My 4 year old sons first car - the swing bin racer.

[BoRED S2upid]

That is superb. I have 3 years till my sons 4.

[LarJammer]

i will try and remember to post some 'technical' details later. (the user formally known as bertelli).

[007singh]

This is awesome! I need to do something on this basis for my kids, will start looking into it right away!

Given I don't have a spare old cordless drill about the place, any ideas on a motor source, other than to buy a drill for this purpose?

[mikey P 500]

Col 666 said:

+1 here for pictures of peoples steering set-up. I can't get the cable tight enough to make it work!

Re engineered the steering tonight and ditched the cables as wasn't up to my son rough driving. Used some cheap m8 rose joints from ebay and made a bit sheet steel for the centre (kind of what I guessed the op had done). Works much better with no weight on the car, think the real test will be when my son is in the car.

[Ayahuasca]

I wonder how the original car fared, been a few years since it was rolled out now.

[dr_rallye]

Did the same on my son's car...

[dr_rallye]

Did the same on my son's car...

[007singh]

That looks very good. What was the original setup as prescribed in the instructions?

[mikey P 500]

007singh said:

That looks very good. What was the original setup as prescribed in the instructions?

the standard set up per instructions uses a bike cable wrapped around a rubber door stop. It was ok and required about 3 or 4 complete turns of the wheel lock to lock (so safer for small children) now its about half a turn either way for full lock, but it should be more reliable as was really tricky to get cables tight (had to fit and then keep turning back and forth to work the slack out and keep re adjusting), and they seamed to stretch or come lose over time making the steering a bit vague.
The vast majority of the instructions are very good though and well worth the investment as a starting point to a build. The whole point in building z car rather than buying for me was the option to customize it as went along anyway. Really enjoyable making it, probably owes me nearly 20 hours in total now.

[FastNLoud]

That is awesome

[soad]

Kitchski said:

I bought the plans for this ages ago and never got round to it. Maybe it's not too late?!

Your son must be so disappointed in you, chap.
Get it built!

[JordanTurbo]

Hi guys,

My son is already 4 and I want ours to last a bit longer before he grows out of it so I'm drawing a slightly larger design of my own up in CAD.

Please an someone who's got/built one of these do me a favour? Can you post some basic dimensions for the wheels in the kit so I can see whether they are still suitable?

Thanks

[Col 666]

dr_rallye said:

Did the same on my son's car...

That looks a lot better, Could you please post a close up? Is it just the tightness of the bolts either side of the plate that hold it tight?

[Kitchski]

soad said:

Kitchski said:

I bought the plans for this ages ago and never got round to it. Maybe it's not too late?!

Your son must be so disappointed in you, chap.
Get it built!

They would all be pretty gutted! I'll get on it soon, along with the million and one other cars I own, it'll give me something to do

[vtans]

I ordered and completed one of these last year (after seeing them here) for my then 2 year old girl (bit early maybe) thought I'd post the end result. Super happy with it :-)

[Kitchski]

I never did build mine. Found plans to build a home-made Hovercraft though, and I've got an old lawnmower.....

[neilbauer]

This is so cool

[BenWRXSEi]

Bookmarking this for when I have kids

Has anyone done a chain-drive setup using bicycle parts, I wonder...?

[Wacky Racer]

Just come across this thread.....awesome...

[smithyithy]

I don't have kinds but really fancy building a slightly bigger version to dick around in. Great thread though