My kids Power Wheel is under the knife

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MikeK1981

MikeK1981

ChondroManiac
Messages
2,037
Location
Humboldt, CA
OK so I was wnodering if any of you guys ever dealt with repairing or modifying power wheels vehicles and had any knowledge you could share with me. I've done a little research after the truck quit working and it turns out I still have power going to the leads for the motors, the motors just won't turn. I guess these things use 550 sized brushed motors like many RC's use. A member on one of the PW forums works for a hobby parts company and said that they were sending out a lot of duratrax motors but had received a of of calls back saying that the motors failed quickly and he recommended going with two of these.

http://www.hpiracing.com/products/en/1145/

So being a big fan of HPI, I thought that was cool so I got them on order and I'm gonna try them out. The stock motors had 32 pitch, 16T pinions on them so I've got two of those and two 19T pinions coming as well. Some of those guys use 21T pinions and up the power from 12V to 24V but I don't want to go that far yet especially when it's not even running as is. I just want to get it going again and I can play with the pinion gears to see what that does for now. Plus my kids are only 3 and 4 so I don't think making a PW with plastic tires go 20 mph and pull wheelies is in their best interest yet LOL. Also HPI does not give any info out on this motor aparently and was wondering if you guys could help me out with that. I think the stock motors are supposed to be 30 turn and do about 16,000 rpm so I want something comparable if not a little faster than that. Problem is I just don't know what these HPI motor have for specs. The person that recommended these said they work very well so I'm assuming they probably perform similar to the stock PW ones. What do you guys think, any advice?
 
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I didnt even know they used 550 mills lol. Id think crawler motors higher in turn would be a better match but I have no clue..
 
They have these big plastic gear boxes that gear it way down for use in the power wheel. As it is now it only goes 2.5 mph in first, and 5 mph in second. I mainly just want to get it going for them cause they use it when we go to the bashin' spot, but I'd rather it wasn't any slower LOL. They'd like it to be faster for sure, I just don't want it too crazy right off the bat. They got one of those two seater 12V F150's. They don't make a Silverado otherwise they would have that one LOL. I was surprised to find out that they used RC type equipment also.
 
MikeK1981 said:
OK so I was wnodering if any of you guys ever dealt with repairing or modifying power wheels vehicles and had any knowledge you could share with me. I've done a little research after the truck quit working and it turns out I still have power going to the leads for the motors, the motors just won't turn. I guess these things use 550 sized brushed motors like many RC's use. A member on one of the PW forums works for a hobby parts company and said that they were sending out a lot of duratrax motors but had received a of of calls back saying that the motors failed quickly and he recommended going with two of these.

http://www.hpiracing.com/products/en/1145/

So being a big fan of HPI, I thought that was cool so I got them on order and I'm gonna try them out. The stock motors had 32 pitch, 16T pinions on them so I've got two of those and two 19T pinions coming as well. Some of those guys use 21T pinions and up the power from 12V to 24V but I don't want to go that far yet especially when it's not even running as is. I just want to get it going again and I can play with the pinion gears to see what that does for now. Plus my kids are only 3 and 4 so I don't think making a PW with plastic tires go 20 mph and pull wheelies is in their best interest yet LOL. Also HPI does not give any info out on this motor aparently and was wondering if you guys could help me out with that. I think the stock motors are supposed to be 30 turn and do about 16,000 rpm so I want something comparable if not a little faster than that. Problem is I just don't know what these HPI motor have for specs. The person that recommended these said they work very well so I'm assuming they probably perform similar to the stock PW ones. What do you guys think, any advice?
Click to expand...

interesting project. can you snap some pics as you go so we can see how it all works out?
 
Nice project brushlessboy16 but I'm not lookin' to go RC with it LOL. Just want to fix it and maybe add a bit of extra speed to keep the boys interested in it for a while longer.
 
frddyj said:
man, you guys can mod anything. pretty kool blb.
Click to expand...

Thanks :)


Get some boat motors- 700 series.

The transmissions(in general- not sure on your model number) are drilled for different sized motors etc. If not a simple aluminum adapter plate would work.

Get 8th'' aluminum plate drill its 3mm holes spaced correctly for your motor, countersink one side so that the front face will be smooth-when used in conjunction with countersunk screws. then drill some 3mm holes spaced 25mm apart and tap them for m3.
 
I'm liking this thread lol.... Thanks for your input BLboy16 !
 
It says those are discontinued on that link. I have the HPI GT 550's coming and I'll let you guys know how they work. I suspect they will be just about like the stock ones, but I'm gonna use a slightly larger pinion and see what that does for speed.
 
OK so I got the motors installed in the gearboxes and they work using a 7.2V stick pack. Had to modify the mounting holes for the motors slightly to allow the larger pinion gears but other than that everything was fine. Come to find out the Power Wheel battery won't power the new motors at all. A service tech told me that in rare cases a battery can show voltage but not put out any amperage. So I'm lookin at different options for powering the truck. The factory battery is a 12V Pb (Lead Acid), 9.5Ah (amp-hour) battery. If I'm not mistaken that makes it a 9500mah battery. Any of you battery wizards on here think of any reason this would not work to power the truck with two HPI GT550 motors. They are meant for up to 14.4V.

http://www.all-battery.com/rectangu...packforsolarpanelemergencelightcustomize.aspx
 
Yeah I ended up going with a 12V SLA that way I could add another in series later for 24V or use another 6V to make it 18V total. I tried the 12 turn traxxas titan motors in it and it hauled but had no torque so I'm takin those back (didn't pay for them yet, just an experiment) and I ave heard that the 21 or 23 turn work good with a 21 tooth pinion. I've got 19 tooth now so I'll probably just stick with those. I wish I knew how many turns the HPI GT550's were cause I have one and the other is on it's way to the hobby store. I don't know why yet but I blew the 30A fuse like it wasn't even there. I hooked it up with out it but the wiring got hot and the battery dropped from 13.37V to 12.47 in less than five minutes and it is a 12Ah battery LOL. The stock is 9.5Ah. I think it was because of the 12 turn motors. I hope it was anyway cause if not then it means I have a problem somewhere and I thought everything was right LOL. Too bad cause it went like a full size golf cart with this gearing on only 12V LOL. I guess the only thing I can do is try the HPI motors when the other gets here otherwise I'll have to order something different.
 
LOL that's pretty cool. Looks like go-karts fitted with power wheel bodies though. If I wanted to go that far I'd just get them go-karts or quads LOL.
 
Just an update on this. I have the HPI #1145 GT550 motors installed with 19T pinion gears and it rips pretty good on 12V. Pretty much like stock with just a bit more power and speed. Now that I have all the wiring reworked I can easily change out motors and add either a 6V or 12V battery in series to get more out of it. I had to use a 40 amp fuse, otherwise it would blow under a heavy load, using the 30 amp one. Anybody that needs to fix these it is very easy once you get into these things. There is very little to them other than the plastic bodies LOL. You could rewire the whole thing including motors for like $15 if you got cheap non-RC motors and switches for the shifters. The new non-Power Wheel battery was $49 for a 12V 12Ah versus $69 for the stock Power Wheel battery that was only 9.5Ah. Plus I can charge this battery with my RC charger, it takes like 2 hours instead of twelve like the trickle charger that came with the PW battery and it had a special plug so you could only charge with a PW charger. Battery life seems to be about the same with the bigger mah batt but it IS faster so... The kids are happy!
 
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