Apologies for the lack of picture or if this is in the wrong thread given I actually haven’t built anything, I cvan move this post if needed.
I started going down a rabbit hole about a couple of weeks ago after I stepped on an Evolved Bamboo One, I then started reading up on the issues they have battery wise, truck snapping and worst of all, remote connection reliabilty issues. Living in the UK I started looking at Slick revolution and came to the conclusion that while more reliable I wanted something with more range that I could upgrade. Then I found this forum, learned about batteries, ESC, VESC and much more. Now I don’t really have the time to do go and order each part separately and want to get the board built and riding soonish (I’m going to become a father in Feb).
To explain the name of the board, I surf and enjoy, loose fast surfboards (twin or quad fins) and all of my longboards have been similar, I’d like to recreate that feeling in a motorised version. I’m hoping that a top mounted on RKP trucks should do the trick, even if the board has no flex (85kg/190lbs).
To that extent I found two kits I would be interested in:
The PRO2 from collections/electric-skateboard-conversion-kit/products/pro2-electric-skateboard-conversion-kit
I feel those kits are a strong foundation to tinker with further down the line.
These would be built on the earthwing belly racer that I have coming in a couple of days.
Finally onto my questions:
The eskating kit comes a little more expensive (taking the import tax from the US into account on regards to the TorqueBoard kit) with almost comparable parts, the battery has a little better range (12s5p esakting / 12s4p TB) but the biggest factor is the fct that eskating.eu has FOCBOXes. Does it make that much diffrence? I haven’t really found much in the way of the advantages of FOXBOX VESC over the Torque VESC?
I have read that TB has reliable parts and how helpful they are when choosing parts and building the eSk8, I have read that Alberto is easily reachable and arranging but I haven’t read much about the parts eskating.eu uses and how reliable they are. Can anyone having bought from Alberto comment on that?
At the end of the day it is a fair whack of money to spend on an eSk8 (and it will be worth it) but I’d like to make sure I buy things that are going to last longer than a year, looking at you Evolved.
Bear in mind that batteries will be a problem shipping internationally. I believe it even states that on the webpage.
If you’re going to outlay that kind of dough there’s a whole host of US vendors who could help. DIY have some great parts, the escs aren’t always the most popular but I believe they have become better.
You could also reach out to @psychotiller to put together a kick arse kit?
Thanks, I have chatted with the DIY guys (Alex) about decks and I cancelled my original deck order since it had too much flex.
In fairness to eskating.eu I haven’t gotten in touch with them but the overall impression is it’s a smaller outfit and they’ll never be able to compare customer service wise or even accomplish the same delivery timeframe even from within the EU.
But look around as well. These are just parts put together in the end.
I feel like buying a kit was a big mistake personally for myself. I ended up replacing half of it right away and feel like I could have saved time, money (a significant amount) and energy just doing it myself.
There’s a lot of experienced builders around you, reach out to them
Fair enough, thanks for the advice. It does make sense. I don’t really want to waste my time and more importantly other people’s time.
I guess by starting this topic I’m reaching out.
The more I read the more I realise the parts list is fairly simple, my only issue for a first build is reaching for the soldering iron and building something unsafe/fire hazard.
I wouldn’t suggest building a battery if you’re uncomfortable. Sure we all could do with learning but if you’re building one or two batteries it’s not very cost effective.
Go for a unity to simplify your electronics and buy a battery from a vendor or builder with bms.
You’re literally then just plugging it together and aligning your drivetrain.
what you mean with waste your time?
you afraid to spend too much your time with researching?
that shouldn´t be the case.
To know which parts you need and how they work together is tha basic in the diy.
If that´s not your thing than better buy a pre build like a boosted.
I don´t want you to build your own battery, but to solder a parallel plug or an anti spark switch should be doable for everybody
To find parts which fit togehter is not so big problem, even if it looks like this in the beginning.
just write down your list and post it here.
there are a lot of people here in the forum ready to have a look and tell you if it will work together or not.
Yeah that’s fair, to be honest that’s pretty much all I’ve been doing for the past week. I’m more conscious about asking stupid questions and wasting others time better spent riding.
I am however getting a better picture as to what to get, some of the lingo and concepts are still is a little fuzzy but I’ll get there.
In the end I’m also interested in building something viable without having to buy parts from a dozen different vendors, streetwing is interesting and they hadn’t come up in google searches before. I was looking at Alien power system for batteries at some point but they seem to be all out.
People like I here in time they anyhow can ride so… just ask your questions if the search function didn’t give you the right answer.
Have a look on the Unik
https://www.unikboards.com/fr/
They sell batteries also as far as I know.
@okp is the owner and here in the forum too.
Hi, I was in your position at the start of this year, and I concur that it’s a lot of info to take in during the first few weeks of reading. Only in last few months have a lot of the terms become recognisable but it’s like anything you get into, the more to read the more familiar it becomes. Once you have the terminology nailed, and you’re not building a battery from scratch, then building an esk8 really is pretty straight forward and shouldn’t be looked upon as a dark art or something.
I used Street Wing for my main (and first time) build, buying 90% of the parts I needed from them and just personalising it with my own ideas. Have a look at my ‘topics created’ and you’ll see what you can achieve if you just buy from that vendor - plus the owner is helpful with great customer back up service.
Now I’m on my 3rd build and the year isn’t even out, but I ride the first one every week… !
I agree, either psychotiller or another reputable US vendor
Kaly?
The user Hyperion1 makes great batteries for a low price
Also a word of advice, if you’re going to buy from and you want real help… Talk to no one but Dexter if he’s available. Hes by far the most knowledgeable and helpful from their website
