Hey everyone,
I’m looking to convert an old longboard I have into a dual drive build. It seems dual rear is most common but I’ve also wondered if dual-diagonal might be more efficient. I’m planning to use this for my commute to and from school which is about 4 miles and includes a few decent hills, I have a hard time estimating grade but I’d imagine no more than 15-20%. Including my backpack, I’ll weigh at most 210-220 pounds. However to be safe I’d like something that could hopefully get up to 10 mile range (if that’s realistic), since I think building a board suited to harsher conditions than I’ll actually put it through will make sure it is effective and lasts. I’ve put a bit of thought into some components to buy but looking for suggestions on what people prefer/what is possible in a dual drive setup. Additionally, since I’ll be using it in the northeast US and winter is around the corner, I don’t expect that I’ll be able to use it for a few months. This is nice because it allows me to space out buying my parts between now and then which should make cost somewhat less of an issue.
The deck is a 3ft Land Yatchz with 180mm trucks and 2ft wheelbase. I’m thinking about upgrading to these 90mm 78a Bigfoot wheels (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057IWIG4/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_6?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MJZ1ZPVKAQP77KDQ81YC) and probably getting some new bearings/bushings since the current ones are a bit old.
I’m thinking 2x Turnigy SK3 6364 213kV for the motors (https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-aerodrive-sk3-6364-213kv-brushless-outrunner-motor.html?___store=en_us) but was wondering if these would have trouble fitting in the dual rear configuration. Also thought about getting Tacon Bigfoot 5335 245kV’s instead but if anyone has suggestions on other motors that might be better please let me know, I’m not sure if I should be going for something with lower kV like a 190.
I’m probably going to buy a pair of the ABEC 36T Pulley kits from DIY (collections/electric-skateboard-pulley-belt-combo-kits/products/36t-abec-pulley-combo-kit)
As far as ESC and batteries I’m a little less certain on what to do and hoping I could get some input from you all here. I’m planning to go for a VESC but there’s a lot of confusing information out there on them. I’ve seen that you can spend quite a bit of money here but I’m not sure if I need to go much higher than the $100-150 range. Is this Torqueboards 12S 120A VESC good enough? collections/esc-speed-controller/products/torqueboards-12s-120a-car-esc-opto-hv Does anyone have experience with this one or recommendations for others. I’m also a little unsure of how 2 VESCs would be wired together, is there some kind of master/slave configuration? And would I also be able to track stats with this like distances, motor outputs, etc like I’ve seen some people are able to do?
For batteries I think 6S for each motor would be okay to start and shouldn’t overheat anything but could/should I go up to 8 or 10S? What about adding cells in parallel? I’m not entirely clear on how parallel batteries change motor output/battery range.
For some of the other things like motor mounts and possibly the housing I have access to some 3D printers and metal machining tools at school that I hope to be able to make some parts in order to cut cost down a bit too.
So anyway, this is kind of my starting point for now. I’d appreciate any feedback you guys can provide and I look forward to starting to build this soon!