Whalesmash Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 Story time here, there's a TLDR at the bottom if you don't want to read it. Almost lost my wheel today partially due to some poor decision making on my part, but also contributed to by the design of the S18. Long story short, I made a poor decision to attempt riding through a muddy trail. Not like wet muddy, more like clayish muddy. Things were fine at first, but about half a mile in, my wheel was making real odd sounds and then shortly thereafter gave me my first ever EUC cutout. When I took a look at the wheel, the inner fender was so heavily caked in mud that the EUC was really struggling to turn the wheel. Darkness bot showed that my board temperature was climbing rapidly so I immediately shut the wheel down and sat off to the side of the trail for a few minutes. After things cooled down, I put the wheel in trolley mode and attempted to roll the wheel out. Didn't work very well, as the mud was really grinding the tire and preventing it from spinning without putting a huge amount of strain on the motor. Eventually I simply decided to carry the damn thing out of the muddy trail. A mile carrying an awkward EUC in my arms was not fun. I do not ever want to have to do that again. Once I was out of the muddy track, I set the wheel down and attempted to prod/pick mud out of the fender. Not very successful, wheel was still grinding a lot. Eventually I gave up picking out mud and decided to completely air out the tire. Thankfully this worked and gave me enough wiggle room in the tire to allow the motor to spin the wheel without drawing huge amounts of power and potentially overheating. Four miles later, I managed to walk the wheel back to my car and make it back home. Cleaning process was not fun in the slightest. Basically required a full teardown to the point where I could split the fender apart and literally pull out bricks of mud. Probably could have pressure washed the inside of the fender, but I have no interest in testing the water resistance rating of my wheel. Now I don't ever plan to ride in mud ever again, but given the proximity of the wheel to the fender, I feel like this design has some serious flaws. There's maybe a centimeter gap between the rubber of the tire to the fender, meaning it's super easy for pretty much anything to get stuck in there. I am seriously considering taking a saw to that fender and being rid of the potential situation forever. TLDR: Rode in mud. Mud caked up fender and locked up wheel. Had to walk/carry wheel 5 miles back to car. Don't ride in mud. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumblebees Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Kind of a huge design flaw for the the s18 considering its the wheel of choice for offroad. I do not recall the MSP and MSX ever having mud build up inside the wheel to the point where they're inoperable. Is there any other wheels out there that have this problem with mud? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gon2fast Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 1 hour ago, Bumblebees said: Is there any other wheels out there that have this problem with mud? I think the issue is the type of mud. California clay is nasty stuff. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..... Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 (edited) The closeness of the fender IS a design flaw. Not only are tires (clean and new) rubbing, it leaves VERY little room for mud/rocks/sticks. Good luck with finding a selection of tires that will fit! Coupled with the reality that building tolerances on eucs is dismal at best, the minor clearance of the fender if bound to be a problem. If oyu cant build something straight to within 20mm specs, not a good plan to build with 10mm clearances. It saddens me that we cant trust these things to even hose them off. A proper design would have allowed you simply dig out large obstuctions and run it in clean water as it spins itself clean. I guess those demo vids of people running an euc at speed in a lake by hand, arent too convincing are they? Only REAL solution is to stay away from that clay type mud. I've been paranoid enough that i stil wont ride on wet roads or thru much for puddles. Too much money invested to lose it on something the earth is mostly comprised of AND falls from teh sky at random. With barely 600mi on my wheel and never in rain, my rim already looks like it was transported on the titanic and just recently found... I love the euc, but not a huge fan of build/design quality. Funny what we learn to accept, when we've little choice but to ignore it or walk away altogether. Edited December 31, 2020 by ShanesPlanet 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whalesmash Posted December 31, 2020 Author Share Posted December 31, 2020 Just finished cleaning the very last bits out of some sections that I missed. There are some areas, particularly around the motor hub, which are within five or six milimeters of the fender. I will absolutely positively be avoiding this California clay stuff like it's hot lava whenever I see it in the future. Good grief, never want to go through any of this ever again. On the bright side, I got a free couple pounds of cali-clay I can fling at some porch pirates! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..... Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Did you take a pic before and after? WOuld be cool to see a disasterously muddy wheel...especially when I aint the one cleaning it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whalesmash Posted December 31, 2020 Author Share Posted December 31, 2020 Just now, ShanesPlanet said: Did you take a pic before and after? WOuld be cool to see a disasterously muddy wheel...especially when I aint the one cleaning it! Unfortunately I did not. I do have some scattered debris strewn about the driveway, but my first thought when I got home was to immediately get to work fixing the thing. In hind sight, it would have been good to take some pictures of my suffering 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Tawpie Posted December 31, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 31, 2020 That’s probably the only bonus thing about riding in snow... it packs the wheel too, but it’s self cleaning. 