In today’s fast placed, technologically driven world it seems like kids are constantly bombarded with tablets, smartphones and other computer devices that promote a largely sedentary lifestyle. Gone are the days where kids spent hour after hour outside enjoying the fresh air, while getting exercise.

If you’re looking for a way to get your kids off the couch and into the great outdoors, a pedal car may just be the perfect ride on toy for your children. There are a number of reasons why you may want to purchase a pedal car for your kids and we’ll go through just a few here in this blog.

Reasons to Buy a Pedal Car for Your Kids

1. Pedal cars encourage exercise – As mentioned above, kids today do not get nearly as much exercise as children from previous generations. Using pedal cars your kids will use their own strength to get from point A to point B and will likely have a ton of fun in the process.
2. Encourage a child’s imagination – Pedal cars offer a unique mechanism to let your children’s imaginations run wild. Maybe your child has a train themed pedal car and imagines that he or she is a conductor heading out across the open country or maybe your child has a tractor themed pedal car and can imagine tilling the fields. Whatever type of pedal car you choose your child will amaze you with the stories that he or she can come up with related to their newfound pedal car adventures.
3. Share in your child’s hobby – If your child really begins to enjoy pedal cars the two of you could possibly purchase a pedal car kit and build a car together. This togetherness is something that can’t be replaced and will be something that your child will likely look back upon fondly as they grow older.
4. Pedal cars may grow in value – There is a small niche of people around the world that collect vintage pedal cars. If your child’s pedal car is well taken care of it could possibly be worth something in the years to come. While there is no guarantee, it’s definitely something to think about when you’re spending time maintaining your child’s pedal car.

Have Questions About Purchasing a Pedal Car for Your Kids?

If you have any questions about purchasing a pedal car for your kids feel free to pick up the phone and give us a call today at (248) 853-0215. We’ve been designing and building pedal cars for decades and even have a large selection of vintage pedal cars for sale as well.

For over 25 years Hong Kong has hosted a Pedal Car Grand Prix as a local fundraiser. The event features teams from some of Hong Kong’s largest Universities, companies, Schools and local clubs who all compete in a 24 hour Le Mans style endurance race in custom built human powered pedal cars. This year’s pedal car race is set to take place on the weekend of November 13-15 ^th 2015.

Team Members Take This Race Seriously

When you think of most pedal cars you think of simple designs of yesteryear. In Hong Kong this is not the case. Team members spend significant money and time building state of the art cars to ensure victory. Many of the teams are sponsored by large corporations who spare no expense in their quest to be crowned the winner of this charity event. Some of the technologies used in the manufacturing of these pedal cars include wind tunnel testing and even carbon fiber bodies.

Details of the Event

This years event will take place during the weekend of November 13-15^th. The track will be setup downtown, where each team will have between 4-6 drivers. Each driver will run for 20-30 minutes and then pull into the pit area to change drivers. This process will continue for 24 straight hours, all done to raise money for wonderful charities.

Team Members Encouraged to Get Creative With Pedal Car Designs

Teams are encouraged to think outside of the box when it comes to their pedal car designs. Each year there is always several teams who are solely focused on designing and building the absolute fastest pedal car, while other teams are more focused on being humorous. Past entrants have created pedal cars that resemble animals such as an elephant with 4 legs that was connected with linkage that as the car was peddled actually made the legs of the elephant move back and forth.

If you’re a big fan of pedal cars and ever happen to be in Hong Kong during the 24 hour pedal car Grand Prix you owe it to yourself to check it out. At PedalCar.com we’ve had the opportunity to see this event in person and really enjoyed seeing the creativity put into these pedal cars for such a good cause.

For more information about pedal car racing around the world don’t hesitate to contact our team today at (248) 853-0215.

If you have a pedal car that you’re looking to sell on Ebay or you’re looking to ship it to someone like PedalCar.com for repair you may have run into issues when packaging your pedal car. If you simply bring your pedal car to a FedEx or UPS store to be boxed up you can be sure that you’ll have to pay a large amount of money for your pedal car to be shipped.

At PedalCar.com we have quite a bit of experience shipping pedal cars and pedal car parts and therefore have had to learn how best to ship these items, which are often very awkward in size. After receiving the question of how to best ship a pedal car over and over again at our offices we decided to put together a guide that you can hopefully use to efficiently and inexpensively ship your pedal car.

Process for Shipping a Pedal Car

Find an appropriate sized box

If you go to a shipping supply store to ship your pedal car you’ll likely have to purchase a very expensive box to be used to house your pedal car. In our years of shipping pedal cars we’ve actually found that wardrobe boxes make some of the best boxes to ship pedal cars. You can pick these boxes up inexpensively from your local temporary storage facility.

Place some Styrofoam or paper in the bottom of the box

To add extra protection it’s best to place some Styrofoam or paper inside the box prior to loading your pedal car.

Place the pedal car inside the box

Simply set the pedal car inside the box and then add some additional padding in the form of Styrofoam or other paper to prevent the pedal car from moving during transit.

