ML Toys Powerwheels Stage IV Steel Gear and Gearbox Review & Results & Alternatives.

UPDATE: I can state emphatically: don't do it. Don't modify your power wheels, you are just wasting your money. As soon as you fix one problem, another will pop up. If you enjoy tinkering with things and have an unlimited budget to blow on it, then by all means go for it. It's fun to modify stuff and "make it better" but if that is not you, learn from my experience. You are just playing the "wack a mole" game.

FULL REVIEW and experience below, but MANY people have asked me "what are the alternatives?"
We ended up buying a Rosso. https://www.rossomotors.com/
It has it's own issues, but they are all minor that just need some tweaking and training. For $600 you get a REAL electric ATV that has 3 speeds (set by key) with the fastest being almost 20mph.

Razor also has one. If I had to do it all over again, I'd never upgrade a power wheel, I'd just spend my money on something engineered right from the start.



Note: I am in NO WAY associated with ROSSO or RAZOR other than just being a customer. So you can spend $300 with MLToys on a system that will only go 6mph and eventually fail (it'sll break other parts) or just spend the money and get a real ATV engineered to go fast from the start. In fact if I add what I spent at MLToys to the cost of the original ATV it's about the same. So why eff with MLToys stuff?



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I bought a ML Toys Stage IV gearbox set for my boys ATV and what was supposed to be 20 minutes work, turned out to be 6 weeks of pain. In the end they work, but you can buy the parts yourself for much less (about $100 less).


The motor is Amazon ASIN B001SETT0Y
The pinion 20 tooth is ASIN B004PZLHRQ

You will need to search the internet for a 18,19, 20 tooth gearbox.
I found this site: kidcarsandparts.com, not the easiest site to use & I have no experience with them, nor am I recommending thing. You can use google as well as I can. :-)

I think the MLToys "race grease" is just white lithium grease.

UPDATE: The last gearbox they sent did work after I cleaned it all out and reinstalled everything.


Recapping their emails. On 7/7/16 they sent this:

Watched the videos. They're pretty rudely worded towards us. The reality is that there's absolutely nothing wrong here.... please pull those videos which paint our product in a bad light that just will spread misinformation to others. Thanks, Michael, MLToys

And then also on 7/7/16:

We're asking you to remove it as a courtesy to what you overlooked. No harm was done and the product is not defective. Michael

On 7/8/16 they sent this:

After checking the things we suggested here you can try swapping that motor to the other side and testing the wiring with your stock motors. We'll figure this out. Michael, MLToys

On 7/11/16 they sent:

The shaft that the steel gear (first gear) spins on is sanded down in house for the bearing to clear. Sounds like the very bottom of yours needs a little more sanding. When you tighten down the screws it is binding up the bearing which can lock the gearcase or make it spin slower and loud......

Then on 7/12 they sent:

The gearbox housings are made by Mattel... don't think we've ever seen a defect before. Will get one on the way today as well as a second gear and some grease. Michael, MLToys


7/12/16 they said

You need to stop being so rude to us. No one here has ever ignored you. To the contrary we had several meetings reviewing your problems and have spent a ton of time emailing with you. We get that you're frustrated that there's something wrong with your setup and we also agree that it's not your fault. My employees are fed up with your attitude and want me to just recall the system and refund you. My goal is to get you running with the upgraded system you were looking for. You're making it so much harder to do though.

Then on 7/18/16 we got this:

Last month Power Wheels had mislabeled the packages that our gearboxes came in and you may have gotten a 15-17 which would explain the tight fit.

MY POINT IS: on 7/18/16 they said they knew they had "mislabeled" gear boxes LAST MONTH, then why did they have me swapping sides, sanding axles and telling nothing was wrong between 7/6 and 7/18? And when they sent me a "new" gearbox on 7/12/16 then why did they send me the exact same gearbox that has the same problem that they already knew about? And why didn't they clean up any of these gearboxes before they sent them to me? Why should I be the one to do all their work for them? Isn't that what I paid my money for?