Step One: Acquire Power Wheel someone is throwing away.
Step two: Remove dinky battery connector.
Step Three: Utilize hacksaw for increased battery space.
Step Four: Hack up wiring, install spare car battery and enjoy.
I'll clean up the wiring at some point but am pleased that boredom and spare parts yielded a free Power Wheel. I'll need to grab a trickle charger to keep the battery up too.
Very Neat. I'm totally doing a power wheels for my son as soon as he's born!
How do the plastic wheels do for traction? Have you considered a rhino liner with some 'grit' to it for added traction?
They're prone to plasticy burnouts on takeoff, especially on asphalt. Rhino liner sounds like a pretty solid idea.
Our local SCCA chapter has seriously considered a modified Powerwheels exhibition race at one of our autocrosses--basically open rules except all entries must use the stock wheels/tires.
i got a atv power wheel for free that had a bad battery. the original battery was 6v and was the perfect size to be replaced with a $30 walmart 12v motorcycle battery. my daughter loves it and it likes to cook those plastic tires.
The bad traction with those wheels is actually a good thing. See how long the little plastic transmission gears last with a car battery and traction.
I remember our neighbour telling their kids that the PW's were junk and it wouldn't last a year. Two kids, eight years and tons of abuse later we gave it to one of my coworkers for his son.
Zomby Woof wrote: The bad traction with those wheels is actually a good thing. See how long the little plastic transmission gears last with a car battery and traction.
yea thats true, when i try to ride my daughters with the 12v battery in it i still need a push start otherwise the gears skip and sounds real bad. but if it has a full charge and its moving itll move me (240 lbs) around
You want to be careful- with that camber setup, he's going to be headed for the stock car oval pretty quick.
Doing this immediately
Just a point of note, swap that car battery for a sealed lead acid unit. Less chance of bad things happening. Also, that Jeep can handle 18 volts no problem. Make sure to wire in a fuse somewhere. My son has three battery powered toys I've rescued from trash cans. All I do is clean them up, replace the bad switches, and toss in one of our known good 12v sealed lead acid batteries.
FAQ - Can I use a lawnmower/car battery in my PW?
Don't even think about it, it's TOO dangerous! These types of batteries contain acid, and are unsealed. We all know kids and acid don't mix well. There is also the possibility of an explosion with unsealed acid batteries. Hydrogen gas can form above the battery and can be ignited by a spark (say by connecting a wire to the battery terminal). These batteries should never be used for kids ride on toys, there's just too much risk of injury.
Lawnmower/motorcycle batteries are intended to be used at high amperage rates for very short times, not discharged and recharged constantly. The SLA batteries you get from Gruber are made for this type of application, are just as cheap, much safer, and should give much better life/performance than lawnmower batteries.
I went from 6V to 18V on my kids Lighting McQueen car. It is stupid fast. Plus when he lets off the gas, it locks the rear wheels and now he can steer into the skid like a pro and place the car perfectly.
Assuming that's a maintenance free battery, should be safe enough, if its the old basically open bucket of acid, bad idea.
It's a maintenance free. While I do get the warnings it's secured, open to he air, and I'm playing hover parent while they're driving.
Awesome, once my boy is a little older (he is 2 now) I am going to hot rod his McQueen Powerwheels which currently has the 6v battery.
I used some batteries from a retired APC Battery Backup unit from work. 12v 8.5Ah.
On the small quad, it will do wheelies.
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