Fold over box and tape secure

Fold over the box and tape it securely and transport it to your local UPS or FedEx facility for shipment.

Still Have Questions About Shipping Your Pedal Car?

If you still have questions about shipping your pedal car don’t hesitate to contact our team today at (248) 853-0215. We’ve been designing and building pedal cars for decades and can give you some advice to ensure your pedal car arrives at its destination unharmed. At PedalCar.com we also offer a large selection of pedal car parts if you’re looking to repair your pedal car.

Our updated pedal car chassis has a longer wheel base and much simpler wood kit which we think will be a big hit with our customers.

Working On A Wood Materials Kit

In the past we sold wood kits and then we stopped and allowed customers to purchase our pedal car chassis and then buy their own wood to make the body. While some customers loved this idea, many of our customers wanted a little more direction when it came to the body of their pedal car.

To meet this demand Pedalcar.com has recently began plans to create a wood materials kit with everything you need to create your own wooden pedal car. We’re currently exploring a variety of different design possibilities and hope to have a final design ready within the next few weeks.

This wood kit will have everything available for you to create your own pedal car, and we’re hoping to be able to have the chassis parts actually drawn on the wood for easy cutting or if we can work it out with our supplier – actually have the pieces of wood pre-cut making for an extremely easy pedal car assembly.

What Do You Think Of This Idea?

At Pedalcar.com we’re constantly looking for feedback from our customers about some of our new ideas. We’d love to hear from you about whether you would be interested in one of our DIY wooden pedal cars.

For more information about our wooden pedal car kits or if you simply need replacement pedal car parts don’t hesitate to give us a call at (248) 853-0215 or send us an email to info@pedalcar.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Difficulty of Independently Selling Pedal Cars

If you’ve spent any time attempting to sell pedal cars you have likely found that the market is relatively small. There are indeed a small amount of people who have an incredible interest in all things related to pedal cars, but finding this audience is difficult. Aside from finding the target market, pedal cars are also difficult and expensive to ship by UPS or Fedex.

At PedalCar.com we’ve been a fixture in the pedal car industry for decades. We receive calls from people all the time with questions about selling their pedal cars or individuals wanting to buy old pedal cars that may have been restored. After continuing to receive these calls over the past few years we thought it would be a good idea to create an online forum for individuals looking to post information about pedal cars for sale.

How Will This Process Work?

We’re still trying to gauge interest from our customers, but we’re thinking that we will have an area on our website dedicated to used pedal cars for sale. This area will allow buyers and sellers to browse pedal car pictures, location, shipping information and other important details.

Aside from listing customer pedal cars for sale, we’re also going to list some of our own used pedal cars that have been restored as well as freight damaged pedal cars, factory seconds and much more.

Does This Sound Interesting to You?

We’re interested in hearing what you have to say about our team creating an online marketplace to buy and sell used pedal cars. If this is something that interests you or if you have a pedal car that you’re looking to sell feel free to drop us a line today by email at info@pedalcar.com or by phone at (248) 853-0215.

Will I Hurt The Value Of My Pedal Car By Restoring It?

There are very rare circumstances where you may be better off by not restoring your pedal car. These instances include if your pedal car is extremely old (1920’s or so) and is in pristine condition or if your pedal car is newer but has never been exposed to the elements and is in near mint condition. If your pedal car was manufactured between the 1950’s - 1980’s you likely will only improve the value of your pedal car by restoring it. If you’re unsure about the age of your pedal car you can always call us or email a picture and we’ll help you determine the age.

If you decide that you don’t want to restore your pedal car and are ever looking to sell it we can still give you advice about how the selling process works.

What You Need To Know Before Restoring Your Pedal Car

There are a few steps involved with pedal car restoration, including:

● Identify The Type of Pedal Car - Depending on the age of your pedal car it can be difficult to identify the manufacturer. Because we’ve been in the pedal car industry for decades we’ve created a special section on our site called Identify My Car where you can look at pictures of other pedal cars to determine the type that you have. If you still have questions you can always give us a call or shoot us an email.

● DIY or Professional Pedal Car Restoration - Another decision that you’ll need to make when restoring your pedal car is whether to do it yourself or hire a company to do the restoration for you. We’re happy to work with you either way. We offer a full range of replacement pedal car parts if you choose to take on the project yourself or we also offer our professional pedal car restoration services where we’ll handle the entire project from start to finish.

Contact Our Team With Questions

If you still have questions about whether you should restore your pedal car or want to learn more about our pedal car restoration services, feel free to call us today at (248) 853-0215 or send us an email at info@pedalcar.com.

One of our most commonly ordered items are pedal car tires. This is often because many of the pedal car restorations our customers are working on feature old and worn out tires that need to be replaced. In this blog we’ll outline a few tips to keep in mind when changing a pedal car tire.

Two Common Tire Sizes For Pedal Cars

The majority of pedal car tires that we sell come in two sizes. Measuring a pedal car can be difficult so we’ll try to break down the two most common sizes of pedal car tires and how to measure your tires when ordering. The key when measuring your pedal car tire is to measure from edge of rim to edge of rim to get an accurate measurement.

