angry 3 year old

We purchase the john deer power pull for our 3 yr old son 2 months ago, and he has only been able to ride it maybe 1 month, we have already exchanged the product once and it is not running again! how disappointing for our son who loved this at first and now says "I am angry my tractor doesn't work AGAIN" when calling the company for parts it usually is an automatic 20 to 30 min. wait to talk and they wouldn't resolve an exchange so we went back to were we bought the product I do not recommend this product because all the problems (fenders, wiring harness shifter, 2 pins, weight on front, wheel, and same is happening to 2nd one) and this is all riding on an acre of level ground.

One tough little tractor

We bought this for our 30 month old daugher about a month ago at Walmart. This tractor is smaller than some of the other ride on toys and my daughter fits it really well.

Assembly was straightforward. The decals are nicely done and it's worth taking the time to get them right.

I purchased a spare battery with the tractor thinking that the batteries running down would be a problem. It turns out the spare battery is much larger than the one that comes in the tractor (12Ah vs 8Ah) and I suspect is sized for the JD Gator ride on. Fortunately, the battery compartment is designed to accomodate either battery. The battery life with the large battery is great. She rides the tractor every day all over our farm, picking up sticks from the yard, following the dog, helping her mom move gravel, picking up stones in the garden, hauling strawberries up to the house, towing picnic lunches back to the hilltop, joyriding, etc. and the battery has never run down. We do put it on the charger every night. We have never used the smaller battery so I don't know how that would do. I saw in one review that it was difficult to access the battery for charging. There is a screw to hold down the battery cover but it also has plastic catches on it. I just leave the screw out and no problems.

Traction was an issue initially. We live on 25 acres of rolling hills and much of it is meadow which is much rougher than yard. The tractor initially got stuck too easy. I added traction by pop riveting "cleats" I cut from an old mudflap onto the rear tires. It is now unstoppable. If you do something like this be aware that the increased traction adds to the risk of injury and makes it even more important that the child is properly supervised.

The trailer became difficult to unhook as the catch on the plastic pin had become deformed. I made up a proper drawpin out of an old cap screw which took care of that. We also added a bicycle safety flag so the tractor is easier to see.

Low gear is perfect for tractor work. High gear is very fast. We walk around the back every night and our daughter drives the tractor. We probably walk for a mile or two. There are a couple of big hills, some rough ground and muddy puddles to cross. The only times it now gets stuck is when she tries to head off through the hay, which is several feet tall (hence the safety flag). She likes to use high gear but it's too fast for us to easily keep up with her. The trailer is used all the time. She is always finding things to put in the trailer be it toys, wild flowers, stones from the trail, even a turtle once.

Our daughter used to ride with me all the time on the big tractors. Now she always wants to take the little tractor. I'm very impressed how well it is made and how well it has worked out. Great toy!

The fun doesnt last

I have triplet boys who just turned 3 and they EACH got one of these tractors for their bday. I also purchased 3 extra batteries. the day they got them the trailer pins broke. in less than a week 2 of them wouldnt work-the company sent me new switches and then another stopped working so I had to call for another switch-then one of the wheels on 1 stopped working so they are sending me a gear box. when calling the company hold times are long but they are willing to send me new parts-these toys are not even 3 weeks old yet and why should I need to fix them so much-try explaining this to a 3 year old who just wants to ride his tractor! I would really like to send all three back and get something that will work all the time instead of 1/2 the time but am not sure just how to go about it at this stage of the game. Unless you dont mind waiting for new parts and fixing the tractor almost all the time-keeping shopping for something else! It's too bad because they are fun for the kids and very cute too!