Experiment Power Boost Battery Operated Vehicles

As with any interest there is a community out there with your same interest. What I will show is just one of many different modifications you can do to your battery powered vehicle. Human natures says MORE POWER! And we want to go FASTER!

If you are really interested in modding your toy check out Modified Power Wheels. People really get creative with there toys!

My son is now 8 years old. I purchased this 4 wheeler when he was 4 years old. He has loved riding it and just recently started losing interest. His loss of interest was due to the speed. He was just becoming bored with it and ready to sell it. From the manufacturer these vehicles will move 4-5 mph on a full charge. I then asked him if I could make it faster would he want to keep it. His answer, YES!

Okay then... let's make it faster.

We will show how to make it faster and see the results of doubling the voltage power supply.

As mentioned earlier, most of these cars are designed to run on one 12 volt battery. The two most popular manufacturers on the market are Peg Perego and Power Wheels.

If you own one of these you will notice my 12 volt battery wiring harness and battery looks quite different than the manufacturer batteries and connection.

This is because I am not about to pay $50-$70 from the manufacturer, for a 12 volt battery that I can buy for $25 from a battery supply house. So, once you have burned through that original battery or want to purchase a second back up battery, watch this video. The video will show how to get that connector out of the original battery and start saving money on batteries.

Assuming you have already modified your wiring harness connection to accept after market batteries, you will need the following to convert from 12 volt to 24 volt.

• (2) 12 volt / 12 amp batteries. Buy them on Amazon or elsewhere online.
• 16 awg wire. Length will depend on where and how you decide to mount your 2 batteries. We only needed a 10 inch length.
• (2) terminal connectors
• Wire Strippers
• Terminal Crimps
• 12 volt battery charger.

To start... be sure that both batteries are fully charged with a battery charger of your choice.

We will need to make one additional wire to connect the two batteries in Series to sum the voltage of the two batteries together.

After you have decided how you will set the batteries in your vehicle, cut a wire long enough to connect the two batteries. We needed a 10 inch length of 16 awg. wire.

• Strip each end of the wire.
• Attach a female connector to each end.
• Crimp the connectors on.

That is all you need to connect the batteries. One simple wire.

As a reminder, this shows our vehicle battery compartment with only one 12 volt battery installed under the seat. Note that it is a horizontal placement. Really no room for a second battery.

You may have to get creative and modify your vehicle in some way to fit two batteries.

Luckily for us, all we needed to do was turn the batteries on end to fit under the seat.

As mentioned, no need to modify the vehicle in this case. Both batteries set perfectly in place on end.

1. Insert batteries bottom to bottom on end with terminals facing up.
2. Connect open positive vehicle connection to positive of battery one.
3. Connect open negative vehicle connection to negative of battery two.

We have connected the batteries to the vehicle. Now use the Series connection wire you made to connect the two batteries. Connect the positive to negative of the batteries.

Your circuit is now complete. You are ready to go FASTER!

But, how fast will you go?

This video shows the speed of a 100 ft. run on pavement. Approximate time to complete the run is 16 seconds.

Here you will see a significant different in speed to complete the 100 ft. run at approximately 9 seconds. Quite a difference.

The question we are trying to answer here is...

If we double the voltage from 12 volt to 24 volt will the speed double as well? Can we complete the 100 ft. run in half the time with a 24 volt power supply?

Let's have a little fun and run an experiment.

With some basic tools and rudimentary techniques we try to find the answer.

Supplies

• Note pad and pen to record data.
• Stop watch to time it takes for vehicle to travel 100 ft.
• Measuring tape to measure 100 ft. distance.
• Chalk to mark start and finish line.
• Cell phone or other video recording device... just to show the difference in speed.
• 150 ft. flat and paved runway.

In our "scientific" experiment we ran a series of runs and timed how long it would take for the vehicle to travel 100 ft. As noted on our data pad...

V= voltage being used. This was either 12 or 24 volts

D= distance of 100 ft. for all runs

T= time it took to run the 100 ft runway.

Start= type of start. A stop start was from a stopped position with the understanding it takes time for the vehicle to get to full speed. A running start was timed from start to finish with a 30 ft. head start before the starting line to get the vehicle up to full speed. The reason we added the running start is because there was significant tire spin on a stopped start once we went to 24 volts. This tire spin would obviously skew our "scientific" results.

Refer back to previous steps to view video of 100 ft. run with 12 volt and 24 volt power supplies.

After analysis of the data sheet we can conclude...

• With a 12 volt power supply the vehicle will travel approximately 4.5 miles per hour with a 70 lb. passenger.
• With a 24 volt power supply the vehicle will travel approximately 8.4 miles per hour with a 70 lb. passenger.
• There is a 76.54% increase in speed starting from a stopped position.
• There is a 87.56% increase in when testing from a running start.

From this data we can conclude while there is a significant increase in speed, doubling the voltage of power supply will not double the speed.

But, that 8 year old that was getting bored with moving at 4.5 miles per hour will now enjoy moving ALMOST twice as fast!

We hope others find this Instructable useful to upgrade your motorized toy. Have a little fun with math and your son and daughter and run the experiment yourself.

If you have more to add or found and error in our research and data collection and calculations, please share.

Thanks for viewing and give a VOTE if you feel worthy!

DIYWATERDOG

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