# A childs electric truck



## firebird (Nov 18, 2007)

Hi

Here's something that may be of interest  to those of you with kids or grand kids. It's something I built when my kids were youngsters and has featured in a couple of magazines. I have pasted in the original word doc and a few photos. Have a look and see what you think.



Dear Sir,
              I have followed with great interest the article about building a powered land rover and thought you might like to take a look at the electric truck I built about ten years ago. I built it before I got back into woodworking so there is little wood in it, in fact the only piece of wood is the bit of half inch ply I used to make the seat. However it could just as easily be made from ply or MDF. The main reason that spurred me to put pen to paper is the difference in the cost, the Land Rover, beautiful as it is, will cost many hundreds of pounds where as mine could be built for a fraction of that and would therefore suit woodworkers on a smaller budget. It all depends how good you are at scavenging and scrounging as to the final cost.
                  The truck was built using light gauge 1 inch square steel tube welded together to form a frame. It was then covered in thin galvanized sheet steel simply pop riveted to the frame. I wont go into exact dimensions because unless you can get all of the components exactly the same as the ones I used they would prove to be pretty useless, in fact I couldnt tell you were some of the bits came from. I have however enclosed a couple of drawings that will give you some idea of overall sizes. Like I said before it could just as easily be made from ply or MDF or even bits of chipboard, old kitchen cabinets and doors would be a handy source of raw material, plenty of those in skips!
                      A 12-volt motor, which drives 1 back wheel only, drives the truck, the other back wheel just freewheels, this is the easiest way to do it. Ill show up my motor trade background now by explaining why. When the truck is on full lock turning a tight circle the outside wheel is travelling through a larger diameter circle than the inside wheel therefore if both back wheels were fixed together on one solid axle the tyres would scrub and put an unnecessary strain on the motor. That is why cars are fitted with differentials to compensate for this. Much easier to just drive one back wheel. Of course you could fit twin motors, one on each back wheel but I dont think it would make a lot of difference if you were just running on a hard surface. It would certainly use the battery twice as fast. Speaking of batteries a standard car battery provides the power; try to get one of the sealed for life types if you can. Scrap yards are a good place for batteries; you should get a decent one for a fiver. Make a cradle inside the truck and fix the battery in securely. While your down the scrap yard get a motor. Most modern cars have an electric fan on the radiator to cool the engine, thats where the motor comes from. Get one that has just two wires coming from it; this is a single speed motor. Usually there is a connector plug either on the motor itself or at the end of a short length of wire, snip this of and keep it as it will make connecting up easier. The motor I used came from 1990 Ford escort. If you know somebody who is scrapping a car offer to do a bit of re-cycling. You will notice the truck is a three-wheeler; there are several reasons for this. Firstly it does away with the need for complicated steering links that would be required on a four-wheeled vehicle. Secondly I set the steering stops at a touch under 90 degrees left and right of centre, this means that the truck will turn in a little over its own length thus doing away with the need for a reverse and thirdly of course you only need three wheels. The steering consists of a pair of forks running on a taper roller bearing with a steering wheel on top. Im not sure what the steering wheel is, just something from the scrap yard that looked about right. The wheels I used are 8 inch in diameter and have solid rubber tyres with a roller bearing in the centre. I have no idea where they came from or what their original purpose was, they were just lying under the bench for years waiting for the day that they would come in handy. Im sure Ive seen something similar at B & Q or somewhere like that. If you look in Machine Marts catalogue they have some heavy-duty pneumatic tyred wheels at 11.69 or solid rubber wheels at 4.69 each, they may be suitable?  The drive from the motor to the wheel comes from an electric lawn mower, a small-toothed belt and the accompanying toothed gears and a small chain and gears from a Childs bike, courtesy of our local tip, then finally driving the wheel through a large plastic gear, once again I have no idea what it came from. This gives the truck a speed comparable to a brisk walking pace, about right. (Washing machines and the like have belts and pulleys that may be of use, and old car water pumps and their flanges can be adapted as bearing mounted shafts). The power from the battery is connected to the motor via a foot-operated pedal connected to a pull switch. How many of you readers can remember the old Morris Minor pull switch for the starter motor or the push button on old minis. There are no brakes fitted as the truck stops quite quickly as soon as the foot pedal is released. Well thats about all there is to the construction, you will have to modify and adapt as necessary depending on what bits and pieces you can find but its all pretty straight forward. As you can see from the photos the truck has took a bit of a bashing over the years, lost some of its original red paint and gained a bit of  black and a few dents, women drivers. I originally built it for Samantha my middle daughter who is now 18 and taking proper driving lessons. Natasha, daughter No. 3 who is 9 is now the owner. The photos show Natasha and her friend Chloe. The truck is still running on the original motor. A tow bar was added so that it could pull a plastic trailer. There has been three of the little tykes on it before now, two on the truck and one in the trailer and the little motor pulls them all. One last thing before I sign off, I had toyed with the idea of mounting the motor on the front forks and driving the front wheel via a chain and gears, with hindsight this may have been easier than the rear wheel drive option. Any way I hope this gives your readers some help and a few ideas.



The truck with its trailer.







The battery compartment






Upturned.






The motor.






The single front wheel.






cheers


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## jenelyn18 (Jul 1, 2009)

Kids also like to do or experiment some electric wire, right?


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## Mo deller (Jul 1, 2009)

Thats great firebird. I aquired a disabled persons buggy that was in need of tlc with the intention of turning it into a powered trailer for a cycle. The kids got more fun driving it round the garden so I havn't pulled it apart. Found this web site when I was researching for other ideas.
http://buggies.builtforfun.co.uk/index.php

Mo


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## firebird (Jul 2, 2009)

Hi Jenelyn and Mo

I still have it tucked away in the shed. My daughters are now 29, 24, and 15. Waiting for a grandchild now.

Cheers

Rich


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## NickG (Aug 19, 2009)

Rich,

I saw that in model engineer, had no idea it was you! Actually, I only have a few model engineer magazines left and I just came across it the other day when I was sorting some old stuff out. I just give them to our club library when finished with them now.

Great little toy, I'm planning on making a 5" gauge electric loco for my 3 1/2 year old son ... he'll probably be much older by the time I get it done haha! Always had the intention of using car fan motors but recently bought a couple of those electric scooter motors which are a bit more powerful. Got some gears at the harrogate model engineering exhibition and a controller off ebay from somewhere in china. Hopefully I can cobble a chassis together now!

Nick


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## firebird (Aug 19, 2009)

Hi Nick

Yeah thats me. The car radiator motors are quite powerful and easy to get (free). They will run continuously for hours if need be and in quite hot conditions. Last year while on holiday we visited the model village in Babbacombe, Devon. They have a railway as part of the layout. One of the trains was being repaired in the workshop and I was able to see inside it. It was powered by a windscreen wiper motor driving one axle. Wiper motors are already geared down and are also capable of running for long periods and some are 2/3 speed. Might be worth considering.

cheers

Rich


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