School me on Barbie Jeeps?

Atla

Atla

Pew Pew! Vroom Vroom!
Joined
Nov 23, 2010
Location
NC
My 3.5 year old daughter needs one for Christmas.

I've never used one, looked at one, or seen one in action... So I don't know what they are really capable of. But surely you guys have some experience with these. My coworker tells me his daughter is almost seven and just now getting to large for theirs, so it sounds like a worthwhile investment that she'll get plenty of fun from...

My only caveat is that it must be capable of plowing through soft ball sized dog patties. (One of the 'perks' of having an English Mastiff are his monster sized turds.)

Any suggestions or recommendations?
 
I put 1/4” hex head screws in every other “tread” of my kids Powerwheels. It makes it go MUCH better. Recently did the same thing to @Chris_Keziah sons.
It will burn the battery up faster that way, cause it will just stop rather than spin if they get hung up. There’s also lots of people converting them to 12v or 18v setups. Makes them way more fun! But I don’t know what that does to longevity. If you get one from your co-worker, go ahead and buy a new battery. It will most likely need one soon anyway, and until then you can have another one ready to go and rotate them as they die. They don’t last super long and take about 8 hours to charge.

Also, check out Grind Hard Plumbing Barbie Jeep. They put a Honda 450R motor on a custom frame and fit a Barbie Jeep around it!
 
Also don't overcharge the battery. The charger doesn't notify you in any way that it's full, and will continue to back feed and kill the battery.

My kids love theirs, I bought 2 off Craigslist for $110
 
Or you can do it like I did and rig it up to run on 12volt car battery. I had to use child cabinet locks to keep the hood down, but my son loved it till he got too big for it.

 
We bought a typical power wheels barbi jeep second hand for our daughter's first ride. Its crap. Plastic knuckles/steering, gets stuck in sand driveway.

Last year we caught the grave digger on sale at walmart. It actually has a metal chassis, metal steering and "king pins", adjustable "coil overs", and its 24V. My 5yr old daughter and 3yr old son that's bigger than her love it.
 
My girls got these for their third birthday this year and I’m very happy with them

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0725LP1JT/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_riHPDbGHRF5MF

They have remotes that override the Jeep should they get out of control, three speed settings, working lights, and a legit FM/MP3 player. They also work great in the dirt (as that's all we have to drive in)

F142F69F-FAAC-4E7D-A826-B0A77DB6A350.jpeg
 
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My son had a John deere gator with a dump bed. Loved it. Front wheels had toe in so much that he wore thru a set driving in our culde sac. Drive motors are cheap to buy and replace, plastic gears get stripped when loaded down. Replace both at the same time. Second battery is good too.

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My 3 kids had the Peg Pergo John Deere tractor new from Walmart, 2 'standard' power wheels Jeeps from CL, and later a Jeep Hurricane powerwheels Jeep (much bigger than the others listed). The Peg Pergo had a different battery than the power wheels. Definitely get an extra battery. They do not last long, and even with the extras, we ran out and had to wait til 'tommorrow'.
They were all great on pavement, watching them drift was fun. Offroad, they did OK in grass, but thats about it. Somehow, I don't remember our kids ever running thru dog turds. That would majorly suck.
 

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My daughter didn't take well to driving the jeep at first. I got a 4 Wheeler and she picked up the handle bars instantly. After That the jeep was no problem. I modified to car battery and also did 18v conversion but it eats the motors. I would get junk jeeps to change motors out. Traction in the rear tended to eat gears. Rubber tubes cut and stretched over the front tires only made a great drift rig. I learned so much, can't wait for the grand kids!
 
Nothing to add other than I started to think a powerwheels for my 2.5year old would be great for her 3rd birthday. She actually started flipping through the pages of the new Christmas edition summit catalog, and picked out a 63 Vette ‘powerwheels’...so I’m thinking that’s the route I’ll go.

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77GreenMachine said:
I put 1/4” hex head screws in every other “tread” of my kids Powerwheels. It makes it go MUCH better. Recently did the same thing to @Chris_Keziah sons.
It will burn the battery up faster that way, cause it will just stop rather than spin if they get hung up. There’s also lots of people converting them to 12v or 18v setups. Makes them way more fun! But I don’t know what that does to longevity. If you get one from your co-worker, go ahead and buy a new battery. It will most likely need one soon anyway, and until then you can have another one ready to go and rotate them as they die. They don’t last super long and take about 8 hours to charge.

Also, check out Grind Hard Plumbing Barbie Jeep. They put a Honda 450R motor on a custom frame and fit a Barbie Jeep around it!
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And by putting screws in the tire she will aerate the lawn
 
@ramjo got a whole fleet of power wheel type rides. I bet he'd let you test drive a couple. He probably can't tell you if it's worth the money or not....don't think he's actually ever paid for one :D
 
jeepinmatt said:
Dude I've been thinking about something like that for years. I've always thought power wheels were overpriced crap and that there has to be a market for good quality battery ride on toys with rubber tires and 4wd.
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Yea man they are cool. Glad someone ran with the idea. I'm always late to the party

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You could always take and glue/screw sections of old tires onto the plastic wheels.. think recap. If you do it right, you could glue a whole tread section on it and screw it to hold it while the glue cures. Cut the end seam on an angle and glue the ever loving fawk out of it. Or just glue/screw an old round baler belt (4",6",10" are common & if you know a hay guy. You can probably get it for free) on to the wheel instead of a tire tread. Used is the way to go. My oldest daughter had one I put a motorcycle battery in, car battery is better, but deep cycle is what you really want for the application.
 
Had a bunch of these things when my kids were younger. Everyone of them was free. I use UPS gel 12v batteries in them that were deep cycle. Lasted a long time, charged well and with deep cycle tendencies they did better being fully depleted and then charged up again. Just ebayed the highest amp hour ones I could find.

And of course we wired them in series, studded the tires, and my 4 year old learned how to drift around corners so we'll he had his own circle track in the yard you could see from Google Earth for years.

Had a big time, but I ordered the gear boxes by the case. He'd limp that thing into the garage after some hot laps and say with pride, "blew another twanswission Dad!" So of course he soon got hit own floor jack and small impact driver and we would change those things out like a nascar pit stop and he'd be gone again. I'd pull them apart and use various good parts to make good ones out of the bad. Pack em with just enough grease to get them to last as long as possible.

Worst part is you have to store the rides somewhere and after 6 month or so of tough truck challenge circuit racing impressions they get looking pretty ragged, but who cares. We're raising kids not grass! Go for it!
 
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