Reviews (8)

AWESOME!!!
We bought this for my 3 year old's birthday in December. He spent all winter riding it around the house! He absolutely loved it the minute he saw it, would go to it first thing in the morning, and ride it all day!! When spring came we took it outside hoping he would still love it as much. Well, he still drives it everyday!! He pretends it's a garbage truck, a newspaper delivery car, of course a loader..... It just goes on and on...I never know what he will pretend to do on this ride on!!!! I LOVE that he is getting excerise while "driving" it, too! He has battery powered cars, but prefers this one! How cool is that?!! As I remember, it was a little difficult to put together. The directions were not that great. I still had to give it 5 stars because it has held up great! My son absolutely LOVES it! It gets used EVERY day! He is getting excercise and using his imagination!!! What more could you want in a toy!!??!!

Great toy.
M 2 year old son loves this tractor. After his cousin got one for his birthday. He cried and cried for his own. His grandparents bought it for him and we can not get him off of it. He loves to pedal (actually ) he likes to pedal then riding his battery operated vehicles. The only thing is that he likes to get our gravel and dump it on the driveway so we have to clean this up but other than that it is great. I was really worried after reading some of the reviews that it would not hold up or be a piece of junk but it is just the opposite. It is wonderful

Eee gads! Are the other reviewers kidding me?
We bought this for our 3-year old after reading all the praises. I'll tell you what-- the hype, in my opinion, is ridiculous. Besdies null customer service from Peg Perego, here are my points:

> The instructions are absolutley the worst. Here's an example:
8) Remove the tape <---what tape???
9) Insert a retainer in the special device. <---What is a "special device"?? What retainer? No figures to help.
10) Insert the plugs in the handle bar <-- there are no plugs!

And it goes on and on like this. Even Toys 'R Us warned me about the instructions. I'm a pretty handy guy, so I was able to get it assembled (except for a stripped screw) in an hour. If you're not very handy or confident improvising, have Toys'RUs do it for you.

> Next, the hardware (such as screws) seem to be made of very soft metal. That means stripping during assembly and during use.

> Our boy is an aggressive digger (but not a rough kid). After one hour, the handle and retainer snap and wobble, and the steering wheel is stripped and wobbling.

This product is okay if your child is content just pedalling around, but try to pick anything up or use it like a tractor, and you'll find very quickly that most of the price of the unit does not seem to go into quality, but likely goes to John Deere for the licensing fee!

Ours goes back to Toys'R us.

Great outdoor toy, but beware of plastic parts!
This loader tractor was given as a Christmas gift to my son when he was 2 1/2. He has loved it to pieces! Back then we were stuggling to find a peddle toy that he could sit on the seat and reach the peddeles. The that summer he was 36" tall and it was easy for him to peddel. The chain drive allowed him to move at a good walking pace for his mother so that summer we put miles on this bike.
That being said, I must caution readers that this bike is all plastic except the chain drive and the screws that hold it together. The ROPS bar is for show. The fenders can not take weight. The loader is not for hauling heavy things.
We have had durablity problems with this toy. My son rides it hard but I'd say the problems stem from plastic-to-plastic connections having too much flex and eventutally the screw or bolt falls out. The seat keeps coming off. And ours has not been a loader tractor for quite sometime as the end clamp fell off that and we've not replaced it. Lastly the tires are plastic too. Our rear tires have holes in them because of hard use.
Finally, My brother said it was an adverture to assemble and he is very handy.

Overall, I recommed this tractor. Its not too offen you can say your child wore a toy out! All that peddeling, uphill and downhill over and arround has been quite a benifit, too.

