Hey Community , i really don't do enough fun projects. As you may notice many of my projects have a utility function. Squeegee mops, jarvis vacuums, smart marine fish tank is... well smart lol. So this is just for fun and I hope others enjoy it. I have already contemplated using it as a demonstration tool to get kids interested in technology. . Dang it! This is just for fun , ok I'll try not to get to serious with this. My friend Marty was talking about being able to drive the power wheels around while his kid was in it around the neighborhood. Or if his kid was driving and got to far he's just a button click away from stopping it. We found a free power wheels that had seen some rough years and we gave it a complete makeover. It looks better than new, new Gel cells from power sonic , smart charging and more. I gave it a cool high grass stripe camo.pattern and gave it to his son for his birthday. I'll post a couple pics. He's on the fence about doing the further mods so i searched craigslist.org for another power wheels that had been loved a little too hard. Searching for something with space and power I wanted I set my heart on a f150 , Toyota 4x or jeep 4x4. I didn't find a 4x4 model but f150 was the next best as it had dual gearboxes with rs585 motors. Also a good gel battery and charger was included. Here come some pics...
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Ok, so now I have two sets of bearings and two tires ready to mate with the original power wheels gearboxes. There is both a right and left one.
The original shaft is corroded and no longer smooth like the new shaft. The wheels spins freely on the new one but the old one has a great deal of resistance. I may consider not cutting the shaft down until everything else is done so I have wiggle room for any errors. Next I am moving to the front wheels and axles. I hope to have all 4 wheels on the truck today now that I have the hardware.
I do have a couple problems. First the left front tire axle is too long so I need to trim it back some. The front wheels wheelbase is a tiny bit wider than the rear so I need some adjustments. The front wheels alignment is a little off, but I believe it came that way. I may need to hack saw the steering link then fiberglass it back together about a 1/2" wider to fix the alignment.
I'm letting it sit upside down while the epoxy fully hardens holding the adapters to the original front axles. Tommorow I will take a picture of it the ride side up.
Ok , as promised the sun was out today allowing me to take great progress mark pictures. I tested the range of motion on the tires after I modified the stopping points. The front tire can touch the edge of the front fender so I will trim that back some.
This is turned to the right almost to the point it will rub the fender well which is also the floorboard. I may trim this back to prevent rubbing.
Here is the right wheel turned left and you can see it will barely catch the fender.
Here is the fender area I will trim to get full left turn capabilities.
Here is a quick assembly without screws. The project sat outside during the summer and became dirty so I rinsed it off.
Prewash pics, yuck. This is 9 months outdoors unattended.