The Best Off Road Electric Skateboard (March 2023)

The Best Off Road Electric Skateboards

How To Choose An Off-Road Electric Skateboard

You

The first place to start is yourself. What kind of rider are you? 

Do you want to go on cruising, long-distance rides, or do you want to ride as fast as you possibly can?

Are you looking for something that is specifically off-road only or do you want something more all-terrain that will ride well on both trails and roads?

How tall are you and what do you weigh? Yeah, let’s get personal. After all, each rider is unique. These factors will affect the length of the deck and the level of performance you need respectively.

There are a lot of options out there so taking some time to really think about what you need will make shortlisting your eboard a whole lot easier.

Price

A good quality off-road electric skateboard will cost between $700 – $2,000.

Advancements in eskate technologies and increased competition mean manufacturers are able to produce increasingly powerful eboards at a lower price.

However, as the price of an electric skateboard increases beyond the $2,000 mark, the value proposition rapidly declines.

You start paying for things like better customer service and brand reputation.

There are a handful of high-end brands that do make electric skateboards that are worth their price, like Lacroix, Trampa and Kaly NYC and I encourage you to check them out because they focus on delivering performance and don’t rely on their brand reputation.

On the flip side, I’d stay away from off-road electric skateboards that cost less than $700 because they will lack components powerful enough to provide an acceptably enjoyable experience.

Performance Specs of an Off-Road Electric Skateboard

Other than price, the two other major factors to consider when buying an off-road electric skateboard are speed and range.

Speed

When looking at speed requirements, you want to think about both the top speed and the acceleration power.

For off-road riding, you will generally want an eboard that favours acceleration over top speed.

Gravel trails and grassy areas have increased resistance so you will need an electric skateboard powerful enough to pull you along those surfaces.

Top speed isn’t as important because it’s doubtful you will have the opportunity to reach them in these scenarios.

It’s not until you want to ride your all-terrain electric skateboard on the roads that you’ll want access to the highest top speed that you’re comfortable with.

Personally, 28mph (45kmh) is more than enough speed for me. I generally cruise around the 18mph (30kmh) mark anyway.

Range

Choosing a range is a tricky one, yet arguably one of the most important.

You’re probably going to want an electric skateboard with the longest range possible.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to ride to work or school and back every day and only have to charge it once over the weekend?

We can dream, right?

Battery technology is constantly improving but at the moment, we’re limited to a maximum of around 30 miles (50km).

There are super high-end eboards that can travel further on a single charge, but they come at a seriously premium price.

Have a think about the furthest destination you would want to ride to, and then map it out on Google Maps to see how far it would be. That will give you a good indication of what you might need.

Cafes and bars are really accommodating if you wanted to stop in, get a bite to eat and charge your eboard before you carry on riding. It makes for a great day out. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

Hill Climbing

This may not be as important for everyone, but it’s definitely worth considering.

Most eboard brands are going to label the hill-climbing ability of their products as 30%.

But, that is a really steep hill grade and I doubt the majority of eboards can do this at an acceptable pace. 

Make sure you always read electric skateboard reviews before you buy, because not all brands are trustworthy. At least you can rest assured that the products on this list have been vetted.

At a minimum, you will want an off-road eboard that can climb at least a 15% grade with 20% being ideal.

Components of an Off-Road Electric Skateboard

Deck

The important things to consider when choosing a deck are the length, shape and flexibility/stiffness.

Length

You will want a deck that has a standing platform long enough to accommodate your most comfortable stance. Generally, the taller you are, the longer the deck you will need. Shorter riders are lucky in this sense as they will have more space on the deck to find their optimum stance.

To figure out your natural stance, you can stand up and pretend you’re on a skateboard. Play around with shortening and lengthening your stance until you feel comfortable. Usually, it’s a little wider than shoulder-width.

Then just measure the distance between the outsides of your feet and you’ll have a pretty good indication of the length deck you might need.

Shape

The shape of the deck refers to the concave of the width of the deck and the convex of the length. Sounds confusing, so let’s unload.

Across the width of the deck, you can have all sorts of structures. The three most common are flat, concave and w-concave.

Flat as it describes is completely level across the deck.

Concave occurs when the edges of the deck are raised slightly above the centre of the deck. The amount and angle of the slope will vary between eboards.

The concave of a deck will help you to feel locked into the deck for increased stability and it gives your feet more leverage to lean against when turning to increase your cornering ability.

The W-concave is similar to the concave with an added ridge down the middle of the deck. This is designed to help mould to the natural shape of your feet to get even more contact between your feet and deck for increased control.

The convex along the length of the deck can be determined by how raised the centre of the deck is between the trucks.

