Choosing a Deck and a Truck

 DECKS

Choosing a deck is probably the first thing to do while building a DIY electric skateboard. it is pretty straightforward as it is just a matter of preference. I would suggest to choose a longer deck because shorter decks tend to be jerky during takeoff and stops due to the lack of space to spread out your legs for stability. 

Drop Down Drop Through Deck

 

this deck is actually drop down (the curve up on both ends) and drop through (hole between the truck mounting holes), comfortable, but to close to the ground, might prevent you from using big batteries. You could also use thick or doubled riser pads to make it higher, but added cost weight and non convenient. When the deck is low, the ride is more comfortable.   

Drop through Longboard deck

Flexible (some stiffer than others), great wheel base, smooth rides, but can get unstable at high speed if it is too flexible.

drop Down deck

Same as drop through drop down, but should handle crash impact better due to obvious integrity.

Pintail Longboard

Unless you just like the way these look, they might look weird on an electric longboard as the narrow end the make the motors seem too exposed. But that's probably just me!

Kick tail deck

The kick tail can be somewhat handy while picking up the board, in fact, you just step on the back end and picking up from the front truck! Classic, I mean like a pro 😎

Among the available decks you can choose a drop down deck if you like your board low close to the ground or you can choose a regular longboard deck if you like flexibility. They will give you smoother rides but can get quite unstable at high speeds, while stiffer decks give jerky rides but stable at high speeds. Stiffer decks can make your feet hurt due to the vibration while riding on rough terrain. Bigger wheels can be used to accommodate them. You also want to consider how big your battery enclosure is going to be so you make the right choice. If you are a taller person definitely choose a longer deck as longer decks have wide wheel base and allow better turning range.

 TRUCKS

For the Trucks, it's straight forward. You want to stick with the most commonly used ones so you can a wide variety of compatibility (Truck vs motor mount).

There are two main ones (Excluding maintain boards trucks, they are a whole different category):

Paris Trucks

Very common trucks but most motor mounts have hard time clamping on securely due to the rounded handle. So I highly recommend using caliber 2 trucks because they have a D shape on the handle which provides a good grip against most motor mounts.

Caliber 2 Truck

They have a smaller and an extended version. The smaller version (regular) has a hanger of 7" (180mm) and an axle of 9.6" (245mm). Note: If you are building a dual drive (Two motors drive) with this truck, you need to get small motors (6355mm motors or 5055mm), 55mm being the length of the motor, to make sure they are both going to fit. However, there is an extended version of this truck in case you need to use two big motors (like the 6374mm or 6380mm).

Caliber 2 Truck Extended

As you can see, this one has  a hanger of 8.6" (218mm) and an axle of 12.35" (314mm). Using bigger motors is not the only advantage of these trucks. They are wide and very comfortable to ride, taking turns at high speed feels less scarier. Hopefully this article was informative, if it was, be sure to like and share and I will be posting soon!