Power Wheels Fishing Cart

We live on the Delaware Bay and in my retirement I enjoy surf fishing in the Bay which is just over the sand dune from our home. While the wife reads and sunbathes I surf fish. The fishing is not great where we live but catching Dogfish Sharks, croakers, or Rays can be fun and there are lots of Dogfish to be caught. With the winter storms we had this past year the dune is a lot steeper and I found wheeling my manual cart was getting harder as I aged. There is a powered beach cart out there but I could not justify the price for just going over the dune and back. Then I stumbled upon the Power Wheels hacks that guys were doing to use power tool batteries. I found a used Power Wheels in our town and the hunt to make it work was on. With wire, connectors, and the listed supplies I have about less than $200 in the cart and the satisfaction of making something that it seems no one else has made.

Dewalt Adapter $15

Motor Controller $18

Thumb Throttle $10

Throttle Switch $8 for 4 (Which I had from another project)

PVC Hinge $39 for 4, I used 2

USB Panel Mount $15

Voltage Reducer 12/24V to 5V 5A $10

Battery Capacity Voltage Meter $10 for 2

Misc. PVC and fittings $40

Stainless Steel screws and bolts $30

I removed all the plastic except the rear drive housing and saved the front bumper. I saved the shifter and the accelerator pedal, which I replaced with a switch. When torn down I retained the frame attached to the rear/front wheels. I moved the front wheel support bar from the top of the frame to under the frame. I knew I did not want the front wheels but they could be used if you want to make a wagon instead of a cart and add a wagon pull to the front frame.

I spent a lot of time measuring and calculating what I wanted the cart to carry. Tackle Box, Bait cooler, fishing bucket, and beach chairs(s) I purchased the weird PVC fittings on Amazon like 4 ways and 5 ways, connectors for 3/4" PVC pipe. The thumb throttle fits 1/2" PVC which requires 3/4-1/2 reducers to be used. I have access to plastic sheet material so I did use black 1/4" ABS for the shifter mount and the eventually (this fall) addition of the USB and voltage meters to the platform. The stem at the front with the triangle black ABS was an attempt to strengthen the tall 3/4" pipe, which failed and I had to install a 3/4" steel pipe from Lowes to drop down inside the 3/4" PVC and shoot sheet metal screws to hold it all together. I also used 2 45 degree fitting to install a 3/4" PVC pipe behind the black triangles to stiffen the front.

PVC in this configuration is difficult to glue and get the spacing correct. On the joints that were captured within the frame I used thin super glue. In joints like the front frame for the throttle I used regular PVC glue. To each his own or if you want to take it apart you could use short sheet metal screws in all the joints.

I used 1x2 Pressure treated wood for the bottom of the PVC frame to support my tackle box and 5 Gallon bucket.

I created a bait holding spot for a cooler over the rear wheel drive section. The bait spot has a hinged PVC ABS cover that I can use to cut bait. I could box this in and insulate it but my bait cooler fits in nicely. I can remove the covers to get to the electronics without too many problems. The PVC is extended to hold beach chairs and a Shibumi shade for our dog.

One word of caution when using higher voltage cordless tool batteries on the 12v Power Wheels. The standard PW drive motors will run at higher voltages, BUT if ran for a long period of time they will probably burn out. There are more powerful motors out there but I run mine for less that 2-3 minutes at a time so I am not concerned about them burning up.

I used Dewalt Adapter as I have numerous batteries for my cordless tools, and they run 20.3V when fully charged. This adapter came with a 30 Amp fuse and a switch which I mounted to the front side of the Power Wheels rear drive housing in an area that is hard to detect so undesirable suspects will probably not find it ;-) Most other cordless tool battery brand adapters are available online, there is no need to buy any new tools or keep a 12v battery charged for just this purpose.

I extended the shifter cables to allow the shifter to be mounted on my front "console." I wanted the shifter as it has 2 forward speeds and reverse. The Power Wheels accelerator is a simple on/off switch I replaced with a Throttle Switch mounted on the console.

This motor controller/thumb throttle combination is what works. The motor controller is 8-50V and I am using Dewalt power tools batteries and some available controllers do not work when the batteries start to weaken.

This is the most critical and part of this entire build. The Motor Controller has a 10K potentiometer that needs to be removed and replaced with the 3 wires coming from the Thumb Throttle . The picture shows the black knob of the controller, that and the pot on the PCB are removed. The green wire goes in the center hole on the PCB of the motor controller where the pot was located. The black and red wires go in one of the two other holes. This is a very small PCB and the holes for the wires are very small, I used 24 AWG wire and soldered them into place. I knew that if the throttle did not work it was a simple mater of switching the red and black wires connected to the thumb throttle as the throttle wires are very short you will need to extend to reach the controller... and once you get the polarity figured out you can make the connections permanent.

I allowed room on my "console" for USB ports and the voltage meter that I will add this fall.

I have found that when I run the cart for a few minutes and stop that the cart does not work, then I have to turn the battery switch that I hid on the drive housing in this step off and then on, and it works again.

Video on YouTube of it working going up the dune.