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Power wheels

Waterjunky

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Hello all:
I am starting my Christmas shopping a little early this year before the good toys are sold out. I want to get my 3.5 yr old a power wheels type ride. From those of you our there who are in or have gone through this stage, what do you recommend or suggest avoiding? The wife has expressly forbidden any downhill racing after the boy gets done with it. I want something that he will enjoy and hold his interest for a few years before getting something real. She has not expressly forbidden repowering it (possibly because she has not thought about it yet) but that is for a different thread in a year or so.

Suggestions?
 

grumpy88

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Our grandson liked his jeep power wheels . It had 2 speeds . Loved watching him enjoy it
 

redone76

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IMG_3697.jpg

My 5 year old has loved the crap out of this for a year and a half. Not fast but the battery lasts quite a while. Has lots of buttons and flashy lights. Also an auxiliary port to rock some tunes


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DWC

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Bought one for our oldest at 5ish. I can still see him flying up and down the driveway, between cars, younger sister flying out of the car. Damn fun times.
Only real issue was the neighbor kid trying to go up the quarter pipe in it. No skateboard ramps or jumps. All I got.
 

4Waters

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Stick with power wheels brand as every part is available online, my kids went through 3 sets of tires each with theirs and ordering the new tires was easy.
 

ka0tyk

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I’m currently in process of putting a micro controller, dual hbridge motor drivers, 8x 8ah batteries, variable throttle in mine to preserve gearboxes and running 24v full time. Working blinkers. Horn. Bluetooth full radio with 4x 4” speakers, etc. they’re great toys for the kids.
 

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RiverDave

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If you just want to buy one and enjoy it.. Get the big green dune racer (or dune flyer?) It's got a 2 speed, it's fairly indestructable, and it will do burnouts in second gear. My kids loved there's for years..

RD
 

Waffles

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Peg Perego also makes legit cars and their customer service/parts availability is exceptional. I bought my human the pink 12v RZR. It has two speeds and does about 7mph. It doesn't have any suspension but it does great when we take it out to the desert. They also have a 24v version that has full suspension but that was way out of my price range for these things lol.

I also bought my nephew the power wheels Porsche GT3 a while back and that thing is legit too. Fit/finish and quality seem to be on par between both power wheels and peg perego

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Waterjunky

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If you just want to buy one and enjoy it.. Get the big green dune racer (or dune flyer?) It's got a 2 speed, it's fairly indestructable, and it will do burnouts in second gear. My kids loved there's for years..

RD
Unfortunately I generally need to screw with almost everything I own at one point or another...….:)
 

Waterjunky

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sounds like mods are a common one on these. Any good online resources for said mods?
 

Socalx09

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I remember when I was a kid and my dad put a motorcycle battery in my Barbie Jeep. The plastic tires got torn up. Reading that mod forum for powerwheels, I guess it was bad idea! but I lived and was the fastest kid on the street!

All my nephews (4) have power wheels and love them. Seem to be durable and last a long time.
 

RitcheyRch

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Good point and didn't think about that. Just thought would be much quieter and smoother riding with the rubber tires.

Rubber tires strips plastic gears and burns out motors without a speed controller.

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Waterjunky

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That might be a little much for my 3 yr old......
 

ka0tyk

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Rubber tires strips plastic gears and burns out motors without a speed controller.

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Bingo. Just buy a set of replacement wheels when you buy the car. They always go on backorder like a year later. The key is they need to spin to relieve the drivetrain stress. You can replace motors with traxxas 550 motors at like $30 a pop to give it a little more speed without breaking things. Jumping up to 18 or 24v def puts strain on things. Rubber strips or bike tires on the wheels will def break gears. My kids Silverado is still on backorder I ended up finding one being parted out on Craigslist.
 

outboard_256

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I have a couple of power wheels. They are nice but once you get one you will see that modding them is almost pointless. Everything is plastic, wheels, tires, gears, steering, frame, etc. They are cool for what they are but you double or triple the speed (pretty easy to do) and they turn into non-suspension, no brakes, horrible steering, death traps. Then you are chasing constant broken plastic parts or doing crazy mods (soft start, variable throttle, speed controllers, motors, go cart tire/axles/gears/brakes, lipo batteries, etc) just to keep them reliable. I am just waiting till my kids get more used to it then its off to a 90cc quad, crf50 or rzr 170. Then you can put some real time/money into mods and it not be a waste of time and have resale. And the crazy thing is they are about the same size. These stupid plastic power wheels take up more room in my garage than my dirt bikes. Good fun for a year or two through but you see limitations real quick if they actually use them.
 

jillyjelly

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Power wheels dune racer. Our 5 year olds enjoyed it. He can ride her bike around the yard or on the sidewalk comfortably. It has high and low speed.
 
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SBMech

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DaBank

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Looking to buy my grandson one of the Jeep or UTV 24 volt. I see some advertised with suspension and rubber tires, anyone have any luck with them? At $500 to $800 I know you can only get so much in terms of quality but would like it to last at least a few years.
 

02HoWaRd26

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My son had a power wheels and a Freddo, the Freddo was way better and a lot faster when he got old enough.
 

Roosky01

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My brother had my nephew's rigged up for Milwaukee batteries. Don't know any details but I believe he had 2 of them in there at a time? The thing hauled the mail...
 

W.O.T

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Bought the Tacoma Powerwheel for my son when he was 3 (2 years ago) and it has never been used to this day. He sat in it for hours, but would never drive it as much as I tried to convince him!
 

Big B Hova

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What ever you buy. When they get bored of it, Amazon sells an 18v drill adapter to make it more fun
 

ltbaney1

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got my guy (3 Y/O at the time) the forklift last year. he still drives it all the time. i did have to rebuild the gear box for the lift portion. he tried to lift the couch. it now runs on 2 dewalt batteries, not for speed, but for run time and i can just swap them and not plug the thing in for a couple hours.
IMG_2647.jpg
IMG_1642.jpg
 

hallett21

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How is that working with the NOCO boost? Doesn't it only give a few seconds of power? Or are you just testing to see if it works?
Was just testing it to make sure it worked. You can put it in a mode that gives constant juice (the function is normally for a really dead battery jump). Motors started to smell quickly so shut that down lol.
 

caribbean20

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This thread brings back so many memories. We got these as a gift 25 years ago, at our place in San Diego. I later joined the company and became GM of the plant making them in Monterey.
IMG_7217.jpeg
 

242Baja

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we have a power wheels and its a blast with the kids - upgraded the battery to an 18 volt and it moves pretty good
 

hallett21

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Even fake used land rovers are POS lol. One motor was fried 2 new ones arriving tomorrow 👍🏼. Still into it for less than $100 lol.
 
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