Here's How To Convert A Power Wheels Car To Use A Drill Battery

It's been six months since Christmas and your kid is already bored with the low-speed and low power output of the battery-powered ride-on machine (BPROs) you bought for them, right? I'm not going to tell you your business, but if you want your kid to be a happy gearhead, you should probably upgrade that machine to run on a more powerful 20V system with rechargeable battery packs. As luck would have it, compact and powerful batteries are available from a dozen different power tool manufacturers, and they'll provide a faster and more fun experience for your little ones with a few do-it-yourself modifications. Maybe they'll even love you more. 

If you're a parent of a young child you probably have one of these BPROs (likely a Power Wheels) in your garage right now taking up space and gathering dust. They're extremely expensive short-term fun, and kids get bored of them quickly. That standard 12v sealed lead acid battery system is hardly enough to keep a kid's attention when the iPads and Bluey are inside. All you need to do is swap out the battery packs and they'll be back outside ready to touch grass and go fast in no time. 

If you're even a little bit capable of fiddling with electricity, you should be able to figure this process out for yourself, but there are dozens of in-depth how-to guides on the internet. We'll go over the basics here, it's a pretty standard job. Even at the higher voltage level of a Dewalt drill battery, you're not working with enough power to injure yourself, and you'd have to try really hard to set anything on fire, so don't be scared of it and dig in. Your kid could be ripping plastic wheel burnouts in no time flat.

You don't even need much in the way of tools or supplies in order to make this go-fast modification happen. Start with the battery and something for it to plug into. If you have a broken tool you can take it apart to crib for the battery dock, but if you don't want to sacrifice a $200 drill to this experiment, you can get aftermarket adapters for your brand of choice online for around $15. It's better to go that direction, as many of those adapters come with an inline fuse for extra protection. 

Do a little research to figure out if the Power Wheels you're operating on has a control board. If it does, you'll need a low voltage cutoff switch. If not, just wire it in. Open the battery door and cut the wires from the back of the battery plug. Break out your soldering iron and permanently fuse the wires from the BPRO to the wires sticking out of your battery adapter, then heat shrink it to prevent arcing and corrosion. Boom, now you can slap in one of your 5amp 20v batteries fresh off the charging dock and let it rip. 

It's important to note that lithium batteries deliver power instantly, while the original lead acid battery has more ramp up to it. If your kid treats throttle application like an on/off switch, the additional power and frequent sudden jolts could lead to fried motors, stripped gears, and internal electronics failures. You can add a small regulator module, called a "soft start low voltage module" which feeds in that power more easily for smoother acceleration without loss of top speed, and will prevent over-discharge by shutting the vehicle off when power drops below 15v. Boom, it's just that easy.