Does anyone use them regularly? Who sells them? What to look out for? What size rig in what wind?
I use a Turfdog - expensive, only available from the UK, run ok on grass, better on hard sand. Rig size depends on surface being used on. Never use bigger than 5.7m. Some guys use big skateboards, but the Turfdog is infinitely better for freestyling.
You've improved from using them? I'm landlocked away from home all week with not much to do after work. Plenty of open space.
Expensive, yes, looking at their site. Yikes.
Ver quickly coz Im at work:
Scrub imports, cheap and cheerful through to Pro....
Also you can buy 50 cc petrol ones that go 40km an hour for $200 from china - if your interested pm me and I'l give you the link etc
Also check out PANSH kites from china - just like flexifoils but only $150 compared to $650
must dash........
Nah make your own.
(1) bit of 5 ply about 1500 x 350 for a deck. Source 4 x pneumatic wheels from 2x sack trolleys (fridge mover type trolleys. $30 ea at hardware stores)
(2) old skateboard trucks. Remove axles (you'll see why soon)
(3) where axles were, screw in a bolt in each one about 2" long.
(4) Your new axle: Get a piece of steel pipe the same outside diameter as the inside dia of wheel bearings..... you want the wheels to be a tight fit on this pipe..... about 450 long and lay it along the bottom of the trucks. You'll see it will sit on the heads of the bolts you screwed in. Weld it to the heads of the bolts.
Now you have trucks with big arse axles like 20mm dia or so attached to them, sticking out the side of each truck.
(5) slide a washer on to each axle and tack weld on: this is that the inside of your wheels will sit against.
(6) drill hole for a split pin to go thru the axle to hold the ouside edage of the wheel bearing on.
(7) fit wheels.... if a little loose use a dab of epoxy on each to the inner race of the bearings doesn't spin on the axle. Bung the split pin thru.
(8) bolt them to the deck with a hole up front for mast track.
(9) on asphalt use a 4m sial in about 5kn winds, please use a 4m sail. trust me.
oh yeah.... deck may be flexy so I used a bit of 1" sq steel tube epoxied and screwed on the whole length underneath so stiffen it up. If not a fat as me it may not be needed.
The thing about the Turfdog is it has castors on the front and conventional skate board steering on the back so it is sensitive to rig steering and foot steering.
hmmm....not really impressed with those bahuna boards.
front truck will have way too much load and wheels will slip sideways and down wind.
also the weight of the rig would affect boards C.O.G making carves impossible.
ok for straight lines down the beach maybe?
yup - after months of crashing I very quickly started landing vulcans. Also sorted upwind 360s v.quickly and very close to nailing short-board helitacks. All thanks to Turfdog.
But yes, still ridiculously expensive....
We have 4 brands of landboards in our range - Jungle Brothers sells most, strong and good money for value. We also do Munro, MBS and NSX. Have a few demos if interested.
we have a turfdog in vass its ok, i would never pay for one to expensive and parts are a bit cheap, bearings go loose, wheels snap etc , my mate max is pretty crash hot on it, has a video on youtube search 'vass tufdog' or summin... they r good for the sliding based moves cause of the trolly wheels on the front, no good at speed the wheels get the death wobbles.. we have a buhala board here in dahab but to be honest i havent used it cause cant b bothered.. looks much better quality..
i made a turfdog style board with marine ply and dolly wheels from mgnet mart last time i was without wind... much cheaper and it will give u kicks untill u fall off.. could do helitacks flakas and esliders in half hour, fell on my ass and never used it again
Although not windpowered - check this badboy for $200.
Its 50cc and does 40kmh....
great for no wind and no surf days!!!
you could remove the engine and adapt the mounts to fit a mast foot easily.
the real axle steers with suspension like the front. (same system as found on mountain boards) so it would deffo work.
plus sides are the wheels and tyres are an inch bigger than convensional mountain boards (less bogging down in sand) and board is longer than a conventional mountain board conversion, so will handle more power and less death wobbles!!
plus its much cheaper at $200 notes and you get a free engine.
