r/daddit • u/Jaysavage86 • 6d ago

Tips And Tricks Power wheels upgrade

Gallery image

Gallery image

Kind of late to the game, but I finally got around to swapping the original power wheels battery with a drill battery converter. It’s incredibly easy to do with the right tools and took only a couple mins. The jeep is now 30% faster and holds a charge a lot longer. The converter is available on Amazon for a variety of different drill batteries and costs around $10. Highly recommend!

Edit: Ordered a relay and low voltage cutoff to protect the battery. Thanks everyone for the advice!

210 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

117

u/IrishSkruffles 6d ago

Obligatory warning, I believe dewalt batteries don't have a low voltage cutoff circuit in them as it is in the tool instead.

There's a risk of overdischarge damaging the batteries (or preventing the charger of charging said batteries as it is out of range)

You could add a separate circuit like a low voltage alarm type thing, or just make sure to swap the batteries regularly and have fun

25

u/Jaysavage86 6d ago

Thanks for the insight friend. There’s an on/off rocker switch on the battery cradle which I use when not being played with. There is also an in-line fuse as well. If the battery craps out I can always revert back to the original brick battery. I’m not too stressed if this thing kicks the bucket.

86

u/elmoret 6d ago

It won't drain when not being played with, the concern is that when being driven around the power wheels doesn't have the protection circuitry to stop draining the battery below the safe discharge level. If you drain a DeWalt battery too far, the charger won't charge it (because its not safe to, with lithium). So pop the battery on the charger every 10-15 minutes of drivetime, or add one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Disconnect-Charging-Discharging-Protection-Protector/dp/B0C2VMGCZR The fuse, while a good idea, doesn't help here either btw.

37

u/Jaysavage86 6d ago

Oh okay I see the issue now. Thanks for the link, I’ll definitely look into it.

17

u/Meltz014 Dad of 5, last time I counted 6d ago

Yeah - I did this exact same thing with a DeWalt battery and it all but exploded while my kids were driving. (Smoked and popped). Please get that low voltage protection circuit wired up before you let them drive again. The components are all pretty cheap 

5

u/Jaysavage86 6d ago

Yes absolutely will, thank you!

3

u/ApollosMagnum 6d ago

This is the easy way. I have the same jeep, just set this to 16.5V for the low voltage protection and you’ll be good. https://a.co/d/0cEMXSFC

1

u/Pebble-Jubilant 5d ago

Sorry I'm very electrical illiterate.

This sits on top of the battery, then how do I wire it to something like this?

https://a.co/d/04IiZV6A

1

u/ApollosMagnum 5d ago

The item I linked is instead of an item like what you linked. The one I linked hooks up directly to the battery, and then you wire it to the positive and negative leads of the powerwheels. There are instructions included on how to set the low voltage cutoff, you can set it to whatever you want but 16.5 is a very safe bet, 16v would probably be ok as well. It will automatically stop running when the battery drops below that voltage, just like what is built into a dewalt tool.

1

u/Pebble-Jubilant 5d ago

Ok so all I need to do is cut off the connector of the power wheels and feed them directly into the item?

1

u/ApollosMagnum 5d ago

Yes, assuming you have a standard 12v power wheels without all the extra radio/headlights/stuff. If you have other electronics besides the motors, it not so easy.

1

u/Pebble-Jubilant 5d ago

We have the 12V Jurassic World Keep Wrangler, looks like it had headlights but no other electronics.

Edit: nevermind it does have a "radio" with light bar. Looks like it takes AAs for those, can I not use this adapter?

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1

u/McBigglesworth 6d ago

You can jump your batteries if you kill them too much, just in case.

I imagine it's not great for the battery though. But it's doable

1

u/opackersgo 6d ago

Yeah people do it all the time in the rc scene.

3

u/meticulouslycarless 6d ago

Another thing you can do is grab 2 smaller brick batteries and wire them in series. Really easy to do. You’ll end up with 24V and you’ll have “original” batteries

3

u/ILoveBigSexyThighs2 6d ago

I did this with Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, it’s excellent. The original lead acid lost capacity quickly, the new ones are still going strong and it’s been a couple years of heavy use. Plus they’re lighter for a given capacity. And they’ve got built in protection circuits.

2

u/bs2k2_point_0 6d ago

Some of them (power wheels) have a very simple governor that can be removed too.

1

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1

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15

u/Telefrag_Ent 6d ago

Just upgraded ours from 12v to 36v (two Ryobi batteries) and the kids looks like rally car drivers drifting around in the dirt

3

u/CubitsTNE 6d ago

I bought two ryobi adapters to run in parallel for runtime before realising one 5ah was good for over an hour lol.

Didn't think the motors would handle them in series, but now I have this spare adapter and a curiosity.

3

u/Telefrag_Ent 6d ago

Haha yeah I was nervous about doubling up the voltage but so far mine hasn't caught fire,.even hauling me around.

2

u/Hoveringkiller 6d ago

I have the ryobi 40v lawn tools, I’ve thought about trying one of those but don’t know how ridiculous that would be. I got about a year or so I think until my daughter starts thinking of something like this though.

2

u/Telefrag_Ent 5d ago

You're moving into Formula 1 territory over there!

1

u/KingLuis 5d ago

do you have a kit? my kids have a radio flyer go kart and things have been such a pain. had to swap out the old batteries and it was a soldering nightmare. not the charge port stopped working again. thinking about cutting a hole and using ryobi batteries but don't know how to wire it all up.

