poor design features limit this toy's 'real' feel...

I read the reviews on this loader and bought it for my grandson's fourth birthday, but am frankly disappointed in it. My husband put it together, and encountered the difficulties in the instructional mentioned in the reviews...he made a copy of the images page so he could see both the images and the narrative at the same time, which helped. It looked great, and I was so excited to give it to my grandson, since he is completely taken with construction equipment. However, when I gave it to him, and watched him try to operate it, I was quite dismayed at the design flaws it had. The tires don't do well on gravel or bark, and he wanted to dig in both areas. He is a strong little boy and could pedal it quite easily, but the tires often spun instead of engaging the ground. A big problem is in the design of the bucket dumper. Unless we have it constructed incorrectly, it will not pick up bark or dirt without major help from an adult. He can't pedal it, steer and operate the two levers at the same time...yet if he simply lowers the bucket and pedals forward, the bucket doesn't touch the ground and nothing gets scooped up. We bought the accessory trailer, which constantly comes uncoupled and can't be dumped into, since the bucket hits the edge of the trailer before it is angled enough to dump anything out.

crowd pleaser

I have three boys between the ages of 5 thru 2 who love to ride this toy. I would recommend this type of ride on toy over a battery operated toy.

Tractor for birthday!

I gave my son the tractor & trailer for his 3rd birthday, he is working on learning to pedal it better. I think that for the $ it should be battery powered, but we had to have it anyway. It seems pretty durable so far. He quickly filled the trailor with pears & got his tools in the font scoop. He seems to really like it. I am happy if he is.