Pedal Cart conversion

[Lvnspeed]

I bought one of these for my 4 year old daughter. They are sold by Hot Rod Mag. but the are pretty tought for kids to pedal the pedal assembly is made out of cheap stapmed steal.

has anyone ever converted a pedal cart to an electric motor? I was thinking od buying a cheap battery drill and using the parts for the drill to make the pedal cart a power cart. I was thinking of a chain drive but I am having a hard time finding a chain and sprokets. Have an suggestions?

 

[JakeKohl]

For chain and sprockets, etc....try www.mcmaster.com.

I suspect that you will need a motor slightly larger than a drill motor, though. You can find those at Mcmaster as well.

 

[Dale1962]

get an electric scooter and rob the parts out of it???? just a thought

 

[spongerich]

Find one of the "Power Wheels" jeeps or similar kiddie car.

You should be able to scavenge the running gear. I see them for < $50 all the time.

 

[catsteve]

When i was looking at this for my kid a while back i discovered there are forums of people dedicated to pimping their kids 24v ride ons. There is plenty of techinical 'how to' info if you have the time to trawl through it.

http://modifiedpowerwheels.com
http://customrideons.com/news/

 

[rsanter]

Someone on the web used a dewalt drill and made a bracket to clamp the drill and power his bicycle

Bob

 

[jlckmj]

take your pick of axles, just find an appropriate motor

http://www.surpluscenter.com/sort.asp?catname=powerTrans&keyword=PTT1

if you look around on that site, you will find just about everything else you will need, motors, chains, gear reducers, etc.


Jim

 

[Lvnspeed]

perfect thanks Jim

 

[D.J.]

I would plus 1 on the "Power Wheels".

 

[Lvnspeed]

suggestion taken

So what i did..... I took the motor, start stop switch, wiring,gearbox, and axle out of a powerwheel 4 wheeler that my daughter out grew. The axle is out of the power wheels is too short (that was a good thing). The rear wheel out of the pedal cart is keywayed. I cut 4 inches off each side of the pedal cart axle. This kept the keywayed part of the axle for the wheels. Then welded it to the power wheel axle. If your going to do this make sure the gear box is on the power wheel axle before welding the pedal cart axles on. Then I secured the gear box to the seat frame work of the pedal cart. I mounted with velcrow a Dewalt 18volt battery, yes a 18v battery (stock powerwheels use 6 volts) to under side of the cart behind the seat bottom. Next I made a floor pan out of a scrap piece of diamond plate allumn. I took another piece of scrap and put a piano hindge on it and mounted it the floor as a gas pedal. I mounted the push button switch that made the power wheel go behinde the gas pedal. The new cart FLYS.....

one thing I am going to change is the throttle its on or off right now. I am going to to HF and buy a cheep 18v drill. This way I get a battery and charger plus a linear switch so my daughter can regulate the speed.

 

[zuk123]

Allelectronics.com has nice chain, sprockets, bearings, throttle controls etc.

zuk

 

[incurablescrounge]

Here are some pictures of a pedal car I did for my daughter about 6 years ago. I took 2 electric scooters that were trash finds. One 2 wheeler and a 3 wheeler. The chassis is part 3 wheeler and scratchbuilt front axle. The drive wheel is free wheeling so it will coast freely. Rear brake on other rear wheel. I used the handle bar for the controls because it was the easiest to do, all the controls were there with no fab work. I used the rear side marker lights as taillights on the car. Brakes are lower and turn signals on top of them. It will drive about 11 mph which is fast for such a narrow and short wheelbase. The goal when I built it was that I could ride it also. It hauls me around 210# but it doesn't accelerate as hard. It will spin the drive tire with a small child and full charge. It was a blast to build and to watch my girl and the neighborhood kids enjoy it.

 

[incurablescrounge]

Some more pictures

 

[Lvnspeed]

Here is the motor set up

 

[incurablescrounge]

Looks like a lot easier job than I did!

 

[12three45]

Lvnspeed, how did you build the enclsosure for the axle and motor gears? I am about to do the same thing and convert my daughters pedal car using a 24V electric motor from http://electricscooterparts.com/electricscooterkits.html

 

[gungatim]

if you search for plans, there are several old plans for electric kiddy car's from old popular science/popular mechanics, etc. online. They use a car battery and an old starter from almost any car. The nice thing is you don't need to worry about special batteries, motor controllers, etc. just a junkyard starter, car battery, solenoid and rig up a switch...

here is a link to 1, several more if you search.

http://www.vintageprojects.com/kids/car-elect-sidewalk.pdf