A great toy for a boy
My 3-year old son is absolutely happy riding this tractor on the playground. I didn't install the loader for safety reasons / maneuverability (the playground is crowded, and it's hard to steer the tractor precisely with the loader attached). One strange feature of this tractor (which appears to be shared by other ride-on toys and carts for some unexplained reason) is that only ONE rear wheel is connected to the chain transmission. The other three wheels are free-spinning, so this is essentially a "one-wheel drive". Sales reps. at Toys R Us were clueless as to the strange design, so it remains a mystery. Nevertheless, the traction of the left rear wheel (the driving one) has so far been sufficient; no skidding. Pedal-drivennes of this tractor is one good feature I want to mention; besides giving the kid an exercise, it eliminates the pain of having to recharge the battery after a day's drive and wait for another day till the toy can be used again. ... Read more

Editorial Review

A train you can ride on? That moves by itself? It's hard to imagine any child not being excited by this prospect. The Santa Fe Train offers an amusement park experience in your own house. Assembly is a snap, literally. The track pieces click together with no problem, and it's so obvious how to assemble the train, you almost don't need the manual. If you feel prepared to take it on, this train set can make for a spectacular birthday or holiday present. In the interests of instant gratification, however, be sure to charge up the battery the night before. Some other considerations for parents: This toy takes up a lot of space: at a bare minimum, 12 square feet. It may have limited replay value, since you can go around and around a track only so many times, even if you are 4 years old. And it requires a bit of maintenance in that you must keep the battery charged up. --David Stoesz ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Easily off balance
I read all the wonderful reviews and decided to get this train for my 2 year old for his birthday. Product is well crated, assembly simple. I am not sure whether the charger is operating as instructions suggest (green light is always on rather than signalling when battery is charged). Maybe that battery has never gone low when I charge.

My primary problem with the train though is that my child has fallen off of it 3 times. Now to ride it I have to stand in the middle of the track and spin around and around with him to spot him (i.e catch him or prevent him from falling). If he leans SLIGHTLY to the outside, (like turning to see his mom) the train de-rails or falls off the track side ways on to him.

I don't know how all the others had such positive experiences. My hope is my son will gain skill in keping the train on the track and will find it interesting, but any kid that comes to visit, we will have to 'spot'. I guess the educational value of this train for my son is learning to balance on a badly designed moving toy that has a narrow base and has a constantly shifting center of gravity (due to turning on track).

Bottom line - my kid prefers the $6 mega-blocks truck he got to this (...)train.

Great for little boys!!
Received this for xmas 2003, and my just 2 year old and 4 year old sons love this! They spend hours riding around. I've only used it so far on the track, so not sure about use without it. I'm buying a second battery because they ride it for hours and have a fit when I have to recharge it. They received tons of gifts from Santa, and this is by far the most used and loved. I would recommed this to anyone with small children. My 2 year old walked around holding the button down until he felt comfortable riding on it. LOVE THIS TRAIN, and only wish I could ride on it!!!

EVERY LITTLE BOYS' DREAM
THIS TRAIN I NEVER THOUGHT COULD BE SO USEFUL. NOT ONLY FOR MY SON, BUT FOR ME IT WAS A RELIEF. HE WOULD SPEND A LOT OF TIME RIDING IT WHILE I WAS BUSY DOING STUFF AROUND THE HOUSE. THE BATTERY IS VERY DURABLE. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THE SPACE ISSUE BECAUSE I LIVE IN AN APARTMENT AND THE FIRST THING YOU SEE WHEN YOU OPEN THE DOOR IS THE TRAIN BECAUSE IT'S BETWEEN THE LIVING ROOM AND DINING AREA. OTHER THAN THAT IT'S A LOT OF FUN.

have owned it for 2 years, and it *IS* a fun ride on.
Bought it for his first birthday, My son is not very timid, so he was fine with it -- but we held him while going round and round on the track -- he just loves it!. He would use it like a walker himself too, pushing the the black button for little spurts of movement and walking along side.
The track does take up a lot of room, so since we have hardwood floors, I've put the track in storage in the garage for now, and it works great, except of course that at 18 months, while my son can now ride securely by himself and climb off with no problems, he still cant turn it once he gets stuck in the furniture etc. I think the track will get fished out shortly since he loves to play for 30 to 45 minutes at a time riding on it and as an SAHM I'd prefer not to stay right by him to rescue him every other minute when he is otherwise so happy playing. He has now figured out which button does what just fine! Its wonderful that you have to hold it down to move. There is no question of it not stopping when baby wants it to stop and him not knowing how to throw a switch or something. He likes to give blocks and stuff a ride in the back too.
Its very easy to assemble, and having the battery secure is very important to me since my son has excellent fine motor skills and gets into EVERYTHING! So while that means five minutes everytime we want to charge the batteries, its no big deal for the safety plus. It seems durable and has stood up to lots of 2-4 year old visitors well too!