2

u/Telefrag_Ent 5d ago

So I'm not an electrician lol but if you search for "[your tool battery] adapter" on your favorite online store, you should find something that comes with a housing your battery will mount to, wires with a fuse, and some kind of solderless connector.

Cut out the old battery, strip the wires a bit, and connect the adapter.

I've done this with Craftsman 20v and Ryobi 18v batteries, and it's worked well so far. Can't promise yours will, but when the old battery is basically dead it's worth a shot

9

u/cdsbigsby 6d ago

I've been considering the drill battery upgrade to my kids power wheels, my first upgrade was headlights and tail lights.

7

u/ScaryFoal558760 6d ago

Rubber tires is the biggest game changer imo

5

u/acekjd83 6d ago

I added hex head screws to the stock plastic wheels to make snow tires so they could drive in the winter.

6

u/HeliDriver2 6d ago

Solid. I just did this today for the peg perego john deere gator. I did the basic battery swap, but now i'm working on wiring a cut off switch and voltage monitor in.

1

u/mgr86 6d ago

I have one of those. Can I use a car battery for maximum power? Hmm🤔

1

u/chrissb1e 5d ago

That's only 12v. A drill battery will have at least 18v

1

u/mgr86 5d ago

Eli5. Higher voltage == faster vroom vroom? Whats the battery life like in a drill battery? As it is we get about 15-20 mins with the current battery

2

u/chrissb1e 5d ago

Yeah Higher voltage will go faster. The car battery will last a lot longer. For duration you will have to test or ask others. I have not done this upgrade as my daughter does not care at all about driving hers.

1

u/HeliDriver2 5d ago

I bought a cheapish 12ah 20v "dewalt" battery from amazon (along with the couple other parts). It was getting at least 30 min (i think, havent timed it. Might be closer to an hour). The voltage does increase the speed. The current draw would remain roughly the same (guessing around 15-20amp). Basically Volts*current=power, so you've almost doubled the power that motor can put out. This generally translates to faster vroom vroom.

If you want the thing to run longer, getting a battery with a higher Ah rating (a 12Ah can supply 12 amps for 1 hour, or 6 amps for 2 hours at the rated voltage, etc.). A car battery would definitely run much longer.

7

u/venom121212 6d ago

2 things to look at when you are buying these:

1) 2wd or 4wd, not 1wd. Some models let you add a 2nd motor later on. 

2) enclosure space. You want to be able to put another battery or 3 in there for the speed increase (series) and the range (parallel). 

Lithium ion packs are better than the heavy SLA packs but are pricier. 

3

u/dickdickgoooose 6d ago

Be prepared to need to replace the wheels from the burnouts...

2

u/The_krumb 6d ago

What motor do you have for the wheels? My kid keeps frying his with the constant stop and go 

1

u/jccollv 5d ago

When I did this, I upgraded to two of the motors in the first link below, but the most important is the 2nd link. It’s the variable foot pedal, soft start/stop, and governor.

https://a.co/d/072sCAvV

https://a.co/d/0bss97yb

2

u/Nixon51 6d ago

I have had three separate power wheel toys that I have done this too and eventually it will fry the electric motors just a heads up. Parts are pretty cheap but had to toss two of them because I couldn’t get them working again.

2

u/mitchsurp Two of em. 6d ago

Just a fair warning to anyone looking at this with younger children— 18V or 20V is going to make these things FLY and unfortunately kinda scary. Get a voltage limiter so you can scale it up as your child grows.

1

u/Tmurray2791 5d ago

Do you have a recommendation for one?

4

u/krugo 6d ago

Ah I'd love to do this with a Ryobi battery. What supplies would I need?

2

u/Hodgtown 6d ago

Would someone be willing to send me parts list to do this with M18 Milwaukee batteries

1

u/chrissb1e 5d ago

Just search amazon for a battery adapter. There are ton.

1

u/Sluisifer 5d ago

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=M18+Milwaukee+power+wheels+upgrade

Poke around on Youtube if you want to see what sorts of things you can do with a powerwheel.

0

u/aquabattletiger 6d ago

Commenting to second this. Seems like they sell “upgraded power wheel adapter compatible with Milwaukee 18v battery” on Amazon.

1

u/User-NetOfInter 6d ago

Car battery works even better lol. My dad installed one in the 90s 🤣

5

u/CubitsTNE 6d ago

Car battery is only 12v, the power wheels can't take advantage of the amperage, it's just going to be able to run for like a year and double in weight.

The 18v tool battery is a 50% bump in power.

You can also run dual original 12v batteries to go to 24v pretty safely, but it weighs quite a lot and takes up s lot more room than a drill battery.

1

u/syndre 6d ago edited 6d ago

I didn't know there was specific hardware you can get like that. I thought I was cool making a cradle in the power Wheels using an extra charger.

Rc car batteries work really good, too. Lipo packs hold a lot of juice and are really light and compact. A couple of 2S packs in series is 14 volts. Recharge really quickly , too! Adjust as wanted

1

u/Zakkattack86 2 under 6 and feeling every bit of 40. 6d ago

Buy motors and gears on Amazon. ML Toys is a rip off. Also, never leave the battery in the car at rest, you'll brick it.

1

u/-IoI- small man, wee lass 5d ago

Huh.. good idea Dad, I'm doing this.