Isinwheel V8 electric skateboard review – Not for the faint of heart

• Max Speed – 28 MPH
• Motor – 600*2 Power
• Battery – 37V 5Ah
• Range – 10-12 Miles
• Wheel Size – 105 MM
• Wheel Material – Aluminum alloy and PU
• Maximum Climbing Angle – 25°
• Max Load – 330 Lbs
• Protection Class – IP54
• Protection – Short circuits and overheating
• Plate – 8 maple
• Charging Time – 2.5 Hours
• Gross Weight – 24.4 Lbs
• Net Weight – 18.3 Lbs
• Size – 39.3x14x5.9 In
• Lamp – 12V
• Remote – 2.4 GHz
• Capacity – 5.0Ah

Design and features

For you skaters out there, let me say up front, I do not know what makes for good hardware on a skateboard, so I can’t tell you who made the trucks, what bearings are used, etc. I’ll try my best to tell what I know though.

Starting with the deck, isinwheel says it’s made with 8 layers of maple and a frosted coat. Since the deck is fully covered with this coat, I can’t verify that but I have no reason to doubt it. It is much stiffer than the borrowed longboard, for which I’m eternally thankful. I’m 6’6″ and 275 lbs, don’t judge, and the isinwheel deck feels incredibly sturdy in comparison. There’s also plenty of grip tape on the topside

The trucks are only slightly ferromagnetic, yes I looked that up, meaning a magnet will stick to them but not well.

So, I can only assume they are some steel alloy. They are powder-coated and are beefier than the trucks I’ve seen on other skateboards.

The Isinwheel V8 electric skateboard’s wheels are CHONKY. They’re certainly bigger and beefier than normal.

They’re made of polyurethane and do make for a comfortable ride. They take bumps, dips, and cracks in the road very well.

Isinwheel describes the V8 electric skateboard as being all-terrain and I can see where these wheels will help that. The cool thing about the wheels, specifically the rear ones, is that’s where the motors are. There are 2- 600W brushless electric motors inside the rear wheels themselves.

The battery pack is a removable, rechargeable 37V/5Ah brick built with 36 18650 batteries inside, which they say is the same lithium battery as Tesla.

I’d take that with a grain of salt. There are tons of devices powered by similar battery packs.  It has a fast charging time of 2 hours and is rated for up to 12 miles. As with all electric vehicles, the range is going to be affected by numerous factors, like terrain, starts and stops, rider weight, and so on. I’d also say the battery is removable, but I’d minimize that as much as possible. You can’t charge the battery separately from the board. Also, you’d think there would be metal contacts that would mate when the battery is installed. Instead, it’s a couple of cable pigtails. Small ones.And short. With tiny connectors. Even someone with small hands is going to have issues putting it back in.

The controller is nice enough. It’s got a rubbery coating for maintaining a good grip along with a wrist strap to prevent dropping it.

It is plastic though, so I figure if you were to drop it on concrete or asphalt just right it would break. There are only a couple of buttons on it; one for power and another listed as Reverse in the manual. In my experience, this second button just cycles through the 4 speed modes. I tried different ways of getting that button to put the isinwheel V8 into reverse with no success. I did however find after a lot of experimenting that a double tap of the power button, does indeed reverse the travel of the motors. The buttons are quite easy to press so beware of that. They do give a positive click when pressed, but I’m always worried I’d accidentally press it and change my speed mode.

There’s a roller switch on top of the Isinwheel V8 electric skateboard’s remote. Roll it forward to make the board go and roll it back to stop.

Be warned though, there’s not a lot of travel in that roller when rolling back to stop. If you just roll it straight back, the board will stop on a dime, you, however, will not. I found out pretty quickly I needed to ease the roller back to slow down and stop.  There’s also a lot of information shown on the remote’s display like the remote’s remaining charge, the board’s remaining charge, speed mode, and more.  There’s a confusing brake descriptor on there too, with a default of 2. I don’t know what this means or if I can change it. It’s not mentioned anywhere in the manual. Finally, there’s a speedometer. Does it work? Is it accurate? I don’t know. I was too busy concentrating on not falling to look. Sorry, but it’s true.

