CHILDREN'S RIDE-ON VEHICLE WITH INDEPENDENTLY DRIVEN AND REVERSIBLE WHEELS

摘要

A children's ride-on vehicle is provided with a chassis formed at least in part of molded plastic, a seat mounted to the chassis and configured to accommodate a driver, and first and second driven wheels mounted to the chassis on opposite sides of the seat. The wheels are coaxially rotatable in a first plane and a second plane, wherein the wheel planes are substantially parallel to one another. A motive power source for the wheels, including a battery and two electric motors is mounted to the chassis and is operable to drive each wheel selectively in a forward direction or a reverse direction under control of a foot-pedal power/braking switch and two armrest-mounted joysticks. Each joystick has three positions, neutral, reverse, and forward and the child can press both forward to go forward, press both in reverse to go backwards, press one forward and one in reverse to spin clockwise or counterclockwise about a central point, or press one in forward or reverse and leave the other in neutral, allowing coasting of the associated wheel for turning in a gentle arcing fashion. Moving both joysticks to neutral allows coasting of the vehicle while a foot pedal is depressed. A caster wheel mounted to the chassis aft of the driven wheels is configured to cooperate with the driven wheels to hold the chassis in a level attitude. A skid pad mounted to the chassis forward of the driven wheels is configured to contact and slide along the surface to maintain the chassis generally in the level attitude, when the caster wheel loses contact with the surface.