12v ride on kids toy

83oldyoda4x4

83oldyoda4x4

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2008
Location
Randolph co, NC
Alright the time has come, the boy needs a ride on jeep/gator/tractor of his own. For those who have been through this before what is the best one to get. Also what can you modify later motor/ drill battery.

Currently thinking the pergo gator with a bed, one that rides 2 kids would be ideal.
 
We have three of the gators here at the house. Currently testing a lifepo4 battery. The AGM batteries last about six months or so. They seem to do better with a piece of rubber (wheelbarrow inner tube, etc) screwed to the tires, but it's hard on the gearboxes. Plastic tires wear out after a while and have to be replaced too.
 
83oldyoda4x4 said:
Alright the time has come, the boy needs a ride on jeep/gator/tractor of his own. For those who have been through this before what is the best one to get. Also what can you modify later motor/ drill battery.

Currently thinking the pergo gator with a bed, one that rides 2 kids would be ideal.
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Standard ole power wheels have worked for us. While younger kept stock batteries.

When older or if factory batter dies, switch to the drill batteries. Amazon has everything you need. Drill battery docks, speed controllers, etc. I’d buy knockoff batteries and use them instead of your tool batteries though.

Amazon product ASIN B09ZHNGWGX
Amazon product ASIN B071NQ5G71
 
Had good luck with the peg perego brand stuff. Gator and quad lasted a while and parts where easy to get and less expensive than the other brands. Everything stock seems to last alright. But stock is boring after day 3 or 4 so mine got juiced to 24 volts or better pretty quick. Little man was changing transmissions out fairly often...

I literally had an oval dirt track in my backyard that he would drift around for hours a day. Dirt track showed up on Google images for years.... Good times. He also learned how to back up the lawn mower trailer attached to his gator when he was 4 or 5.

Get him something newish to get started and then dumpster dive for the rest, or put the word out and people will gladly give you their faded plastic lawn ornament power wheels and then macguiver them back to life.

Closed cell computer UPS gel batteries where my go to power. They lasted a long time, charged well, had decent amp hours and if he totaled the thing they never ruptured and where gel/dry. Safety first you know... Nevermind the part about doubling the voltage on stock wire and motors that'll be fine. But seriously put a fuse or breaker in line if you hop it up for some circuit protection.
 
Green Toys or something like that makes 4wd ones with suspension and they were $500ish when I checked a year or two ago. But I never got one, and now that season has kind of passed for my boys. Not saying I regret not getting one…actually yes, I completely regret not getting one. Why are they growing up so fast? 😢
 
Clubbs said:
dumpster dive for the rest, or put the word out and people will gladly give you their faded plastic lawn ornament power wheels and then macguiver them back to life.
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This... If your kid is anything like mine, once you put 18/20V power to them the gears won't last long. I had a whole row of 12v kids toys that I would pick up for free whenever they popped up on marketplace. When one gearbox would strip, I would just pull the 20v battery adapter out and swap it to a new one.

It didn't help that my son would try and drive the kids jeeps like a rock bouncer... I wonder where he got that from.
 
How is a drill battery an upgrade? (Other than voltage)?
 
We had the 24V Grave Digger from Walmart. Got it on clearance, sold it for more than we originally paid after a couple years use.

It actually has a metal frame and little adjustable "coilovers".
 
shawn said:
How is a drill battery an upgrade? (Other than voltage)?
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Other than power and swap ability if you don’t pay attention to the battery and let your kid drain it dead it kills the battery as well. And not warrantable, the toys don’t interface the battery shut down and just keep draining past recoverable charging. Coworker has killed a few this way with his kids
 
I just started going down this road a few months back. Bought a Power Wheels Dune Racer used, sprayed the tires with rubber for better traction, put it away (too large for my boy but too good a deal to pass up). I found a Peg Perego tractor with the trailer for nearly free with worn out tires so I bought that and then went to their parts site and bought the front loader attachment parts (the loader and tractor are basically the same). He will get that one next spring when he is a little bigger. Again it will get the rubber spray on the wheels.