The more convex a deck is, the more flexibility the deck will have and the more shock-absorbing properties it has.

Trucks

When it comes to trucks for all-terrain electric skateboards, you’ll notice that the majority of them use double kingpin (DKP) trucks.

This is because DKP trucks are able to provide a sharper turning radius while reducing the possibility of wheel-bite on the deck, something that is more likely to occur with larger wheels.

You are also able to finely tune DKP trucks so that you get the perfect carveabilty-to-stability ratio that suits your riding needs.

The downside of DKP trucks is that they can sometimes lead to speed wobbles at high speeds if you’re not an experienced rider or if they aren’t configured properly.

But I don’t want to scare you off DKP’s because they are a ton of fun and it’s easy to learn how to set them up correctly.

Another style of truck that is popular is the suspension truck. 

They come in many different forms and their main purpose is to absorb vibrations and assist you in going over bigger bumps without losing your footing.

They’re great because they offer a comfortable ride on any surface, on or off-road.

The downside is that they generally have a smaller turning circle so you’ll be more likely to ride these on trails that have long, straight stretches with short corners.

Wheels

They are so many wheels options available for AT electric skateboards which is both a good thing and a bad thing.

It’s bad because as a buyer, it can be really confusing to figure out which ones you need.

But it’s great because you can get yourself a set of wheels that are perfect for you without compromise.

The most popular type of AT wheel is pneumatic tyres. These are rubber inflatable tyres that come in a host of different tread styles and are usually 6” or 8” in size. Other sizes aren’t impossible to find, but you’ll have to do some digging.

There are a few benefits of pneumatic tyres. First of all, you can inflate them to your desired pressure to suit your riding style and terrain.

You can easily and cheaply get different treads styles ranging from very slick for comfortable on-road riding, very knobbly for increased traction on off-road trails, or a tread that sits somewhere in between so you can seamlessly go from on-road to off-road.

The downside of pneumatic tyres is that they do require some maintenance.

You’ll need to check the tyre pressure each time you head out for a ride, for optimum results, but you could get away with only checking once a week or until you notice a decrease in performance.

It’s also possible to get a puncture so you’ll want to carry around a puncture-repair kit for those unfortunate times.

The other major type of off-road wheels is rubber, airless tyres.

Each is designed a little different, but basically, they create a structure of rubber that mimics the compression of regular tyres.

These are great because they don’t get punctures and you don’t have to constantly check on the tyre pressure.

The downside is that you can’t control the amount of compression to change the riding style or to adjust for different terrain types.

The last type of wheel, albeit not really all-terrain, still deserve a mention. And that’s Cloudwheels.

I’d categorise these wheels as more of an urban-terrain style. They have a slight amount of tread and compression. They kind of sit between AT and street wheels.

They’re great for riding on-road because they do an amazing job of absorbing vibrations from the road and are capable of riding on compact gravel/dirt trails and short grass.

Not ideal for proper off-road riding, but manage in those times you need to cut corners of the pavement or gravel park trails.

Battery

As a general rule, the larger the battery, the longer range you will be able to achieve. There are a ton of other factors that will affect range such as, board weight, wheel size, wheel type, ESC, rider weight, travelling speed and terrain, so use the battery size as a guide only.

You can go deep into battery technology trying to find the best one, but that would require a whole article by itself.

You can look at specs like 12S3P, 2700, Volts and Ah all day, but at the end of the day, what you really want to know is how far you can ride with a battery.

The main spec to consider is the Watt/hours (Wh) which is the batteries capacity and is directly linked to range capability.

Motors

Motor technology has seen a few innovations come and go over the years but there are two that have remained throughout.

They are hub motors and belt-drive motors.

Without getting into the specifics of hub motors, they are in-wheel motors that directly turn the wheels.

They are great because they are quiet and don’t require any maintenance. The downside of hub motors is that they tend to have performance specs below that of belt-drive motors.

This is the biggest benefit of belts. They are powerful. 

In terms of both acceleration and top speed, belt drives will outperform hubs every time.

Belt drives open you up to the opportunity of customising your electric skateboard after you purchase it.

With a small amount of effort, you can change your wheels and gearing ratio to give you a completely different riding experience.

With hub motors, you’re stuck with the wheels your eboard comes with.

ESC

The ESC is the Electronic Speed Controller and is the brains of your electric skateboard.

It determines the curve and strength of the acceleration and braking by controlling the amount of energy that is passed from the battery to the motors.

You’ll have either an ESC or a VESC in your eboard and the differences are quite big.

An ESC is your standard controller with a constant limit on the power that is able to pass through it. The benefits of a standard ESC is that they are cheap and plug-and-play.