• 6.5 Inch Pedal Car Tire – The 6.5 inch measurement is nominal and actually fits a wheel that is 6.25 in diameter.
• 7.5 Inch Pedal Car Tire – The 7.5 inch measurement is also nominal and actually fits a wheel measuring 7.25 in diameter from edge of rim to edge of rim.

Tire Styles

When you purchase a new tire for your pedal car you have 2 styles to choose from. We sell a flat cross-section tire that is similar to what you see on an automobile as well as a rounded cross section, which is what you would see on a motorcycle. 

Which Tire Style Should I Choose?

When it comes to the style of tire to choose, we recommend that our customers choose completely based on preference.

What If I Have a Wire On Tire?

Pedal cars that were manufactured decades ago used a different type of tire that actually had a wire running through the center. These tires were split, and the wire held them together and held them onto the wheel, they are called wire on tires. We don’t sell wire on tires – our tires are one piece tires that mold to the entire wheel rim. If you have a pedal car with wire on tires you’ll need to remove both the tires and wires. Typically you’ll need to find the split in the tire where the wire can be seen, and uncrimp or cut the wire so that the tire can be removed from the wheel. Once removed you’ll then be able to install one of our molded pedal car tires.

How to Install a Pedal Car Tire

Once you’ve received your replacement pedal car tire you’ll want to stretch the new tire over the wheel. This is best achieved by heating up the tire. We’ve found that putting the tire in the microwave for between 1-1.5 minutes often softens the tire enough to easily slip over the pedal car wheel. When using a microwave it’s best to heat up the tire in stages to ensure you don’t cause damage to the tire. Some of our customers have also used an oven or hot water to warm up their pedal car tires. Another important note is that once the tire cools down after being placed over the wheel it will shrink down tightly on the wheel.

Ready to Order New Pedal Car Tires?

We hope that this guide has given you enough information to order new tires for your pedal car. If you have any other questions feel free to contact our team today at 248-853-0215.

Determining If You Need a Wheel, Tire or Hubcap

If the wheel is in good shape, and the tire is worn out, you can replace just the tire. In that case, see our blog regarding replacing tires.

If the car is still ridden with a worn out tire, eventually the wheel will be ruined. In that case you will need to replace the wheel and the tire.

Pedal Cars Have Only One Drive Wheel

Because pedal cars do not have a differential, like an automobile, they only drive with one rear wheel. It is the wheel that is connected to the rear axle, and is known as a drive wheel. The other rear wheel, and the two front wheels, spin freely on their axles, and are known as free wheels.

To determine which rear wheel is the drive wheel, turn your car over and slowly turn each rear wheel. One of them will have a connection to the rear axle, that is the drive wheel. If you are replacing all four wheels, you will need three free wheels, and one drive wheel. If you are replacing some, but not all of them, you will need to know if one of the wheels you want to replace is a drive wheel.

The wheel on the left is a drive wheel and the wheel on the right is a free wheel.

The method for connecting the drive wheel to the rear axle varies depending on the manufacturer, so when ordering a drive wheel, we will need to know the make and model of the pedal car. If you don’t know this, give us a call and we can help.

Interested in More Information?

If you’re looking for replacement wheels or any other parts for your pedal car, don’t hesitate to contact our knowledgeable sales team today by phone at 248 853 0215, or by email at info@pedalcar.com, and please visit our website at www.pedalcar.com to learn more about our variety of different pedal car parts.

Brief History of Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company

The Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company was founded in 1910 by J.W. Murray. The company operated out of Detroit, Michigan until 1919 when the company was relocated to Cleveland, Ohio. The Murray brand name was actually not used until the conclusion of WWII. J.W. Murray was a well-known artist and designer who was wildly interested in industrial design and fine art. You can see his attention to detail in some of his Murray pedal car designs.

Brief History of AMF

AMF was founded as American Machine and Foundry in 1900 by Rufus L. Patterson. While the company began by making cigarette, stitching and baking machines, they soon expanded into other lines of products. Some of their more popular items included bowling equipment, bicycles, toys, pedal cars and all sorts of other consumer goods.

How to Identify The Manufacturer of My Pedal Car?

Now that we’ve gotten a bit of history out of the way about AMF and Murray, it’s time to show you how we can tell the difference between these two manufacturers. Many times hubcaps on pedal cars are long gone by the time we get a call to help identify a pedal car.

The easiest way to tell whether you have an AMF or Murray pedal car is to look at the wheels. Murray wheels are easily identifiable because they have 6 tabs, while AMF used wheels that had only 3 slots. Whenever a customer calls in we ask them to take a look at their pedal car wheels and we’re usually able to identify the manufacturer.

Below are pictures of an AMF & Murray wheel and hubcap.

AMF Wheel and Hubcap

Murray Wheel and Hubcap

Still Have Questions About Your Pedal Car?

If you’re still unable to determine the manufacturer or your pedal car or you’re interested in pedal car parts, don’t hesitate to give us a call today at 248-853-0215 or send us an email at info@pedalcar.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon.