PSA: Why small hub motors overheat and fail

@Cobber But as far as braking goes, lipos should still be charged at 1C so with out double battery high speed braking cant be doubled.

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I’ve seen lipo and other chem that can be charged at a much higher rate. Also seen evidence the charge rate doesn’t effect cell cycles as much as max voltage charged

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Agreed, but if whatever battery you were using with the 2wd was already maxed out for batt max and regen (1C or higher if you’re comfortable with that) then youd need more battery to increase the limits and take full advantage of the extra hubs.

Extra total motor amps is a huge advantage for 4wd on vescs, but extra battery amps in addition to the motor amps would be taking full advantage imo.

so… your two hubs were weak at launch and you added two more and finally got up to what your pack could actually put out. YEah that makes sense. And it cost four times as much as a 38mph RWD belt system that would have just torn off the mark to begin with.

i get the math, and i get what happens on the street.

No matter how i look at it, i can’t justify 4wd in 99.9% of cases that don’t involve overcoming wind resistance on the top end.

Obviously my outlook is biased toward belt drives. I only just recently got to ride a raptor 2. I was pleasantly surprised that it almost kept up with my belt drives off the mark. I don’t hate hubs or 4wd, they just don’t deliver what i need yet. What i need is options and configurability. They have neither of those things, and the only pro is literally ease of build. The industry is driving hubs because they’re cheaper to build boards with. I have never done things the easy way or the cheap way so benefits like that are easily dismissed by me. Up until about three months ago, i wasn’t even THINKING about hubs. Direct drives, sure. Gear drives, yeah. Even planetary geared hubs would be a vast improvement provided the ratios could be adjusted easily. But thane on a can?

i’m waiting for somebody to get it right (for me) still. So far, i see a lot of awesomeness but its still not right for me.

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Yes by my 280lb standards startup was weak with two 90mm wheel (6355) 130kv hubs. It had way more than enough for my 130lb friend though.

It cost me under 2k to build my 1st 4wd, which is comparable to the price you sell your builds for, but has double the motor amps a two vesc build can supply. You also said later in your post that hubs are cheaper to build with (obviously refering to 2wd hubs), which would imply that its not 4x the cost of a 2wd belt drive set up. The cost of wheels, bearings, trucks, pulleys and belts are also required for belt drive set ups but two pairs of hub motors have those parts included or are not required.

A dual belt drive with the same sized stators and a total of 50A battery and 260A motor is not going to tear off the line by my standards either unless its geared to much less than 38mph. The Raptor 2 I tested was impressive for a premade board but just moderate by my acceleration standards and was minor league compared to my 4wd hub boards acceleration from a dig all the way up, especially considering the raptor 2 tops out at 30 mph where as mine hits 40 mph.

Otherwise I agree with the rest of your post. I am also waiting for someone to get it right :crossed_fingers::wink:. And it doesnt make sense for most to go 4wd.

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Where s the info on this performance day? I need to come out, where ever it is…

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YES! Maybe we should match settings on our 4wd boards to get some hub comparisons!

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Breaking news, Enertion might have something up their sleeve for performane day as well!

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Nha Unless @onloop joint the party… I’m only one guy with is Raptor… If I can bring it, because of plane and restriction and the pain in the ass of sending a battery.

I’m still waiting on mine and I am local…but unless there is a miracle in the production timeline, I don’t see it happening. If I do get it in time, happy to share so that you can ride a familiar board.

Im sure any of is local guys mynself included would host your board until your arrival if you wanted to ship it here via ground before the event.

OMG what the hell have I missed here?

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Too Much… My best advice will be to go back to sleep :grinning:

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To find which hubs have more torque?

It’s tough to compare boards when we all weigh different weights. But I really wana race whatever you’ve got up your sleeve. I could always crank my settings way high, haha. But they are nice as is right now.

I’ll try to figure out if I can attend or not. Hope so, should be able to drive down. Says 7 hours, 403 miles… I’ve driven to LA before, and I love rode trips. Just depends were my school is at the time and if I can find a place to stay for Friday and Saturday night.

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We started with why small hubs have issue, which turned into why belts are more efficient then hubs, which turned into a debate about whether 4wd is less efficient than 2wd, which turned into lets do more tests and show real world data, which is where we are now.

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Excellent summary lol!

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At 280lbs I have big sleeves, you sure you wanna see what I got hiding? Hahaha.

If some other people are coming in from out of town too it might be worth pitching in for an AirBNB.

CHURCH*

*depending, there is always a but… but the rule of thumb unless you have tech is 1C

Oh I’ve got tech… Lots of tech. The best tech. No one has better tech than me. Who wants some tech? lol

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Well the answer is most definitely that there are too many variables.

I guarantee that with the same motors and the same rider 4 motors is less efficient than 2. But with 4 efficient motors vs 2 inefficient motors… who knows? Belts vs hubs? Yeah again… the only way to prove it is to get out and ride. From my experience I think the dragless costing ability of hubs would put them into the high efficiency zone. I know that I have done a really long ride on a dual hub board and simmilar rides on belt drive and not made it as far… but then wheel compound comes i to it too. Softer rubber wont be as efficient as hard thane. There are pros and cons of every setup…

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