Should I sell my Raptor? Keeps breaking belts

I’ll start by stating that I am incredibly frustrated right now since I just kicked this thing 4 miles to get home…

Today was probably my fifth ride ever on my Dual Raptor. Both belts broke. One snapped off and the other had all its teeth completely worn down, leaving me stranded. This was the first ride since replacing another broken belt, making 3 broken belts in only 2 rides.

It’s 50° F where I am and there are tiny rocks everywhere. I don’t think those two factors are unique at all to where I am, but perhaps this is vastly different to the environment that Enertion is testing these things in. I have tiny rocks in the gears after every ride. I actually pull over every 15 minutes or so and pop out little rocks with my car keys, that’s how easily it happens.

I own a Yuneec E-GO that i’ve ridden about 50 miles a week for the past 2 years or so. It’s on the original belt. The only issue I had with that board was the ECU (brain part) start to come loose on the board and they replaced it for free. The E-GO has a plastic cover that protects the gears and belt from rocks entering.

I’ve ridden the E-GO all over the USA, from NYC to San Diego, from 40°-100°F…never an issues besides the small one I mentioned.

The wheels and pulleys on my Raptor are all slightly off-balance, so the belt tension fluctuates throughout the wheels’ revolution. Everything is aligned and tightened to what I believe is the best tolerances physically possible, I don’t think the issue has to do with belt tension, alignment, or any other user related issue. I inspected everything after the belts failed again and nothing has moved.

I’m considering TWO options:

  1. Sell the board and get/build a dual hub motor. No more issues with belts, would give me a lower center of balance that I’m missing, higher top speed and less torque which I’d be happy with.

  2. Get new wheels/gears from Enertion to fix the belt tension issue, build a shroud to prevent rocks from getting in the gears (not sure how I’d do this by myself), buy belts in bulk and take them and tools along with me on every ride??

Curious what everyone’s thoughts are since you are likely much more calm and level headed than me right now :wink:

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3D print guards maybe?

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1647215

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Brilliant.

Boosted, Evolve, Yuneec, and probably others, all have covers for the belts/gears.

Are you sure you are not riding the belts too tight or loose? If realignment is the issue, make sure the belt is not rubbing on the sides of the motor pulley. Try realigning your wheel pulleys since they can be a tad off sometimes.

I’m not 100% positive because I don’t have anything to compare to aside from my Yuneec E-GO.

There’s usually enough slack so when you push on the belt, it moves about ~1/4"-1/2". I assumed it was too tight after the first one broke and read on the forum another member saying they like to keep their belts kinda loose. When the 2 belts broke today, I’d say it was on the loose side, but I would not have thought it was too loose or loose enough for either one to lose grip with the gears.

Another option, if you were happy with the deck / battery / VESCS, would be to sell the back trucks / drive train / wheels and buy a dual hub truck set up to swap out with. But since you dislike the height of the board you may be better off selling it as a unit and building something that suits you exact situation.

I’ve ridden by raptor maybe 7 times for a total of ~50 ish miles and have only gotten a single rock in my pulleys. I think your situation with those tiny rocks may be a little more unique than you think. Would be interested to see how often other raptor owners break belts. I carry a few backups and skate tools in my backpack incase of a situation like yours. In the end you are probably better with hubs, or with the printed covers to the drive train system.

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How much would you sell the raptor for?

Post a video or some pictures of the belt. If it was misalignment I bet myself or someone her could pick it out. The Enertion mount adjusts slightly, right?

There’s a few reasons why I like hubs better than belt drive systems. Most importantly, no alignment/belt tensioning issues, no belts to break, and you can get lower to the ground (you can get lower to the ground with belt drives, but you have to put them in the back like evolve does, which I don’t think is a good solution). With my current board, I am the same height off the ground with reverse recession as I would be with the non-electric version of this deck.

Hubs have their drawbacks too, such as higher amp draw for the same torque and intern, higher temps. But I think the benefits outweigh the costs, and we will see more hubs in the future on completes, as they are more user friendly and less problematic once the engineering kicks are worked out of course.

I would recommend you try to fix the alignment/tension, since you already have a board, but if you can’t, sell it and build a hub motor board. the carvon v3 and hummies new 3x the stator motor should both be really solid hub motors that will be coming out in the not too distant future.

If these go thru, you can get a pair of wider caliber style trucks and run wider belts. I was sooo close to buying a raptor dual, I still want one actually. The 9mm belts is what made me not want to get it quite yet. If these come out, a raptor with dual 15mm belts would be bad ass, not to mention to wider stance.

I’m with you on that one. I would love to have a build wide enough to have two 6374s

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If its not a tension / alignment issue then its most likely tbe small rocks thats the problem. Especially if your saying you have to keep getting the, out of the cogs. I rarely have had any issues with the belts. It is unusual your riding environment. I ride on roads paths, theres crap everywhere and no real issues.

A cover maybe an option, but it would need to be custom, but it may exasperate the issue and trap the small rocks in it and be harder to get out.

Bring more belts and tools, it just could be bad luck.

I think the issue with wider belts is its harder to do for dual det up. The trucks would need more modding and the space between the motors may become too close. Be ok for single drive set up suspect.

I would return it if you don’t like it rather than getting less than it’s worth if you want to go down that route. My belts have held up just fine personally, so it very well could be an alignment issue. I also recommend pushing first then activating the motors to prevent strain on everything. That could be what’s breaking the belts?

At least dual 12mm belts fit fine on standard calibers

Here are some pics of the alignment and a video (coming soon, bad connection right now) showing how the tension in the belts fluctuates as the wheel turns (from pretty loose to pretty tight). You can also get an idea of how rocky it is where I’m located - it’s unavoidable. The front trucks don’t have a single chip on them, whereas all the rear components look like I took a sand blaster to 'em…

Why not dual diaganol?

Dual diagonal makes sense for braking purposes and weight distribution, but I feel like more companies would do this if it were really optimal. Or maybe they just don’t do it because whether you ride regular or goofy, it would make a pretty big difference in usability for a diagonal setup. Running the wires all the way from the rear to the front motor was another concern of mine for that setup, probably not a big deal but usually the less wire the better.

Its a nice board just sell the motors/pulley set up and buy hubs :slight_smile:

Is the belt alignment default from the day it arrived? I had that same issue with belt breaking every few rides and what not, had to move the MOTOR mount (clamp) instead and after that everything went smoothly. This is one of the issuese with Enertion, the way they set up the mount is not perfect so you have to do your own diligence to perfect it. You should probably think about upgrading those wheels to 97mm if the road for your commute is rough.