Best Ways To Upgrade Your Electric Skateboard

There are a ton of different things you can do to your board that will make it better, faster, etc. But what order should you upgrade things in? Before we get into what upgrades you should make first you'll need to think about your current board's performance and use that as a baseline. What do you wish your board could do? What do you wish it could do better? 

Once you have a list of things you want/expect out of your board we can move forward with changing your parts out. We've listed out a ton of different reasons why you may want to upgrade and what parts you'll need to upgrade your board properly. 

Speed Increase

• Increase Battery Voltage
  • Switching to a 10s battery from a 6s battery will take you from a 16-18mph top speed to a 20-25mph top speed. 
  • Keep in mind that batteries aren't exactly cheap so you may want to try a couple of other methods first. 
  • Also remember: Depending on the ESC you are using, increasing your voltage might mean that you have to alter your ESC or get a new one entirely. 
• Increase Wheel Diameter
  • Increasing your wheels from 80mm to something like 97mm can easily add 2-5mph on to your current top speed.
  • Keep in mind that if you change your wheel type (example: Orangatang to Abec) you'll need to purchase the correct wheel pulley to complete this upgrade.
  • Also remember that increasing your wheel size may increase your speed but it will also decrease your available torque which will cause slower acceleration and lessened hill climbing abilities. 
• Increase Motor Size / Adding a 2nd Motor
  • Increasing your motor size or adding a 2nd one may or may not help your top speed. This will only help if you are pushing your single motor passed it's capabilities. Adding a 2nd motor or increasing your motor's size will help spread the load out. I wouldn't bank on this method. 

Range Increase

• Increase Battery Capacity
  
  • You'll want to take a look at you "P" number in your battery's name. For example if you are using a 10s2p battery and want to increase the range, you'll want to take a look at the 10s3p or 10s4p batteries. The higher the "P" the longer the range (to make things simple).
• Decrease Wheel Diameter
  • Decreasing the size of your wheels will add a bit to your range but will also take away a bit from your top speed. If you care about range more than speed then you'll want to go for smaller wheels. (80mm, 83mm). 
• Decrease Number Of Motors
  • Adding a 2nd motor to your board helps a ton with traction and hill climbing abilities, but riders can see a 30% loss of range simply by running 2 motors instead of 1. If you really enjoy having the power of 2 motors then this method isn't for you. 

Increase in Torque, Acceleration, and Hill Climbing Ability

• Decrease Wheel Size
  
  • Decreasing your wheel size is a great way to capture some extra torque. 
• Adding a 2nd Motor / Increasing Motor Size
  • Adding a 2nd Motor or increasing the size of your current motor increases the torque of your board by default. Adding a 2nd Motor or Larger Motor = More Torque. Pretty straight forward. 
• Increasing Battery Discharge Capabilities 
  • The same metric that we look at when trying to increase our range also increases the amount of power we can draw from the battery pack. The more power you can safely draw from your pack and send to your motors the more torque you are going to have. 

Aesthetics 

• Adding a Dedicated Enclosure
  
  • Ditch the old container and replace it with a beautiful sleek Esk8 Enclosure. 
  • Makes your board look like more of a finished product rather than a DIY project. 
• Board Lighting
  • Add lighting for added production value while increasing safety at the same time. 

More Mainstream Complete Board Like Features

• Add Power Switch
  
  • Quit physically unplugging your battery every time you ride and use a power button like the rest of us. Adding a simple power button really increases the convenience factor of your build. 
• Update Your Remote
  • Most of the "Pro" features that exist out there mostly come down to the remote.
  • Upgrade your remote to the VX1 or VX2 Pro to get features like Ride Modes, Cruise Control, Reverse Functions, and Digital Displays. 

Did we cover everything? Is there anything else you want your board to be able to do better? Let us know so we can expand our list.