''Swing arm'' Steering mechanism for mountainboard..How? And would it work?

Yes, I know this design (I’ve commented this post). Inline wheels boards with caster steering like Vertigo and/or Dirtsurfer (and few others before) are stable at high speed but generally lack of manoeuvrability (large turning radius) and stability at low speed

I forgot to mention that Delta rear wheels width can be a problem for kick scooter (pushing foot might hit rear wheel) …

@Flexboardz Mh… so from what you are saying it looks like 3 wheeler with delta configuration is the most suitable after all… (for good maneuvrability and stability)… getting foot in the back wheels should not be a problem when going just with electrical power…

Yes, it did look like it can struggle at slow speed and might not be as stable also… similar like you cannot go with bicycle really slow

@Maxid Im actuallying imagining that you coukd ‘‘swap out the sides’’ and use the 2 wheels for the tail… though the steering would be weird and probably not safe… ;D non the less, great find… hadnt really seen much of these…

Pinterest, besides the (wacky boards or google) also seem to be a good resource for these ‘‘not so common designs’’

Yes, Wackyboard is the Holly Bible of alternative board design (you can even find scam project like Zumcraft)

What I said about tricycle stability is only true at low speed…; At higher speed, non leaning tricycle are very dangerous like the Honda Trike in the 80’s

1 Like

I don’t think that would make sense. Havin one non steering fron wheel and steer with two rear wheels will be super difficult to handle. Rear wheel steering is never a good idea - well maybe if you have to maneuver a trailer or something at walking speeds but any faster and you will most definitely crash.

I actually have one of those at home - would just need a second one to actually try this as a skateboard. Unfortunately they still sell on ebay for like 50-100€ - which is too much for a potentially stupid experiment :smiley: Would love to know how that would feel with Trampa pneumatics

Yeh I assume the wheel cannot really keep up with the speed or such and starts to do ‘‘tail maneuvers’’ … at least that is what comes to mind…

Well, I think for ‘‘general design’’ a 40kph capable board should be enough :slight_smile:

That is close to scooter / moped anyways…(related to speed)

And yes… Tilting should also be included… so I think it is a shame your kind of boards / design has not gained much more popularity… (not that you are responsible for that but that people dont really appreciate the benefits… / or perhaps there’s something else in the way, who knows :slight_smile: / )


@Maxid Yes, the tail / backend steering is no good :slight_smile:

IF you got one of these could you do a test and show us how much steering / wheel turning can you do with that ‘‘board’’ ?

@Maxid : you should add a half scooter frame with wheel to your board so you will have the 3 wheels carving/steering.

@Okami : Thanks I hope that I will have enough preorders soon to produce again…

Saw this in one of @Michaelinvegas 's videos (Squad ride in Venice) who is this builder and more important what!?!?!

5 Likes

you wanted steering with a swing arm?

We were just talking about this board today… It’s @DynamicLabs zero ackerman steering remoteless board.

1 Like

Thanks Moe. Steering like this and your 3 Link is so cool to me. It’s so sci-fi futuristic

1 Like

Reading through this thread, I love the swing arm idea but can’t help but think that there has to be a cheaper way to improve steering. As I understand it, improved (tighter) steering generally comes at the expense of stability, at least at higher speeds. This is part of the cause of speed wobbles. For example, I have trampa spring trucks and I could remove the springs from them completely, thus relying solely on tightening the kingpins, and have a drastically tighter turning radius. However, in doing that I had better have excellent balance and coordination in order to keep going in a straight line. Bty, has anyone ever actually tried this? It seems to me that a possible solution would be to somehow increase the travel of the trucks (how much they can be angled left and right) and carefully adjust the resistance to such turns. This would ensure that you can make a tighter turn without too much having to fight the elasticity of the bushings or springs trying to return the trucks to center position. Using the trampa trucks example, say I use weaker springs than the standard trampa ones, and at the same time I tighten the kingpins to the point where I actually have to push firmly against the deck with either my heels or toes to return to center. The tightness between the truck and hanger combined with the relative weakness of the springs should allow me to turn tighter, and return to center, albeit with a bit more physical effort. Does any of this make sense? I’m aware that this may sound a bit like that infamous “anti-wobble tech” from a couple of months ago. This is not my intention. The way I see it you can’t really have tighter steering without accepting some wobble as well, that’s just how the mechanics and physics of the system work. This is just a way to try to reduce it a little, the trade-off being that the act of steering takes a bit more effort. I have some vague ideas of how to do this for regular trucks as well, I’ll try to sketch them out and post them here. In short, I think there are ways to efficiently improve steering without completely reinventing the system.

Take the time to look closely at the system that you don’t want to reinvent, the skate truck… You will see that this design is 150 years old, inspired by horse cart and instable above few dozens of km/h… (and skate forums are full of (unsuccesful) antiwobble skate trucks threads since 20 years)

1 Like

Ultimately you’re right, and I guess it’s kind of a case how you can’t have everything in one design. Either you get tight steering and more wobble (right?) or better stability and less steering. Can’t have it all… I’ve actually rethought my approach to swing arm trucks and I’m looking into having a set cnc’d from a design I’ve been working on (see my thread about it).

1 Like

With swing arms design (like flexboardz/flexscoot), you can have both maniability and stability as the steering is very progressive around 0 degrés (where wobble happens) and increases when tilting angle increases (tilting angle range is also more important, ± 40 degres than skateboard 's , only ± 15 degres). So the wobble is supposed to happen at much higher speed than on a regular skateboard (but I’ve never been fast enough to experience it)

2 Likes

U should run or sell your trucks to a few skateboarders… not sure what final weight and deck size will be but i really hope that either u or @MoeStooge come up with alternative trucks to use…

i know@MoeStooge is already using his own steering system though i assume it is not really in his way to think about reproducing his design and start offering it to people… at least yet it seems

1 Like

I did it during few years under Flexboardz brand for mountainboarding/kiteboarding. It stopped because running production in asia was a nightmare… I have made a 2nd generation (lighter, simpler, ) for smaller boards but have not yet managed to produce it.

Even if it costs more to manufacture outside of Asia I’m pretty sure people wouldn’t mind paying extra for good quality trucks. If you can price them similar to trampa or MBS trucks I’ll bet a lot of people would be interested.

1 Like

If I was where your at. I would find any 60s chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth. They use two long 1/4" tortion rods to prop the hood. Chop me a piece and cold grind the diameter out till I got the desired rate I needed… @Flexboardz

3 Likes

Thanks your kind words.(you can see the various development stages of the swing arm design and production Youtube Flexboardz page)

More that the cost, it was the non availability of factories in Europe that was the problem (first generation of flexboardz takes a lot of production stages which made it complicated/long).

Furthermore, the mountainboarding market crashed in the 2010’ so it made it more complicated to find supports to launch a new generation of Flexboardz (designed to be produced locally)…

Basically, making a production of boards needs few tens thousands of Euros or USD for tooling, stocks,… that I don’t have.

That’s why I’ve made the Flexscoot range, trying to target it toward people with limited walking abilities (hoping to collect enough pre orders to finance it).

However, now that the E-boards market seems to be picking up, I am considering the problem more closely as the Flex design is really better than the old skate truck when it comes to riding abilities, stability (no wobble), maniability but also improved grip for better control and safety.

4 Likes

I will be building my own version of this system for a school project. I wanted to confirm that I have the basic mechanics down before I start. Can someone confirm this?