Did I mention it has LEDs? Of course, it has LEDs. The bottom lights up green with a cool breathing effect, but there’s nothing in the manual to tell you how to turn it on. Again, I found out myself by pressing the buttons and found out that if you hold the mode button, it lights up.

Performance

The isinwheel V8 electric skateboard is fun, scary fun for a beginner like me. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’m still not confident enough on it to relax and go with the flow. There’s certainly a noticeable difference between the different speed modes.  I’ve only been brave enough to get up to level 2 and didn’t max it out. Level 1 is rated for 9 mph which doesn’t seem like a lot but when you’re first starting, it’s more than enough.  Level 2 goes up to 11 mph but feels like there’s a faster ramp-up time. Only my kids have tried out level 3 and they didn’t max it out. Level 3 and 4 are rated for 28 mph with level 4 having a faster power response. My daughter was the first to go up to level 3 because she’s a daredevil and doesn’t believe anything bad will happen to her. Well, guess what? It can and did. She got to going too fast and said she felt the front start to wobble. So she panicked, tried to brake too quickly and down she went. She was banged up and bruised pretty good but not seriously hurt. She hasn’t been back on it yet though. When I approached the top speed of level 2, I also experienced some wobble. Doing a little research, what I found online said most of the time wobble is caused by the rider, not the board, but tightening the trucks could help.  So I did that and that seems to have taken care of the wobble for now. My son on the other hand takes things a little slower, feeling them out, before going balls to the wall. He also took it up to level 3 but started slowly and changing levels as he skated. He also didn’t get anywhere close to max speed but he was riding it like a pro. No tricks or anything, but he looked as comfortable riding it as the regular longboard.

Now let’s talk about the gripes I have with the isinwheel V8 electric skateboard. The manual is lacking, especially concerning the remote. The “reverse” button is mislabeled in there and there’s no description to say what it actually does. I just pressed buttons on it until I figured them out, mostly. The information displayed on it is also not defined as well as it should be. I mean, most of it is self-explanatory, but the “Brake 2” isn’t. I don’t what that means or how to change it. My thought is that the manual was written to include another one of isinwheels electric skateboards because even the pictures of connecting the battery show a different, larger connector than the one on the V8.

Another problem I have is the website says there are 2 options for operations along with 4-speed modes, but it isn’t explained what those 2 options are or how to access them. Maybe they mean it can be for beginners or experts, but it wasn’t clear to me.

If you want to see the isinwheel V8 in action, I’ve included a little video of my kiddos using it. No, I’m not in it. I wouldn’t subject you to that.

What I like

• Built like a tank
• Stiff board so I don’t feel like I’m on a trampoline
• Easy to operate
• It is fun
• Takes bumps and dips like a champ

What I’d change

• The manual needs work
• The remote could be built of better materials
• The battery connection
• There needs to be a way to tune the braking

Final thoughts

I do like the isinwheel V8 electric skateboard. Some of the issues I had can be marked up to inexperience with skateboarding, I’m sure. I like that I can now at least skate around with my kids and somewhat keep up. I also like that I don’t have to worry about every little crack or pebble in the street. With any vehicle, you need to have respect for it and what it can do and the isinwheel V8 electric skateboard is no different. You need to take it slow and learn everything about it. Sadly, a lot of it you have to do by trial and error where the remote is concerned. I will keep riding the isinwheel V8 because it’s fun and it’s great to be able to hangout with my teenagers. And hey, I get cool dad points. If you’re a skater, I think you’ll like this. If you’re a beginner, I would suggest you get comfortable on a regular skateboard first.

Price: $369.99
Where to buy: isinwheel and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by isinwheel.