🤪 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gon2fast Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 13 minutes ago, Whalesmash said: cali-clay That stuff is no joke. My friend will not ride off road with me because of fears of damage via clay and other substances added to our local trails. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whalesmash Posted December 31, 2020 Author Share Posted December 31, 2020 6 minutes ago, gon2fast said: That stuff is no joke. My friend will not ride off road with me because of fears of damage via clay and other substances added to our local trails. To be fair, it's usually not this bad, but southern California did just get its first rain storm on Monday and the trail I thought I could make it through was on the shady side. Couple that with cooler weather and it's a recipe for some clay that'll be around for quite a while. Live and learn I guess... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gon2fast Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 4 minutes ago, Whalesmash said: Live and learn I guess... I have had to walk my wheels out of the muck many times, chit happens lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroThruster Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 "My Name is Mud"!! One of my favorites by Primus:) Actually I did that yesterday, or at least I thought I did, thankfully there was a sliver of a path that was packed with leaves that I managed to stay on so the wheel didn't get the slightest bit muddy, I cringed when I rode thru it though... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gon2fast Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 47 minutes ago, RetroThruster said: "My Name is Mud"!! One of my favorites by Primus:) "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" is my personal favorite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuweng Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whalesmash Posted December 31, 2020 Author Share Posted December 31, 2020 Pretty much exactly what happened to my wheel except I managed to catch onto it before the motor/mosfets went nuclear. Looks like the S18 isn't the only wheel out there with less than ideal fender designs! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jonesq Posted December 31, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 31, 2020 17 minutes ago, Whalesmash said: Pretty much exactly what happened to my wheel except I managed to catch onto it before the motor/mosfets went nuclear. Looks like the S18 isn't the only wheel out there with less than ideal fender designs! I've had the same thing happen with my 18XL and V11. I don't think there is any wheel out there that isn't going to have this problem. If you ride in the mud long enough, the mud is going to get stuck under the inner shell no matter what. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bnapalm Posted January 1, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted January 1, 2021 This reminded me of how I recently killed my V10F with a towel. Not due to riding in mud, but still worth a share so others can be more mindful than me. I had it charging and getting ready for a ride. When I rode home the previous day, it was raining, and I had rested the wheel upright on a thin towel, to keep any dripping rainwater making a mess on the floor. The wheel is all charged up, and I'm all geared up, ready to go. I disconnect the charger, extend the trolley handle, power up the wheel and start heading to the door. just as I move the wheel, I notice the towel is stuck to the bottom of the tire. My reaction took a second to process this, and when I reacted, the towel was already partially inside the wheel. I immediately moved it in the other direction to dislodge it, but it was too late. The wheel moved back just a tiny bit, and then died. This all happened in a few seconds. The BMS blew the fuse and some MOSFETs. But also a fuse and some other component had cooked on the BMS. Thankfully, there are some good service specialists here who could fix them, and I should have the wheel back today or tomorrow. The guy working on the BMS said that it wouldn't have blown if the battery was not 100% charged. Then only the control board would have blown. So yeah, don't place your wheels on towels I guess.. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Lämpel Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Had the same issue with my KS16S after riding 500m in wet loam. Just trolleying the wheel next to me needed 2000 watts of power. The only solution to drive again was to completely dissasemble the wheel and get the solid cloak out of the wheel arch... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMA Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 On 12/31/2020 at 2:30 AM, Bumblebees said: Is there any other wheels out there that have this problem with mud? z10 has tight tollerance too, something similar happened to a friend of mine, he burned the board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Lämpel Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 á propos Z10: my work for today: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3putthater Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 Thanks for story/advisory. I never really thought of it. We have some nasty red clay. Great when dry (packs hard) but turns into cement after wet (boots and tires get caked up fast). Sometimes I’m 15 miles from anywhere, good advisory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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