A VESC on the other hand is able to be modified programmatically, meaning that with a little bit of know-how you can modify the acceleration and braking curves of your electric skateboard.

They are able to provide more power to motors but they are also more expensive, so you’ll only see them in the more premium off-road eboards.

A word of warning though, making modifications to your VESC can cause damage to your parts and yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Features of an Off-Road Electric Skateboard

Water and dust resistance

Although it would be nice to have water-resistant electric skateboards, it just isn’t widely available at the moment. 

What is available, and extremely important for off-road electric skateboards is dust resistance.

The last thing you want is getting dust inside your enclosure causing all sorts of issues.

To read a Waterproof and Dust Resistance rating, you’re looking for the IP specification.

It will be followed by two numbers, the first being the solids resistance level and the second being liquids resistance.

The highest rating for solids is 6 and you shouldn’t settle for anything less on an off-road electric skateboard. You might be able to get away with a rating of 5 if you only plan to ride your AT board on roads, but then again, you will still have dust getting into the system.

The highest rating for liquids is 8, however, I’d be happy with anything 4 or higher. Just make sure you understand what the different ratings mean in terms of water resistance

f the numbers are replaced by an X, it means it hasn’t been through the appropriate testing to certify it.

Durability

The durability of an electric skateboard is hard to determine just by looking at the specs and photos of it online. The best way to learn about its durability is to read electric skateboard reviews and watch videos to get the opinions of expert third parties in the industry.

A quick way to get an idea of how long it is going to last is by checking out the Warranty period. If a company has a 12-month warranty, that gives a good indication that the company backs the quality of their products.

If they only offer a 3-month warranty, that tells me the company doesn’t trust their own products to last longer than that.

But it’s not a silver bullet, some of the eboards on this list have a 3-month warranty and I’ve ridden them for much longer than that with no problems.

Customizability

I spoke briefly about being able to customise your electric skateboard, and it’s not everybody, but something worth considering.

If you think you’re the type of person who would like to make modifications to your board and play around with its performance, then get something with at least belt drives. And if you want to go deeper, consider getting a board with a VESC.

Customer Support

It’s hard to tell what level of customer support a company is going to offer. A good way is to jump into the Facebook groups of different companies to hear what other users have to say. But keep in mind that people are more likely to complain about a bad experience than rave about a good one.

You should also check to see if they offer spare parts via their website. Parts inevitably break and wear down, so it’s good to know that you can get replacement parts quickly and easily if that does happen.

Should You Get An All-Terrain Electric Skateboard? Pros and Cons

Advantages of All-Terrain Electric Skateboards

• Ride on any terrain. The biggest advantage is that you can ride on more than just paved roads. You can ride on gravel, dirt, grass and hard sandy areas. Even boardwalks are made a thousand times more enjoyable with all-terrain electric skateboards.
• They are more comfortable. Thanks to the bigger and squishier wheels, you won’t feel half as much of the vibrations coming off the road. That means you’ll be able to ride for longer before your feet start to fatigue.
• Safer to ride. Arguably, all-terrain electric skateboards are safer to ride because they tend to have longer wheelbases and larger wheels which provide a more stable ride. On top of that, the larger wheels help to absorb bigger cracks and bumps in the road so you can ride a little more carefree.
• Great to learn on. Because of the added stability mentioned above, all-terrain eboards are a great way for beginners to build their confidence.

Disdvantages of All-Terrain Electric Skateboards

• Hard to store. In almost all cases, off-road electric skateboards are bigger than their street board counterparts which makes them a bit of a nuisance to store when you’re not riding. Especially if you’re riding to school or the office.
• Heavy. Some of these boards weigh more than 55lbs (25kg). That’s quite a lot of weight to carry around, especially if you want to load it into your car to go out for a destination ride. Some boards have built-in handles to make moving them around easier which I value very highly.
• Lower Performance. This is up for debate, but most all-terrain eboards have lower performance due to their weight and the increased drag from the larger and squishier wheels. Brands do make electronic upgrades to counter this, but if we go spec-for-spec on the electronics, the AT eboards will be slower with less range.

Final Thoughts

I think every eSkater should have an off-road electric skateboard in their arsenal.

It’s a nice change of pace to be able to go out on adventures along forest trails or along beach boardwalks and having the freedom to ride wherever you want.

They are also a lot more comfortable to ride on paved roads so are a great choice for those wanting to commute to work or school.

They are a ton of fun and I bet you’ll have a smile across your face 99% of the time. That 1% will be you pooping your parts when you try to push it harder and get a small fright when the eboards power kicks in and nearly throws you off. But you’ll get an adrenaline rush and go again and again.

Ride safe out there eSkaters.

Frequently Asked Questions