You could definitely do that if your able to acquire a set of XL’s. One thing I would definitely DEFINITELY do, is contact LHB before he builds the board, tell him what your planning, so he could build you the 12s5p battery pack, as it’d be much easier to just have that from the beginning, rather then adding another 2p later. I don’t know if the 4WD option uses a larger enclosure, but you’d want to make sure you get that as well. I don’t know how long you plan to wait before upgrading, but that would be the best way to prep your board for the future upgrade. Then once you are ready to make the change, I would send it back to LHB along with 2 VESC’s, and the XL’s, and he could finish the 4WD build for you. That would be the best way to do it since he would dial in all 4 of your VESC’s and that would keep the warranty in tact. Of course you could do the upgrade yourself, wouldn’t be too difficult. Would just need to swap out the front trucks for the XL’s, connect them to the VESC’s. I haven’t had to setup a vesc yet so I don’t know if you’d want to keep all the settings from the originals and make your new VESC’s have the same settings. Though I think since with the new motors you’d need to change things since the battery will be putting out power differently. Then just put a splitter on your battery cables so they can go to the new motors. And I’m sure there is a bunch of other stuff you could do, but that’s mainly the hardware parts. IMO I would just do what I said with LHB in having him set it up so it’ll be able to transition to 4WD without much fuss. Hope this helps 
Hey @uigiroux! thanks for the suggestions! I was actually also thinking if I could contact @longhairedboy and have him configure it for a future 4WD upgrade! Though shipping will probably cost me more to do so then just purchase the 4WD straight up I think as I live in Asia.
It’s just difficult to bit the bullet on $3000 if I cant take it alittle offroading like on some flat dirt paths which I’d love to experience with Pneumatics. I was also considering the Lacroix board but it totals to about $3000 as well including shipping. I sent Carvon an email about the 4WD availability but no response yet. I’m seeing lots of posts about them being unable to respond or just being unresponsive for several reasons. Knowing when they’ll have the 4WD available for purchase would help me in getting the budget for it together.
My advice, don’t buy a $3k+ bespoke build overseas if you’re not equipped to repair them yourself. No matter how good the build, eskates constantly shed parts and need TLC, especially if you ride hard. It will not be a zero maintenance item, with the burden increasing as you get more exotic (hub/DD, pneumatics, 4wd, crazy big packs).
I appreciate the advice as it is a very sound one though DIY all come from abroad as well and nobody actually makes completes/components in my country like Enertion or Carvon as those are shipped in as well. Would it be possible to keep it simple while learning how to maintain and give the TLC for these types of components?
One reason I am opting for Carvon as its simpler as compared to other drive trains so less points of failure but ofcourse these have their own set of problems albeit less than other drive systems. This next purchase will very likely be my last as far as buying $1000+ builds/parts goes. Only thing I plan on buying after this are parts to keep it running.
I think the most middle of the road build, with parts that are least likely to die and easy to replace, will be dual 6355 190kv belt drive, dual vesc, about 15/36 ratio, 10s4p 30q pack. Everything will be running in the sweet spot, nothing close to the edge. There are many sources for all parts. And of course, build your own so you know how to fix it. 
I went the same way as you with my first build. It was like lego, so easy and so clean. But I beat the hell out of my lovely Carvons, and they’re hard to get parts for or repair. One pothole and you might be completely up the creek and no paddle to be found.
If I could go back in time, I’d tell myself to build a belt drive, ride it for a year, then buy the Carvons when I know proper care and feeding for the boutique build.
Oh i see, I’ve been reading carvon related threads and posts and most of the time they appeared to hold up to the expected abuse from standard usage. I was planning to ride majority of the time on the street or sidewalk but sure anything could happen.
Curious as to what happened to your Carvons? I’m currently running an Ownboard W1 Pro but hasn’t hit 100km yet and the hubs have already started to chip. I bought this board to test out if it would be a hobby I’d enjoy and I’m thankful that I did give it a try but it can ofcourse be a very expensive hobby so I don’t want to keep worrying about all sorts of parts and consumables(hubs in my case)
The V4’s feel sort of closed source so I don’t know how complex or difficult it is to repair, maintain down the road as it kinda feels like its sold as a closed system that you don’t really have to open up anymore
You don’t see much talk of it, as I think most people take it for granted, but as you’ve experienced with your Ownboard, things fall off
Electric skateboards are subjected to amazing amounts of abuse. When I think about the amount of torque on those tiny parts, I’m amazed they last this long. Typical builds are pulling 2x the power you can pull out of a wall socket (about 1500w in the US).
As you climb the quality ladder things fall apart less frequently. The less you thrash your board, and the more conservative your build, things last longer. But most people who ride a lot have been through a pile of parts.
Yes I’d like to get more quality parts for the price. I wasn’t expecting too much from the Ownboard but its performed well so far its just a question of how far the hubs can go but I try and find the smoothest roads to ride on and break in the wheels. Is debris the biggest concern with the Carvons?
Maybe I could 3D print an extra casing on it somehow? difficult to say without holding one in person. I do get pretty OC about such expensive things but that tends to have them last longer lol I wouldn’t want to spend on more Chinese Budget boards as I believe I’ll eventually end up spending as much as other premium builds if they continue to fall of in quality early on.
Does the V4 Torque Drive have better torque over the V4 Speed Drive XL? I’m planning to start a build thread as I’ve decided best to do for my case is go with DIY-ing the less expensive Torque drive as a 2WD. I also realized that the Evo will very likely scratch the speed bumps in my area which I definitely do not want to deal with.
The torque drive is the only drive that is actually available anytime soon, so you should go with that, now.
Yes i realized I would like to prioritize torque over top speed as I dont really need to go that fast but I’d like good breaking and hill climbing. I also noticed that its water resistant? not sure if that feature is still present on the V4 Speed Drives. Unfortunately they are sold out on the Abec Hub adapters for the Torque Drive 
It says to use only 10s for torque drives. Is that just a recommendation, can we use 12s and will that boost top speed?
You can use the TD clone MBS adaptors with ABEC in a pinch, a little loose but workable (but can’t use clone MBS on the ABEC adaptor). And once again, the only thing actually available anytime soon, so get them… Now.
glad that its still possible to go for ABEC even with the MBS clone adaptor. I’ll pick that up as well as soon as I’m able this week! Thanks @caustin! Though I think ABEC 107’s are also in short supply lol
I must have been one of the last ones to get the v4 TorqueDrives as they seem to be out of stock now on their website. I will say that they have plenty of torque. I’m running a 10s3p pack and can easily get 15 miles range.
As far as speed I have hit 25mph on my abec11 97mm wheels and the damn things still want to go faster, I’m working up to that lol. So I agree with above, whenever they become available I’d say go with the TorqueDrives.
Can you use them with a 12s3p pack
I dont see why that would be a problem but don’t take my word for it. I’d contact them to make sure, just to be safe.
Odd as the site still says 1 available in stock and it doesn’t seem to prevent me from getting to the checkout portion lol could be a bug on the site indicating 1 left but there could actually be more?
I stand corrected lol the last time I looked they were out of stock. Buy em while you can!
Getting my wallet ready for it but cant pull the trigger just yet despite really wanting to lol Still planning out my build so getting them now than later won’t make too much of a difference, but still Torque Drives
haha