FAQ - If your new to modding, you should read this!

[gameboy]

sporty982000
Posted - 08/27/2006 : 12:03:14
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I wanted to post for the new Modders coming to the forum.

I have been answering alot of questions, that can be found all over, but as many older posts get kicked farther back in the threads.

I would imagine it's hard to find those posts or that information.

There have been some good questions asked lately buy newer members.

I wanted to answer a few questions and relay my thoughts and comments. In hopes that this might guide you in the direction you would like to go !


1- When posting, please try and provide the model, make, how old, how much estimated run time on it. If it is stock.

2- In order to help you all best, What are you're abilities ?

3- What are you really wanting ? SPEED ? LONGER RUN TIME ? EASY MODS ? PUSHING THE LIMIT ?

A rating for the novice -


Easy MODS - Painting, adding new stickers, minor repairs or replacing stock parts.(switches, relays)

Medium MODS- Different batteries, Different motors, Heat sinks, inline fuses.Different tires or traction bands on them.

Hard MODS- Changing out gear boxes with non stock units, wiring.


X-streme MODS- going to 18 volts or above, body lifts, wanting to go to scooter motors, elimanting gear boxes.

This is to give the novice of a idea of a difficulty level.


Their our a ton of variables that go into a MOD.


Make sure you awahre that a Mod can void warranty, shorten the life of the power wheel or ruin it.

Know what you want to put into it, or how much maintence you want to do.

Like- battery charging, replacing parts often. Cost !


Some of the other modders have been around while and have done or tried just about everything.

Make sure to ask, about run time, length of use, motor failure and so forth !

I have seen people surprised on run time and battery charge time and motor failure and other items lately.

I want future modders to know, what to exspect !


It is rare in my view, to find a person running 18 volts and not have a motor failure on stock motors after 3 months, if that power wheel is being used alot.

So be sure and ask the right questions and have the right exspecations of the mod.

The child size and weight, terrian all should be a factor also !


I don't want to see or hear about a un-happy parent, who thought that going to 18 or 24 volts was a easy mod and that no failure would accour. Or that the run time was only 20 minutes and they were thinking it was going to be 50 minutes.

So the more info on not what you want to do, but what you exspect from the mod is helpfull for other experienced modder to reply with the right info for you.

Also teach the kids to stop using it also, as soon as it starts making odd sounds.

I taught my kids, you hear any kind of noise. you think is not right, stop and come get me, if I am not around and dont ride it anymore until I look at it.

[gameboy]

TiddlerRacer
Posted - 08/27/2006 : 19:48:02
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Excellent post Sporty. I think the biggest thing people need to realize when modding is one, they need to be honest with themselves on their mechanical anad electrical ability. The second is people need to understand that modding anything to go faster will cause accelerated wear and premature failure. FP and Peg designed these vehicles for a certain level of performance, and once you mod all that research and engineering goes out the window. Failures will happen.

There needs to be a way to make certain information easily available to newbies on this forum. There are a lot of repeat questions coming up that can be answered with existing information on the boards, it's just a matter of finding that information.

I'd like to add as well - I've preached this time and time again, but I think it bears repeating. With a PW there are three areas to gain more speed: increased voltage, faster motors, and higher gear ratios via larger tires or a different gearboxes. Under normal circumstances and everything being "good" (greased gearboxes, oiled motor bushings, no excesive loads, etc.) modding one of these areas is normally ok. 18V (not 24V - I would consider that going two steps in voltage), a motor swap (nothing lower than 23 turns, IMO), or a larger tire OR one step up in gearing (like a 16T to a 19T) are normally ok by themselves. There will be a slight boost in performance and durability will normally remain ok. If you add traction aids and/or allow your child to do forward/reverse slams ALL BETS ARE OFF IN TERMS OF RELIABILTY.

Once you get in the realm of two mods (ex 18V AND a motor swap together, or a motor swap and increased gearing) then things are much closer to the edge. At this point it will not be if, but rather when a failure will occur - and it will occur much faster than one or no mods.

At the point of modding all three areas (voltage, motors, and gearing) all bets are off. The vehicle is going to run like a scalded dog but will have the reliability of a top fuel dragster. If you have lots of time and money to dump into plastic cars, and your child loves to sit there and watch you constantly work on his/her broken toy, then by all means go whole hog and mod the snot out of it.

My son and I have torn up a lot of these little vehicles doing a lot of different mods, so trust me - I speak from experience. Thankfully 90% of them were free and we have a ton of spare parts, or ther is no way I would have been able to afford fixing them each time. If you are getting into modding, I would suggest keeping one vehicle stock in your stable. We have a stock KFX, and at times over the past 18 months it has been the only vehicle running. Stock is boring once a child experiences a modded PW, but stock rocks over nothing to ride at all.