[reddogoz]

I have been wanting to build a car for my son and daughter for a very long time. I purchased the Toylander plans only to realise that I would need to buy a couple acres of land for them to be useful. I set about designing a new smaller car but I don't get a lot of spare time so progress was slow. I found this site only last week, read like crazy and decided to go the Power Wheels route for the time being. I jumped online and found a guy selling two 5 year old (I would guess) Power Wheels Eliminator cars in a very sad state ($140 for both). I purchased them last Sunday night and at this point I have power washed, scrubbed and flame treated and undercoated one of them ready for painting. I am going to paint the boys Eliminator black and red and the girls black and pink. The color choices are not mine, they are the kids choices.

I must say I have been extremely surprised at the quality of the Power Wheels Eliminator, they are built extremely well. Its unbelievable these cars are into their 6th year of abuse by young kids and still going strong.

My plans so far:

I have a number of mobility scooter and electric wheelchair parts remaining from other projects and I am thinking that instead of using the stock wiring I would install a speed controller (from a wheelchair) and associated electronics. I am quite well versed in this stuff having been involved with RC, electronics, coding and robotics for quite some time. This should allow me to use 24 volt but I will then limit the throttle to keep the speed within what the kids are capable of handling. This should allow me to use thinner wire 10-12g than 12v as the amps will be lower. Doing this mod will also enable me to make things simpler and potentially move the electronics to another car if required. I will keep documenting progress.

[cantdrivestock]

Welcome, personally I love the Eliminator and it's sister car the Extreme Machine. Great lil platforms to start with and always over looked. I like the light weight and the faux age as do the kiddos. The link will give you a bit of history on it and the original power when ad. I look forward to your builds!

http://service.mattel.com/us/productDet ... &siteid=27

[reddogoz]

Now that I have looked at the link you posted, I didn't get the Eliminator, I have the Xtreme Machine.

[reddogoz]

I started painting the car last night but progress has been slow because its cold where I live.

Just spit balling ideas in this post.

In an ideal world I would like to get the maximum amount of flexibility out of my components and keep the price as low as possible. When I refer to maximum flexibility I mean I would like to be able to do RC, manual control, drive by wire and move the components to a new vehicle should my kids want an upgrade.

If I was starting from scratch I would use the following:

1. The SyRen 50 from Dimension Engineering as it allows both RC or manual drive.
2. LiFeP04 batteries from hobbyking - http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__ ... _Pack.html. I would also get a battery alarm as well.
3. If I wanted to use RC control I would buy a transmitter from here - http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__ ... tters.html. I have one of the older Hobbyking transmitters and they are very good for the money.
4. I notice many people here use linear actuators for steering but there are a couple other options out there if people are so inclined. http://diyservo.com is another option (I have nothing to do with the project). The same electronics and code can be used in other DC motors. I developed a servo around an electric car window motor and also a banebots motor that I had sitting around (both work extremely well). Standard hobby servos are not suitable as they are too weak.
5. Hall effect foot pedal for throttle. You could use a simple on/off switch with very soft start instead of a proportional throttle.
6. If I was going to use a servo on the steering I would need to modify the steering wheel to give feedback and also make it center automatically.
a. Magnetic encoders are a nice touch - you can get them from madscientisthut.com for $20 and they will output a PWM signal.
b. Servo testers are another good option
7. If you wanted to go even further and had a servo on the steering, you could use a gyro on the steering to keep the car driving in a straight line.
8. If you wanted to go even further you could use a gyro/accel and knock out some Arduino code to stop the car should it be driven on a steep angle. Hobbyking sells very cheap flight controllers ($40) that could easily be modified to do this.

I have nothing to do with Hobbyking other than having purchased their products for my remote control planes, cars and helicopters.

[reddogoz]

I have almost completed painting one of the Xtreme Machines and am cooking up ideas on where to go when I finish painting. I also picked up a quad bike as well but that is another forum post.

I have built a 20ah 12v battery from 4 x 5.6ah 12 volt batteries. I did this because I had them lying around, they fit in the normal battery space and I wanted the option to go to 24v if I wanted. My only question is how do I pick the right motor and gearbox combination. I read a post that said to stay with the stock motors with cooling and run them on 24v. I have seen other posts that say the #7 gearboxes won't hold up to 24v. At the moment the plan is to use a speed controller and use that to limit speed (volts) and speed ramp up rate so the gearboxes do not get the initial shock that 24v would give them. Any ideas for me on this?

[EatMorChikn]

What did you end up doing with your XM, reddogoz? I have increased power to 18v on my Eliminator and blew one of the original motors. I am faced with the same dilemma: do I just buy stock motors (and gears) and add cooling fins OR do I "upgrade" the motors and gearboxes to ???

I am looking to pick-up a little speed, but ultimately don't want to be replacing motors, gears, etc every few weeks. So, DURABILITY seems to be my goal.

I read on here somewhere that 770s provide an upgrade in torque and unlike a 550 upgrade you don't get the speed, but you do get more durability.

Any thoughts on stock vs. aftermarket motor/gear options for an 18v Eliminator?