The last one I bought recently was a well-used 6V single-seat VW Beetle for $10. It needed a battery so I bought a non-PW branded one (cheaper) and it was slow as crap to the point that my boy got out to push it which broke my heart! So I put a second 6V battery in series to hop it up then it was suddenly interesting for him. Blew the transmission right away so off to Amazon for a $18 motor and gearbox that I had to fab-to-fit. Then it blew the axle hubs so I made new ones out of steel and this kid gets giddy every time he drives it now. Sprayed the wheels on it with rubber as well. The spray-on gives them more traction without being so grippy that you beat up the boxes, and it is "repairable" just by re-spraying.

What I see is that you really need a variable speed pedal; these things are all On/Off so it is hard on the batteries and motors, as well as the wheels since they scuff and scrape every time they start off. I will not waste any more money on this Beetle but the tractor and dune racer will get variable speed controllers. Look up ML Toys for ideas.

What I have read is that the Peg Perego boxes need essentially no upgrades for higher voltages/stronger motors but the Power Wheels boxes will not last and will need upgrades. Good thing is that the boxes themselves are not terribly expensive but if you start going down this road make sure the kid will use it and it is not just for bragging rights! I am going to try to not get too carried away with mods so the kid can just play with it and enjoy it.
 
Dawnpatrol said:
Also if you have a couple of 5ah batteries, you can just swap them out and keep riding all day. That way there is no down time for charging.
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This isn't unique to drill batteries.

Put more directly, why would you choose to use a 6Ah battery that costs $25-30 in lieu of 15Ah batteries that cost $55?

Blkvoodoo said:
Other than power and swap ability if you don’t pay attention to the battery and let your kid drain it dead it kills the battery as well. And not warrantable, the toys don’t interface the battery shut down and just keep draining past recoverable charging. Coworker has killed a few this way with his kids
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Sounds like you're referring to AGM...? In which case it doesn't much matter, since the recharge limits are going to mean the battery is pretty much worn out after ~200 cycles.
 
We had a 12v gator and a 12v polaris looking 4wheeler. It's been a while so I cannot really remember the specifics of what everything was. The gator was fantastic after I added a larger ah battery and would run for a long time. I 18v swapped the 4wheeler and my son had a blast with it. It never gave any problems. I wrapped the tires in old bike inner tubes.
 
shawn said:
Sounds like you're referring to AGM...? In which case it doesn't much matter, since the recharge limits are going to mean the battery is pretty much worn out after ~200 cycles.
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Power tool batteries most specific, they shut off at a certain power level to save themselves from deep discharge which can damage them and or the tool.
this is interface between the tool and battery, a 2 wire connection to a power wheels isn’t going to have that and suck it down to nothing, kids don’t stop you know that.
 
Blkvoodoo said:
Power tool batteries most specific, they shut off at a certain power level to save themselves from deep discharge which can damage them and or the tool.
this is interface between the tool and battery, a 2 wire connection to a power wheels isn’t going to have that and suck it down to nothing, kids don’t stop you know that.
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That's because they're lithium-based, not specifically because they're tool batteries. There are quite a few M18 tools that don't use data connections between the tool and battery. Some do, some don't.

Back to the AGM question - they lose half their rated capacity after 100 80% discharge cycles. Discharging lower than 80% is a bit worse for the battery, but when you're talking about losing half your capacity after 100 controlled discharges, it's probably a rounding error.
 
OP: “I want to do some cool redneck stuff to make my kids have fun!”

The rest:
IMG_4105.png
 
I know your a ways away, but I have a jeep and atv sitting in the barn from when my kids were small. Probly need a new battery or conversion to get them back going, but they are free to anyone who wants to come get them.
 
shawn said:
That's because they're lithium-based, not specifically because they're tool batteries. There are quite a few M18 tools that don't use data connections between the tool and battery. Some do, some don't.

Back to the AGM question - they lose half their rated capacity after 100 80% discharge cycles. Discharging lower than 80% is a bit worse for the battery, but when you're talking about losing half your capacity after 100 controlled discharges, it's probably a rounding error.
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I'm sure there are better battery options out there if you go shopping. The point of the power tool batteries is that pretty much all of us have a few Milwaukee or Dewalt batteries lying around. So after a picking up a free powerwheels that has been colleting dust, your kid can have a ton of fun for just the cost of a $5 battery adapter.
 
Makes sense, thank you.
 
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