different motors would i have to get different esc’s? Would i really need to change the mounts for different motors

You need to measure the screw spacing between these 4 spots. Im not with my board right now but I think there should be some sizes in the thread about motor mounts. Search for @korryh thread about his mounts.

Though, I think the changing motors part might be one of the most expensive one… This is why I did not really recommend it, since there is not much known about the esc’s or battery or the current motors at all.


If it is a Li ion battery, you might be okay to find a 2.2ah cells (as it looks like there could be 4in parallel, making 8.8ah pack) and then buying about 4-8 such cells, To make them 1S4P or 2S4P.

This is risking to fry the esc and you would have to connect your newly bought and made batteries to the existing ones of your board.

1S means - one cell in serial, eg - 4volts total, 4P means - 4 in parallel, so the capacity - discharge capability will increase eg - 8ah instead of 2ah, if 4cells in parallel. (in case you not know so much about all of this stuff yet)

Here’s a handy tool:

http://calc.esk8.it/#{“batt-type-lipo”:0,“batt-cells”:10,“motor-kv”:145,“system-efficiency”:80,“motor-pulley-teeth”:18,“wheel-pulley-teeth”:36,“wheel-size”:80}|

Though, im really sceptical can these inrunner (they dont turn on outside right?) motors be really with so high (low) kv… I had to input 145kv, to bring your speed down to 28kph (weighted) and that is already at 80% efficiency…

It looks like if you went with 97mm wheels (if they fit on dont rub on board) or if you increased the pulley from 16 to 20, then you might sqeeze out extra ~6kph, but im not sure if numbers can be trusted as it is not entirely sure what kind of motor you have and is it really 10s (36-40v) system.

Im also a bit sceptical now about improving this board :smiley: IF there were more info on what esc does it use, what motors are these etc… then perhaps yes…

@Henza64

Here’s a pulley from china:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2pcs-HTD3M-20-Teeth-Timing-Pulley-15mm-Width-Belt-Set-Kit-Reducer-Ratio-1-1-/262504499486?var=&hash=item3d1e7cc91e:m:mg7yMmYcAQoGyjLkPznoZ2Q

And on aliexpress - but Could not find a pack of 2, but it says you can ask on your own

It says it is htd3 (printers use them).

But you need to compare how much the size might change of the pulleys and you would also get a relatively low ratio with this setup but perhaps for 80mm wheels it is okay.

You should measure your current diameter of the pulley (and also lenght of it).. Otherwise you will need to cut into the cover to make it fit.

One more thing - is the axle diameter of your current motors 8mm? or is it 6mm?


– This is all based on the assumtion there is good enough torque with current setup you are running… perhaps @lowGuido and some other e-lonboard users can comment on the ratio of 1:1.8 (20:36) and 80mm wheels…

I think that they are actually outrunners on his model…