With the influx of babies on the board, Jason (420) has acquired a used Power Wheels and we have started to modify it for pEd's son (Ped Austin). I will post some pictures of the progress later. The one Jason obtained started life as a Barbie Jeep and is getting painted Urban / Digital Camo. Granted he's not even a year old yet, but we decided to get an early jump. We plan on hopping up the batteries and upgrading the tires. Maybe even adding a power supply for each wheel. The options are endless when you start researching. After talking to Doug @ TopSpeed, we might even be able to use their parking lot as a race track. It has been done before. The idea: Find a Power Wheels. Any model, any shape. Modify it (however you want...this is a racing league). Paint it. Document it on here. Get ready to race. Even if the kids aren't old enough or you don't have any...not an excuse. Build one for yourself and BRING IT! This idea will only turn into something if people show interest. If not, PA will have a badass Jeep that all of the kids will hate on. If you have any ideas or experience with these builds...please chime in!
wish i had the time and spare cash, this could be seriously fun. someone buy these: Lambo http://cgi.ebay.com/Kids-Ride-Lambo-Remote-Control-wheels-Power-Car-/200564024559?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb28c24ef Bugatti http://cgi.ebay.com/Kids-Yellow-Power-Ride-Remote-Control-wheels-Car-MP3-/120674463903?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c18c2309f
I was talking to OneIguy about this over the weekend I cant wait! We are planning on getting Jaz one on her birthday. She has a Cozy Coupe already and loves it. I think for paint its going to be Subaru themed.
Ok... my daughter is 4 and always yells at me to go faster... pretty sure she would rock one of these. So can somebody share me some links to mods... what to buy... etc.
http://www.modifiedpowerwheels.com/ there ya go Doug crap breel beat me.....dang this one hand typing
seems to be a decent sized market. i wonder if someone could/would benefit from doing mods for money, i.e. a powerwheels 'tuner'. obviously wouldnt be big enough to be the SOLE purpose of your company, but might be a profitable side venture.
The peg perego gaucho is very easily upgraded to 18v. Plus to top things off its 4wd I am trying to find a used one of these for my son. Right now he is sporting a rubicon with a wheel mod. No more power right now. Will be upgraded to 24V eventually.
There is really no limit from what I have read. The main problem once you start raising the voltage is getting motors that will not die out. I have read of people upgrading to 48 volts, but then having motors die very quickly. I think for a reliable setup, you would go from 12v to 18v on the stock motors. If you want to go to 24v or higher, you need to find motors that can handle that voltage. Some people even go to the extreme of putting gas motors on them and rebuilding the frames. The Jeep we are currently modding started off life as a Power Wheels Barbie Beach Patrol. I found it at the dumpster in the neighborhood across from mine and decided to grab it. It was in horrendous condition when I got it home, so I spent a couple days cleaning it and removing all the Pink and Purple stickers. It came with 2 6volt batteries, though I am not sure if they are any good as I don't have a charger for them yet. We plan on upgrading to at least 18v if not straight to 24v to start with. The overall goal is to have it ready for use about a year from now, when PA will be old enough and tall enough to use it.
I am gonna start with this one first since my boys have outgrown it. It's only got a 6v battery so it lacks the power. 420 I have a 6v charger if you want to use it to see if those 6v's charge.
You'll be able to buy your kids these sooner than later The "Invisible Bicycle Helmet" [youtube]d7Oud3iGXWY[/youtube] http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/invisible_bike_helmet_inflates_before_impact__17690.asp
They are already racing these things at AMS at the Friday night drags. Kids are lying up in the pits where they have a seperate course built. A buddy of mine has a 24 volt jeep that is killing them...
Sad part is the new rule changes for this coming season. Looks like kids are out in particpating in the races along with no open containers.
We ran into a small issue with the paint. I will post pictures later, but essentially...we got a primer, base coat and the first layer of paint. Only to find out, that once we pulled the tape off, the primer and paint came right off with it. So, now we are stripping the entire thing back down and starting over. We know where we went wrong and how to fix it.
Hope to get some work done on it this weekend. It would be nice to finish stripping the primer off and get it ready for our second attempt.
So, here are the pics. 420 sanded down the original paint and primed it white. We then sprayed the base coat of dark gray. After a test spray with the pattern, we decided to go another route. Since the parts really aren't that big, we decided to take our time and get pretty intricate with the design. We taped off the parts and traced out the pattern. 420 cutting out the pattern. Oh... random picture of my cat in a box. What it looked like when we pulled the tape off. We still had another round of taping and spraying, when we realized that the tape was pulling off the paint down to the primer. Time to start over. Damn. :|