You need a lot of low RPM starting torque to get pneumatic wheels moving, generally speaking the best way for getting motors moving at zero RPM is with hall sensors. in summary, You need special motors & a motor controller.
Building your own skateboard isn’t always easy or nor is it always cheaper, but its fun & you will learn a lot during this adventure.
Motor recommendations? Yeah, I love projects, and while I didn’t realize how much of a project this would be, I am excited to get it going. So my update, I put my 2 36v 10ah battery’s together by twisting the wire ends together, and also added my 36v 4.4 ah battery to make sure that wasn’t the issue. While it ran slightly better, it was still largely the same. Should I just buy new motors, and try that first, or should I buy motors and a new esc?
what is the current max speed this system is designed to reach? do you know how to calculate this?
You need to know this:
Voltage-36V Wheel Size-24” circumference Motor kv-270kv Gear Ratio-Approximately 5 to 1(closer to 4.75 to 1)
Gearing 15T motor pulley and 72T wheel pulley. I tried to do a MPH calculator but it said 144mph lol
If true, this explains why the board doesn’t work well.
If you wire them up in parallel it’s definitely better than what you have now, but probably still not very good.
Best thing is to get a quality pack made out of legit cells like 30q or similar high discharge cells.
So, I ordered a new vesc. Should I order new batteries too then? Will these motors at least work?
What does it mean though? I bought new vesc from enertion raptor. Do I need new motors, or will those ones work?
Are you in high mode on your remote?
Yeah, I have tried a few different modes, but the top, and second to top are the only ones that really work. When I push start and full throttle it pushes me along and then rides at 5mph or so until I hit the hill and then it tends to completely halt and almost toss me off the board. I purchased a new vesc from enertion raptor, so I suppose I will see what difference that makes, and then use the process of elimination. If that doesn’t work I will try new batteries and then motors as a last resort. This certainly isn’t a cheap hobby lol
Read this
Hi! Sorry for the late reply. Not much active here lately as I moved mainly to a similar forum…
What vesc you exactly ordered? 50xx motors not the best for a mtb but they will do the job for the beginning.
The start up problem will still be there because there are no sensors on your motors. You might give it a try to set your vesc up in HFI mode. Which is a new feature and helps to start up smoothly even without sensors. Downside is that it’s still in the early stage so you need to play around with settings to get it work properly.
About the battery, I would save the packs first. Wire them up in parallel and setup your vesc with moderate battery amp values and look how it works out for you. Sooner or later you want to get a proper battery and bigger motors for sure, but better change one by one with the experience you made out of what you have right now.
One last thing about the battery, if you decided to get a new pack make sure you buy it from somebody experienced. There are a lot of builder out which do build dangerous packs.
Safety first 
Hey, I appreciate all of the info, my man! I think I will do just that. Test it with the new VESC from enertionraptor and see how that goes. As far as wiring the two batteries together in a series, wouldn’t that double the voltage to 72v? I’m sure I could do it, but I don’t want to accidentally fry my VESC or motors by accident. Thanks again for all the info.
Your vesc can handle 60V max. Don’t forget if you brake or switch on your battery there might occur voltage spikes which can be around 6-8V so best to stay around 12 max 13s with your vesc to not fry it accidentally.
Also, if you parallel your packs they share the load/current, so less voltage drop.
Awesome! I think I have about 90 18650 batteries in total, so I should be able to rig up a nice battery. Is it vital to have the chipboard on the battery pack when I rewire them? I’m assuming that is probably some sort of safety feature so they don’t explode when charging. Correct?
Battery building needs some preparation and knowledge. Don’t just fuck around with it please.
Some basics for an esk8 pack:
Get high discharge cells from a legit source.
Use fischpaper between p-groups and on the positive terminal
Don’t solder cells. test your nickel in saltwater before start welding.
Every pack can flex a bit, so don’t use only nickel to connect the p groups.
Use a charge only or a charge/discharge bms
That’s just the minimum basics and it needs a bit of time reading and understanding how to build a proper pack. It’s not really difficult, but definitely should be made right from the beginning. I did start a thread where everybody can post his plans or packs and people discuss this or help each other during the build process. It’s a very helpful source especially for the first pack. Unfortunately I’m not allowed to post a link to this thread as it’s not in this forum. If you need any further help you can pm me. I better do not post anything public anymore as it’s either getting edited or flagged. Sorry about that.
Yeah, thankfully I know well enough to do research before messing with something so potentially dangerous. I have 80 18650 cells that I am looking to wire up in a 12s6p pack, which, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that will allow me 20,400mah, with an overall voltage of 48v. You think that will be enough for two motors though? A little update: after charging the battery pack and remote fully I am able to reach what feels like 10-15mph, but I am getting a huge voltage loss when I reach full speed or hit a big slope, so I’m hoping this new battery wiring will help solve that issue.
“The esc I got on eBay and it works” Personally I would get those right out of there.
The most common reason my board shutters is a motor wire. Either shorted or broken or both. Either from the factory or just off-road abuse.