It is rare to meet a child who would not want to have his own little car. This is especially true of electric cars, which not only boys but also girls ride with enthusiasm. Indeed, in this case, the baby does not need to pedal, and the temptation to climb in the mud will be less.
A simple electric car with your own hands can be done by adjusting a screwdriver to a normal pedal car, which can be powered from a motorcycle battery. However, there are many shortcomings in such a design scheme, as fragile plastic has an unpleasant habit of falling apart from long operation.
In addition, the standard gear case in this case simply does not have enough resources for any long-term operation, so in any case you will have to deal with the modernization and “refinement” of existing solutions.
Characteristics of the simplest car
As we already mentioned, the body is best taken from a conventional pedal-powered car. If this is not possible, you can try to build something like this out of plastic or even plywood. Doing an electric car with your own hands, you need to get a couple of engines from ordinary screwdrivers. Reducers need to be taken from there, but for them it is necessary to make home-made steel cases. Output shafts are exposed on 201 bearings.
As in the prototype, the landing in this car is lateral. The engines are powered by a conventional 6ST60 car battery. Small plastic wheels can be taken from garden trolleys or the like. A steel pipe with a diameter of 16 mm is taken for the frame.
Suspension
The suspension is best made spring type. The brake system is electric, by direct short circuit and through a resistor (for smooth braking).
You can put on the little car horn, headlights and mirrors. In a word, make a beautiful electric car with your own hands! Be sure to do the drawings in advance, as this will allow you to better represent the design. We will give all the general information in this article, but no one will forbid you to connect your creative vein to the process.
At a maximum speed of 8 km / h, this design has a cruising range of at least 30 km! The machine is double, without batteries, it weighs about 15 kg. Car dimensions - LxWxH (mm) - 880x560x570.
Electrical Specifications
When you start to make an electric car with your own hands, it is on this point that you need to pay special attention. The fact is that the reliability of the machine and the safety of your child depend on the characteristics of this equipment. Of course, first of all, you should worry about ensuring that all contacts are reliably isolated.
Many people think that the braking system can be made by simply putting the "On / Off" button on the panel from a screwdriver. Of course, in this case, controlling the machine becomes as simple as possible. Just keep in mind that sudden braking can lead to very unpleasant consequences. So the brakes need to be done through the resistor.
How to add speed?
Also keep in mind that smoothly starting a standard screwdriver (when using it in a typewriter) pretty quickly becomes unusable. The machine starts to start jerking.
Pick up the two-stage throttle and brake buttons by adding resistance. Do not worry about high losses from the battery: the first speed is used for a rather short time, so nothing bad will happen.
Making the body of the all-terrain vehicle
We immediately decide that the body is best taken from a ready-made machine, as in the end your creation will look more aesthetically pleasing. Before you make an electric car with your own hands, we recommend wandering around the sites of online stores. Enterprising Chinese have been selling anything for a long time, and therefore finding a suitable body will be easy.
Attachment points - in the place where the "donor" had pedals. To fasten the rear part on the frame, it is necessary to make protrusions that will serve as additional stiffeners. For the battery, you need to make a basket from a welded profile.
It is preferable to make one part of the body folding, securing it on hinges that are suitable in size. In this case, it will be easy for you to remove the battery for its maintenance. If there is no suitable pipe, the frame can easily be made from old chairs with a steel frame. Spare parts from high-quality prams are ideal for suspension.
About the quality of materials ...
Making an electric car with your own hands (we are discussing the simplest scheme) from parts of a stroller, you will at the same time provide yourself with all the necessary spare parts, which are sold in specialized stores. Note that for this purpose it is necessary to select parts from high-quality European strollers, and not their Chinese and Polish imitations. Cheap models use the cheapest plastic and very poor metal.
This design does not stand even the use for its intended purpose, and even in the little car it will fall apart even more so.
Moreover, they already have ready-made fasteners, and therefore there is an opportunity to do without welding (it is not present at all for everyone). It is better to make massive bumpers, since it’s easier to carry the machine for them. Making the suspension from the remains of the stroller, inspect the guide springs: if they are too stunted, it is better to strengthen them with steel strips.
Make the transmission
We have already agreed that as engines we will take those from a screwdriver. The gearbox itself from the device remains unchanged, but the housing must be turned out of steel on a lathe. Engines will transmit torque through a chain drive. Fortunately, there will be no problems with this: in any bicycle shop you will find any kind of stars in the necessary configurations.
It's difficult to talk about diameter. Take a smaller asterisk - the speed will be higher, but the wear of gearboxes that are simply not designed for such loads will also be much stronger. An excessively large diameter will lead to unreasonably high losses of electricity, since most of the time the mechanism will rotate in vain.
If there is such a desire, drums for mechanical brakes can be attached to the wheels. They can also be found in bicycle shops, but if desired and with a lathe, they are easily made at home. In general, when assembling a high-quality home-made electric car with your own hands, be sure to take care of access to turning equipment, since without this you simply will not be able to make many details.
Bearings
But instead of the standard bearings from the carts, it is necessary to supply 200 and 201 bearings with inner diameters of 10 and 12 mm. For installation, transitional housings are used, in the rear internal parts of which a thread is made for the drums. Halves of the cases can be connected using a coupler, fastening it with bolted connections.
Of course, if you have a normal
lathe, then it is better to do without such tricks, making all the parts from solid steel bars. It will turn out much stronger, and the reliability of such a design is not an example above. And to do an electric car with your own hands for children needs to be made as reliable as possible!
Since we use electric brakes, the entire transmission is not particularly difficult. No parking brakes needed. Keep in mind that the child must use the car strictly under your supervision!
Making the chassis
The most difficult from a technical point of view, the knuckle assembly. It is better to take it from the "donor" pedal car, putting rubber limiters to turn the wheel.
This will prevent unnecessarily sharp turns and rollovers at high speeds. Yes, this is also possible, since a children's electric car (making it not so difficult with your own hands) in any case will turn out with a shifted center of gravity.
For body swing limiters, ordinary rope rods are taken to prevent the body from coming off the frame on potholes and potholes. We attach the front axle to the swing levers. Since the weight of the machine is small, it makes no sense to put any complex transverse traction. It is better to strengthen the suspension springs, which in this case can easily withstand even two babies.
Instead of swinging levers that are not so easy to find, you can use two 1.5 mm thick stainless steel strips mounted longitudinally on the frame. However, it is worth remembering that you can not take an ordinary steel strip: its front parts will have an unnecessarily strong load, which will inevitably lead to deformation and destruction of the material.
To avoid this phenomenon, the thickness of the front third of the strips should be increased by about 2/3, having welded to it a
steel corner suitable for the parameters
. In a word, before you make an electric car with your own hands, pre-purchase all the necessary "scrap metal".
More about steering
The steering assembly is based on the most primitive linkage design. By looking at the controls of any toy pedal car, you can easily do something similar on your own. Steering tips are better to take ready-made by buying them in a car store.
Fasteners are similar to those used in the doors of cars. Turning knuckles (which we mentioned) can be taken ready-made, but if necessary they are not so difficult to cut from a 2 mm thick steel sheet.
The
steering levers are one with them. The front part is bent in the form of a channel, welding to its front part a machined hollow axis. The king pin is easy to grind from a standard “furniture” bolt. For
steering rods, a tube with a diameter of 8 mm is taken. Hinges can be found in a furniture store. Their strength will be quite enough.
Give a royal gift to your child by giving him an electric car. It’s not difficult to assemble it with your own hands, but the baby will experience unmerciful joys from this!