LHB custom battery.

So, as i've been seeing a lot of forum posts about making new batteries and how fantastic the range and lack of sag is on these packs, i've decided to get a custom battery for my BGT. However, after looking into the price of parts and the price of spot welders and the other tools required to make these properly I decided that getting a custom battery built would actually be a cheaper and more dependable option. So, being in the US far from all the battery makers i've heard about on here I decided to email LHB (long haired boy) and see if he would be able to make a pack using the Samsung INR 18650 cells that he uses on his builds. (Not the best cells on the market but with price being a factor these are considerably better than what the evolve pack has.) I plan on updating this thread as I hear back from him, just as a reference. So far his customer service has been impeccable, I emailed evolve last week asking about a motor problem to see what i should do about it and have yet to hear back from evolve at all, yet in that same time i've managed to have a long conversation over email with LHB and figured out all the logistics and pricing. I know evolve has been "short staffed" as of late and customer service has been hard, but damn LHB is literally one person, and he's doing it better. Anyhow, I'm excited to see how this progresses, and i'm even more excited about getting my board back with this new battery (if everything plays out).

 

I'm excited to see how this goes, i am in the market for a new battery i just have to make sure i save up a some more. I'm curious what his prices are.

 

I'm super excited about this! If all plays out my plans are to recommend LHB whenever and wherever I can (if he's fine with that, being a 1 man company and whatnot). I don't want to get into any pricing because that's all on his end, but I will say i'm getting a custom battery for cheaper than what evolve charges for a replacement battery.

 

Right now I'm in the process of sending him the board so he can get all measurements and make sure the planned battery will fit, after that i'm sure it'll take him a couple days to make the battery and then a few more to ship it back to me. All in all not too long, especially compared to how long it would take me to figure out the battery making process and get all the tools myself haha.

 

It's around the same size as the original, a tiny bit larger, however there won't be any voltage sag and the distance with my ATs should go from around 8 miles max to around 14-15 miles max, which is exactly what i was looking for.

 

That's what I was thinking. I saw someone on here managed to fit 40 cells into the enclosure with very little extension to the case, so we're hoping we can get 40 to fit and do as little to the current setup as possible.

 

Board is officially gone as of today. Which means i'm back to actually pushing my long board around for a while. Last night we discussed him taking the board apart and looking a little closer at the components that went into it, so once he has the board i'll have an outside opinion on the quality of the innards in the BGT, which i'm looking forward to what he has to say. (seeing as all of his boards use high quality parts from enertion and other reputable manufacturers).

 

Subscribed!

 

Alright after some minor post office annoyance my board is finally in Florida and the cells are on the way to LHB now. He ended up recommending a switch to the samsung 30Q cells rather than the 25R, so we went with a 10s4p setup with those. Apparently he has 2 BGTs there right now for the exact same thing so i guess i'm not the only one looking into this haha. The cells should be there by either Saturday or Monday so once those arrive i'll come back with more info! (Also just asked his thoughts on the internals of the board, waiting to hear back)

 

Another update: in the almost 3 weeks since this thread was started i've still yet to hear back from evolve about my motor issue.

 

So today I caved and purchased a custom deck from LHB as well. They were just to awesome to not try one out for myself. So this battery project has just turned into a custom longboard/battery project.

 

The internals of an evolve from someone who doesn't actually own one, but builds boards:

"Its just another factory build in there. Weird custom electronics i don't recognize and everything is integrated into only two PCBs. The receiver and motor controllers are all on the same board, the BMS is wrapped up with the cells in the pack and the main board talks to the bms via UART.
There's room in there to replace not only the battery pack but also the BMS and motor controllers. You could easily fit a couple of VESC4.12s in there with a bms and 10S4p with some creative wiring and basically have a sleeper that looks factory. Your remote wouldn't work anymore though, you'd need a new one, and it wouldn't be a fancy one with a screen, but who cares. If you're looking at the screen instead of riding you're doing it wrong anyway."

 

Who is this individual? I would be very interested...

I'm new to the forums, lol!

 

He goes by longhairedboy. If you search his name I'm sure you'd find him. He's now doing this as a service because it turned out so well. Granted I think he's charging a little more than he charged me because he's routing the decks for us to make everything fit. Here's a board all routed and ready for a new battery.



Here's a link to the service. He's charging 350 plus the price of cells, then he'll do everything else.
Evolve Bamboo Series GT Battery Mod

 

So this will be the last update until I get the board. Everything is finished up and the board is on it's way back to me. From my experience with the process I'll say that he's extremely professional and knows what he's doing. His customer service is awesome and he keeps you informed of where he's at the whole time.

One thing I will recommend to anyone who does this: when you ship your board also order the cells at the same time. That'll be the easiest way to get your board done fast. I got my custom deck from him and its gorgeous. Currently putting together my longboard while I wait for my evolve to come back. Once that's back I'll do a range test and see how far I can go now.