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If you previously bought a power wheels dune racer for your kiddo and he/she has been nagging you that they want their dune racer to run longer, then it could be time to consider doing a power wheels dune racer battery upgrade.
More importantly, if the original battery isn’t working anymore, upgrading your Power wheels dune racer battery will likely save you money.
You see, going for a generic battery certainly makes more economic sense than sticking to the expensive power wheels branded replacement battery
If you decide to go down this route, below is how I did it (and made my daughter the happiest kid on earth, at least for a few days)…
Power wheels dune racer battery upgrade – How I did it
For my power wheels dune racer battery upgrade project, the first thing I did was purchase a few accessories.
The good thing is that the entire set of the needed parts doesn’t take a whole lot of money.
Here are the things I bought for my power wheels dune racer upgrade job:
Expert power battery exp12200
Instead of burning money paying for the ridiculously pricey OEM Power Wheels battery, I went for this 12 Volts (20 Amp Hour) Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) Battery.
That saved me quite some $$$ (the battery was priced at $44 against $75)…
And as a bonus, it has a bigger capacity (the original battery was 9.5 Amp Hour and at just $44, I was getting a 20 Amp Hour battery).
A wire harness connector
You can either find a way to plug in this upgrade battery to the vehicle or use this connector.
One way- if you’d rather not buy the adapter- is breaking the top of your PW battery apart and pulling out its connectors and then attaching them to your new battery.
But that’s slightly more labor and to make matters worse, you will probably require to do some soldering.
On the whole, buying the connector will make life easier for you (A 30-AMP fuse has already been installed on this harness so the whole circuit will be protected in case of an overload).
A charger
This universal battery charger charges fast and was a great upgrade on the charger that came with my daughter’s Dune Racer (it was working only intermittently).
The best thing is that it figures out when your battery is full (and switches to trickle charge so you don’t need to worry about it damaging the battery by overcharging it).
Other components
From my local hardware store I purchased 12ga wire, wire holders, and terminals.
Power wheels dune racer battery upgrade – the procedure
Step 1: Removing the old battery
The Dune Racer feature a battery compartment in the front (over it, there is a little hood) where the original battery is placed.
To remove the battery, simply open the housing then disconnect your old battery (from inside).
Step 2: Install the new battery in the housing
Place the new battery (in the housing) in the exact matching way as the old battery.
Step 3: Route the wire from the battery to adapter.
The adapter has another huge advantage- it lets the stock PW harness remain in place (so it will still be possible to use your stock battery as a spare once the bigger battery runs down).
Bear in mind that the connector and battery connects to the car and the charger in separate ways (the charging cable plugs into the inside portion -of the connector- where there are two metal leads).
The thing is you need to route it from the battery to the back (the adapter ends at the back of your car).
Now, to run it from the back (of the car), you will make use of the 12 gauge wire, the terminals, and your wire holders.
To be clear, I used self-tapping screws to mount the wire-holders into the plastic.
In general, you can be creative when it comes to doing the routing and here are a few pictures to give you an idea of how I did mine.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
And here is the battery housed inside the compartment
Of course, the battery has 2 leads, one red and one black.
You just push the black wire onto the black lead and the red wire onto the red lead.
Charging the new battery
As you can see in the above picture, you just charge the new battery in the toy vehicle as it is pretty heavy (don’t forget that the wiring has been screwed to the vehicle as well).
To charge, you simply plug in the adapter into the charger.
Power wheels dune racer battery upgrade – useful tips
- In truth, you can use any generic 12-volts battery (and there are various capacities and you can pick the one that fits your needs)
- You don’t have to upgrade the charger- your 12 volts stock charger should work if it is operational.
- If you intention is to get the power wheels dune racer to go faster, you will need to do further mods- specifically, the gear boxes and motors will need to be upgraded. You can also go for the dewalt 20v power tool battery (plus its power wheels adapter) instead of a generic 12v battery.
Wrap up
Once you are done with the upgrade, your power wheels dune racer battery life will extend noticeably (which equals more fun time for your wannabe driver).
And so your kiddos will always have a blast whenever they go out riding their power wheels.
Be sure to search for a YouTube video on how to install a larger battery for a Power Wheels Dune Racer for step-by-step instructions (here is good one).
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