Check out this hunk.
Now, that picture right there, is going straight into his senior yearbook 😉 Sorry bud, just paying it forward.
I got this Step2 Buggy from our local Facebook Resale page for $5 last year. This boy LOVES it. We take the dogs for a walk after dinner every night and he loves driving his car around the neighborhood. In fact, “a car!” has become one of his favorite phrases, as he insists on pointing out ALL of the cars on the road, and making all of the car sounds. Best $5 I’ve ever spent.
He’s also tried some multi tasking, as he is insistent on walking Bailey as he drives:
But, if you watch that movie, you’ll notice one thing. The sound of the wheels are deafening. It didn’t bother me for a long time. But after awhile, I realized that Dave and I use that after dinner walk for some good chatting time, and we were no longer chatting because the car wheels were so dang loud. Plastic wheels + pavement = no bueno.
Little did I realize that they sell another model that is pimped out with rubber wheels and CUP HOLDERS. God.
Why didn’t I realize that was going to be important? Not just for a sippy cup. But for when Mom and Dad had a long week and need to get out of the house with everyone on a Friday night, but also bring a beer with them. Everybody does that, right? No, just us? Ok, well you should.
So forewarning. If you’re getting this for your kid or another, look for the whisper ride version! So much better. I’m sorry about your birthday present, Bennett! I wish I upgraded it!
Anyway, it was $5 so we worked with what we got. Dave and I were brainstorming some way to put rubber on the wheels to make it quieter. One day I decided to google it and see if anyone else had come up with an idea. Lo and behold, I came across this: http://www.whatiruninto.com/little-tikes-push-car-wheel-hack
Use an old bike tire, genius! We had some of them laying around. Both David and I have our teenage bikes in the garage and don’t have the heart to get ride of them. But we were okay with poaching a tire for this.
The blog post above is pretty clear in the tutorial, there are only a few things I would add:
- You have to pop the axles out with some FORCE. I couldn’t do it, and I pride myself on being a strong woman. So I had to bring in David to pop em out.
2. The tires I used had a metal ring around the edges which was near impossible to cut through with shop scissors, so I just cut around them.
3. I used liquid nails construction adhesive because that’s what we had. It worked, but try and get something that dries clear, because it didn’t turn out clean and perfect.
4. Enjoy the (quiet) fruits of your labor!
This took me a grand maybe 1.5 hr to do during a Saturday nap time, and it was totally worth it! It is helpful to have a second set of hands to help hold the tire on tight while screwing it into the wheels.
Thanks for the helpful post, What I Run Into! Hope you guys enjoy it as much as this guy does! And the weather has definitely gotten a lot colder around here lately, huh?
Stay warm, my friends!
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I looked everywhere for something like this. I appreciate you taking the time to post it. My son LOVES his car but the wheels are not holding up. Thanks!
Wonderful!! So happy to hear!