Hybrid powerwheels

[mcdtommy23]

Picked up a Powerwheels jeep for my daughter and upon getting it home I realized that a gearbox was stripped. I thought this provided a great excuse to get this thing to really move.

Added a 1/3hp dc motor, metal frame, disc brake, and a 5.5 hp gas engine as well. My daughter can drive it on electric and I can drive it on gas.

I'm still working out the details and will post pics of the progress as time allows.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Cool, but you must be a little fellow to fit in that thing!

 

[murph64]

Cool!!

I didn't go that far, but I am using 12v UPS batteries in my daughters 6v PW 'vette. It sure does it fly, but I too have a stripped gear in one of the wheel motors.


Andy

 

[mcdtommy23]

Cool, but you must be a little fellow to fit in that thing!

I'm 5' 11" 240 lbs.

vid:
http://www.youtube.com/user/mcdtommy23#p/a/u/0/uiRDTys7JQE

http://www.youtube.com/user/mcdtommy23#p/a/u/1/2KfVLHjHvn8

 

[OccupantRJ]

mcdtommy, I stand astounded! You gave me a heck of a laugh tonight! That little girl giggling has to make it all worthwhile.

 

[mjb]

That is too cool. Just the thought of your neighbors looking out their windows to see you cruising by kills me.

 

[TheGrooveking]

Cool, just make sure there is no gas in the tank or anywhere when you daughter rides it, just to be safe.

TheGrooveking

 

[mcdtommy23]

Cool, just make sure there is no gas in the tank or anywhere when you daughter rides it, just to be safe.

TheGrooveking

I made the tank easy to remove for that exact reason.


My daughter loves her "Beep" as she calls it. Can't wait to get it all painted and detailed for her. She always asks; "daddy fix my beep", and "help daddy fix beep". She wants to be right there every step of the way, although when it comes time to weld or grind something, she knows she needs to go in the house.

As for the neighbors, well, they never know what the hell I'm going to come up with.

As you can see in the videos it's a real ****** to steer, so, I developed a secondary steering set up that will be easy to remove, depending on who's riding.

 

[mcdtommy23]

Cool!!

I didn't go that far, but I am using 12v UPS batteries in my daughters 6v PW 'vette. It sure does it fly, but I too have a stripped gear in one of the wheel motors.


Andy

I'd be happy to send you the gear you need if I have a good one. Let me know.

 

[murph64]

I'd be happy to send you the gear you need if I have a good one. Let me know.

Check your PMs.


Andy

 

[Herb]

That looks like it will be a fun ride when it's done. Make sure you don't stop too fast with that steering wheel being so close to the " danger zone", and be sure to get some pictures posted up of your road rash from the impending rollover.

 

[FLACOMAN]

Little girls are ALL about daddy!

 

[mcdtommy23]

She is my little helper. It is SOOOOOO funny, every time she sees a Snappy truck she gets all excited and says; "tool truck, daddy". She loves going on the truck or, dare I say, Harbor Freight.

As for progress, I managed to get the secondary controls working great. Now I just need to come up with some type of gear reduction for the little steering wheel. This should make it easier for the little one to turn the wheel.

I also need to do some wiring on the throttle for the electric motor. I want it progressive, meaning, part way down, 12 volt, all the way 24 volt. I just need to play with the switches and a meter to figure out how I'm going to accomplish this plus reverse.

 

[pp702nw]

A power wheel forum. http://www.modifiedpowerwheels.com/forum/ . An idea for a progressive throttle here. http://www.modifiedpowerwheels.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=708 .A little spendy, but, looks to work well

 

[mcdtommy23]

That looks like it will be a fun ride when it's done. Make sure you don't stop too fast with that steering wheel being so close to the " danger zone", and be sure to get some pictures posted up of your road rash from the impending rollover.

Here ya go. Flipped the damn thing trying to power slide into the driveway. Got a little road rash on my knee and elbow. I think I tweaked my wrist also. It was a fun ride though. It survived the crash/flip with nothing but a little scrape on the plastic.

My daughter seen it and was pissed that I flipped her "Beep". She had just driven it on electric power with no issues.

 

[slipknot]

that's why i dont let ppl drive my truck can't believe you f'd up her first car! that's kinda funny but i'd build her some sort of roll cage so it doesn't happen to her

 

[Frank]

right on, man! Way to be involved with your kids. Those are great memories for both of you.

I found that the drill packs to my 18v Ryobi WILL propel my son's 6v Power Wheels Jeep and it will carry a 260 lb man, though a lot slower.

 

[mcdtommy23]

right on, man! Way to be involved with your kids. Those are great memories for both of you.

I found that the drill packs to my 18v Ryobi WILL propel my son's 6v Power Wheels Jeep and it will carry a 260 lb man, though a lot slower.

My daughter had a little go-kart type powerwheels and I hooked my 18v packs in place of the 6 volt battery. Dang thing would roast the tires and my daughter was doing hole shots like crazy.

The jeep is really heavy and I think the drill batteries don't have a sufficient AH rating. I'll look at work for some bad computer UPS's and see if they'll let me have them, maybe I can score a couple of batteries.

Anyone know the size (AH) of the batteries in the Harbor Freight style jump boxes? My box is about 7 years old and it powered the jeep for about 15 minutes so I'm sure a new battery would do alot better.

 

[mcdtommy23]

that's why i dont let ppl drive my truck can't believe you f'd up her first car! that's kinda funny but i'd build her some sort of roll cage so it doesn't happen to her

I was doing about 15mph and really cranked the wheel. I'm thinking of putting on a free spinning wheel hub on the back as the solid axle has a tendency to lift a wheel in a turn on cement.

Her speeds will be way way less than that. I may even widen the track a bit.

 

[slipknot]

I was doing about 15mph and really cranked the wheel. I'm thinking of putting on a free spinning wheel hub on the back as the solid axle has a tendency to lift a wheel in a turn on cement.

Her speeds will be way way less than that. I may even widen the track a bit.

im jealous.. you should make it a offroad beep with a 4x2 and 4x4 option maybe some fortys and a lowered geared 5hp motor get her some mud progress her on to small trails then rocks. but then again it's a hyped up power wheel .

 

[mcdtommy23]

im jealous.. you should make it a offroad beep with a 4x2 and 4x4 option maybe some fortys and a lowered geared 5hp motor get her some mud progress her on to small trails then rocks. but then again it's a hyped up power wheel .

Hmm, maybe a gear motor on each front wheel.. I need a source for gears. can't find anything cheap. 5/8-1" center with an assortment of gear sizes. I could do all kinds of cool things if I just had the gears to do it. Think Technic Lego's for kids 30 and up.

 

[Stick Figure]

http://www.mcmaster.com/#metal-gears/=8jd7jb there ya go ..... although i think you should be checking craigslist for a power wheels of your own at this point. lol

 

[scott37300]

www.surpluscenter.com has great prices on gears and other things. I have bought from them before. I needed some gears for projects that I didn't want to spend a ton of money on. Have chains, motors, gear boxes, hydralics, pneumatics, and lots of other stuff for cheap.

 

[slipknot]

when you finish her beep make a big kid model about the size of a go kart