What Type Of Electric Skateboard Can I Build?
The convenience of building your own electric skateboard over a pre-built electric skateboard will allow you to fully customize the look and feel, high performance vs low performance and even the range that your board is capable of.
- Flexibility in Design - You can create a fully customized look and feel for your board and how you want everything setup.
- Flexibility in Performance - You can build a board that goes 20mph, 30mph or 40mph. However, we don't condone or recommend people riding at 40mph.
- Flexibility in Range - Build a board that is capable of 5-10 mile range, 10-15 mile range or even 25-30 mile range. If you really wanted too, you could even increase your range further by adding more battery power. However, the more batteries you add the heavier your DIY Electric Skateboard would get.
What Type Of Electric Skateboard Deck Should I Use?
There are many different types of longboard decks to choose from for building your own DIY Electric Skateboard. You have your typical skateboard deck which is 28" to 32". A typical longboard deck will be 28" to 60" in length.
We don't typically actually use a skateboard deck as they are much smaller with much smaller wheels. Smaller wheels are worse for city riding and on an electric skateboard you would typically ride over speed bumps and small holes or ride around it. On a typical skateboard, you can maneuver around it much easier.
The best option for building an electric skateboard is to use a longboard deck as it will have enough room for all your electronic components. So we've decided that we're going to use a longboard deck to build our electric skateboard. But which one? There are so many to choose from.
- Downhill Longboard Decks (Great for high-speed, stable.)
- Drop Through Longboard Decks (Easier kicking, lower to the ground.)
- Cruising Longboard Decks (Most decks, can be used for cruising at slow speeds.)
- Flexy Longboard Decks (Flexy decks have more flex which do make it a bit more difficult to make into an electric skateboard.)
- Pintail Longboard Decks (Built mostly for carving, cruising.)
- Mini Cruiser Longboards (Decks that are 28" to 30" maybe.. up to 33")
Electric skateboard Build setups
There are a few different options as far as How To Build Your Electric Skateboard. This section will explain the different types of electric skateboard build setups which you can build and how to build it.
The parts for a DIY Electric Skateboard (depending on the part) can be mostly interchangeable. You are able to configure your setups and upgrade your setups in the future which is something other pre-built electric skateboards don't offer.
Single Motor Electric Skateboard - A single motor electric skateboard is capable of speeds of up to 25-30+ mph. It is more cost affordable than a dual motor setup but personally I prefer a dual motor setup due to the added traction.
Dual Motor Electric Skateboard - A dual motor electric skateboard is capable of 35+ mph. It's powered by two motors and typically a larger battery pack.
All Terrain Electric Skateboard - An all terrain electric skateboard can reach speeds of 35mph+. Typically, an all terrain board will have all terrain wheels to allow it to have more traction during bad weather. You could use 6" x 2" pneumatic tires which would give you a more comfortable ride.
Hub Motor Electric Skateboard - A hub motor electric skateboard can reach speeds of 30+mph hour and even sometimes more. The thing with a hub motor is there is an outwheel that fits over the hub motor itself. This can sometimes be a convenient thing but for high performance hub motors it blocks airflow and the motors will typically get hot and slowly deteriorate.
Direct Drive Electric Skateboard - A direct drive electric skateboard is similar to a Hub Motor setup except the wheel itself is attached to the motor versus the wheel itself wrapping around the hub motor entirely.
