Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I hope this review will help anyone who was one the fence like I was after reading some of the other reviews. I cannot speak to those who received broken/missing parts or the company’s customer service as I did not need to contact them. I can only comment on the vehicle itself. I bought this as birthday gift (2 years) for my Daughter. Out of the box I would give this thing a 3.5 star rating, but after a few fairly simple modifications I would live it a solid 4+ stars. It came 2 days ahead of Amazon’s expected delivery date. It came in a large box with minimal padding, but my unit arrived in perfect condition. However, I could see that if a courier was rough on this package it may not fare so well. Assembly took roughly 30 minutes (wasn’t rushing), and was simple if you follow the video on this amazon listing. Let me start off with some of the positives. The biggest of which is the parental remote. This was the main reason I went with this product over the Power Wheels brand. Since I knew child was still a little young to completely master this toy immediately, the parental remote was perfect. It allows me to keep her from running into things, and to stop her completely if needed. Pairing the remote was easy following the instruction on the back of the remote. In addition to the remote, the radio/sound effects, horn, and lights really makes this fun for my daughter. I even loaded a micro SD card with the sound track to her favorite movie (Trolls), and popped it into the radio. She absolutely loves being able to “blast” her favorite tunes in her ride. While others have complained about this jeep being sluggish when it starts, I actually believe this to be by design. For my young daughter I consider it to be a “pro”, as she doesn’t get that whiplash effect when she hits the gas. The “soft start” feature also keeps the motors from pulling a lot of amps right off the bat which would be hard on the electronics and battery in this toy. There were some general observations that could be considered a pro or con depending on how you look at it. This Jeep has larger wheels than some of it competitors. They are more rubber like grip instead of the hard plastic some other have. While this will give the stock vehicle a very reasonable top end speed, it does demand more torque to turn over the motors. This means that the vehicle has less ability to climb inclines or muscle through thick grass with a heavy rider. As I imagine the majority of kids will be using this in an urban jungle environment I don’t for see it being a huge issue, but keep in mind it will have more limitations than its real life counterpart. The added electronic components in this vehicle will make certain popular mods (higher draw motors or higher voltage systems) more difficult with this vehicle compared to the Power Wheels brand vehicles. Also, Jeep this is only designed to seat one child. Pro or con…you decide. Lastly, let me share some things I see as negatives. First, all the added features, while great, create additional points potential failure. If/when these things go they may mean additional headaches/heart aches. Second, is the fact that the only way to change between the three speeds is through the parental remote. Personally I would have preferred a selector switch one the side of the electronic controller under the hood. Right now having it on the remote is fine, but as she masters the vehicle and the need for me to have the remote goes away, it will be frustrating to have to change the speeds from the remote. The other big negative is the charging system, which is why I think a lot of people have complained about the battery not working after a couple of months. The included a 12V “wall wart” power supply as a charger for the battery. It plugs into the dash, but if you look at the wiring under the hood it directly feeds the battery. There is no logic circuit to control the charging of the battery. This is not the proper way to charge a Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) battery, and is most likely why other buyers are having their batteries fail prematurely. However, I will address this issue in just a moment. So before I go any further I should mention that there are warning stickers specifically stating not to modify the vehicles electrical system as it pose fire and other safety hazards. I’m sure it also voids any warranty the company may or may not otherwise honor. THE FOLLOWING NOTES ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY! IF YOU MAKE ANY MODIFICATIONS, YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK! That said I have a fairly solid understanding of electrical systems, and there were a couple fairly simple modifications that I made to this Jeep right away to address some issues with the batteries and charging systems. First, I took out the included 7Ah SLA battery that came with the vehicle, and replaced it with 2 - 9Ah SLA batteries available as set here on Amazon (ExpertPower EXP1290-2 Black Replacement Battery (BX1300LCD, 2 x ExpertPower 12V 9Ah Sealed Lead Acid Batteries || EXP1290, APC BACK-UPS 1300VA)). The Jeep already has a space for a second battery. I just used a small piece of aluminum stock to make a brace for it similar to the one provided for the first battery. I also had to make a harness so the two batteries could be wired in parallel. While this will add a small amount of weight it should double the run time of the vehicle. In addition, it will also share the load between the two batteries which should benefit the SLA batteries in terms of longevity. The next thing I did was to add a battery indicator available here on amazon (IZTOSS Car Motorcycle Waterproof Blue LED Digital Panel Display Voltmeter Voltage Volt Meter Gauge DC 12V-24V). This will allow me to monitor the battery level to ensure that it does not go too low (I’m using 11V as my lower limit). I tapped into the wires that power the radio and “cluster” lights. This way the gauge does not say on when the vehicle is powered off. Lastly, I purchased a charger that is designed for lead acid batteries. The one I am using is the Energizer ENC4A (Energizer ENC4A 4 Amp Battery Charger with LCD + Maintainer 6/12V - 9 Step Smart Charging technology will improve your battery's life cycle for Car, RV & Boat) because I liked the digital readout. This kind of charger will ensure that the batteries are charged properly which should significantly help their longevity. I made an adapter for mine, but the same charger could have used the supplied “alligator” clips to connect to stock battery requiring no modification of the toy’s original wiring. In summary, I think that this very good ride-on toy for the cost. Out of the box it comes with a bunch of features that in my opinion make it a more attractive choice than some of the other options out there. It does have some shortcomings which are to be expected of something at this price point. The biggest issue, the battery management, can be rectified with more appropriate charger. Overall, this brought a huge smile to my daughter’s face, while keeping Mommy and Daddy happy knowing we had control when needed. I hope this helped, best of luck!