Jilly, The Motor Head!

         Earlier this year, while at a Jeep event for my work, a friend gave us a small electric ATV quad that his son had out grown. I was stoked! I'd been planning on getting toys like this for Jill but just hadn't yet. She's just now starting to get to the age where she can use them. When the toy was given to us, it wasn't in bad shape. It had seen it's use in the desert many times but overall, had been cared for. Really, the only problem were the stickers fading and starting to peel off. My friend told me the battery had gone south. For many months, this little quad sat around in my garage. Jillian wasn't quite big enough for it yet so I just hung on to it.

This is when we first got it, while we were in the desert (she had a high fever at the time and we were waiting for the sun to go down so Sarah could take her home) but she loved it, straight from the start!

              Now she is getting big enough and she's definitely smart enough to get the idea of out it works. I pulled it out yesterday and hooked up a different battery, just to test the quad to make sure all the other mechanicals worked.  It worked like a champ! The battery I used to test it wasn't the correct one and would only work just for a quick test without blowing out the electronics on the toy. I pulled the original battery out and hooked it up the to charger, just for giggles. While that was going, I started pulling all the decals off. Took a fair amount of time to get them all off, but what a world of difference it made to the look of it!

De-stickered, ready and waiting for a fresh battery

              I used a volt meter on the battery after it had been hooked to the charger for awhile and it read just shy of 6 volts (it's a 6 volt battery). I hooked it up to the toy and got nothing. A little bummed, but expecting it, I moved on. I sit at my computer and start researching the battery. I find that they are only about $25, not bad! I also find the original manual for the unit, I immediately downloaded it for safe keeping. While reading through, I notice that it says the charge time on the battery has a limit of 30 hours. 30 HOURS. I had only charged it for 1 hour prior. So I hooked the battery up again and let it charge. After sitting on the charger for about 20 hours, I hooked it up to the quad again. BAM! IT RUNS!!! I was soooooo excited, I had to have looked like a little kid on Christmas. I rush inside and toss Jilly on it. She figured out the button really quick. She wasn't screaming with laughter but I could tell she really liked it. Of course, I had to get it on video. I'll let the vid finish off the story...

We still need to work on steering, but she'll get it!

Next is the Barbie Jeep that I picked up for $10. That one definitely needs a battery (didn't get one at all) and few minor things. Stay tuned!