Update after 2 yrs and my now 3 yr old -- he still loves it! It has moved on out to the patio and yard, with a tarp for bad weather. He's finally figured out how to manouver it minus tracks too.
Pros: Great fun when other kids are around. Teaches taking turns and sharing. Very safe battery compartment. It gets played with only 10-15 min at a time, so I have to recharge maybe once a month, and have replaced the sound effects battery only once after a year.
Cons: Derails an awful lot especially the trailer, takes up a ton of room with the track. trailer lid snapped off with some rough handling. No Steering possible without the track(maybe need a large strong build to manouver) I would invest in this for a 12 - 18 mo old child, but unless its a small build child, they will have outgrown both interest and size(45 lb limit) by 3 or 4 yrs old. It has been a hit ride-on toy, and much cuter than other battery ride-ons. All the kids make a bee line for it when they head out, and are very disappointed if I've failed to charge it. A charge still lasts for about 2 hrs straight of play.

Sally's Train Ride
I had this train shipped to my neice up in Juneau, Alaska. Apparently it was the highlight of her 2.5 year-old day. Every kid should have this train...whistle, engine and bell sounds are real sounding and WOW...what a cool toy. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Great Ride-On Toy Tractor!!!
My husband and I purchased this tractor for our 2 year old son. He loves it, it keeps him busy for hours driving it all around our house. It was very easy for him to learn how to drive it when he first got it. Now its all he wants to do is go outside to ride his tractor!

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!

Much fun while it last
GOT THE TRACTOR FOR MY 21 MONTH OLD, HE LOVES IT. NOT A DAY GOES BY THAT HE IS NOT ON IT. TOOK AN HOUR TO PUT TOGETHER. AFTER ONE MONTH THE REVERSE DOES NOT WORK, THE TRAILER PIN IS WORN SO THE TRAILER FALLS OFF AND THE TRAILER LATCH IN THE BACK DOESN'T STAY CLOSED. BOTHERS ME BECAUSE OF COST BUT DOESN'T BOTHER THE LITTLE ONE. TRACTION IS GOOD ON GRASS AND THE BATTERY LAST ALL DAY, THAT'S GETTING ON AND OFF. RECOMMENDED BECAUSE IT'S SO DARN CUTE TO SEE HIM ALONG SIDE HIS DAD WHILE DADDY CUTS THE GRASS WITH HIS JOHN DEERE. ... Read more

Reviews (106)

Wonderful Toy*****
This was a great gift for my twins 3rd birthday. The boys have hit trees,climbed big hills and this thing is still going strong. The have named their Gator "Allie". We ride to the neighbors whose grandson also has a Gator and they all ride around our 5 acre lot. They have enjoyed this gift so much. I wished I had of gotten it sooner.

Problems with the Gator
The kids have loved the Gator. Unfortunately, six months after purchase, the reverse and first gear have completely gone out. Now, it looks like second gear is going out which will render the Gator completely immobile.

Not very long to have a new riding toy.

Think twice before purchasing
Purchased for two young grandchildren (ages 4 & 6). They loved this truck the first 3 hours it ran even though the horn did not work and many of the plastic pieces had broken off. When the motor operating the back left wheel burned out after only 5 hours of use, we returned the product.

The best thing we ever bought
We bought this 2 years ago and our son, then 3 was very excited. He learned to steer and back up, just like a real car.

He's now 5 and still has hours of enjoyment. It was a great investment.

VERY DISAPOINTED!!!
Our 3 year old daughter has had her Gator for 2 months and has given it moderate use. The gears have given out already! For the money this is a rip off. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Don't buy this battery...
My son has the John Deere Power Pull Tractor which uses this battery. Due to the numerous complaints about the battery, and because the battery that came with the tractor only lasts about 30 minutes before needing a recharge, I decided to take a different route.

I bought a 12 volt battery intended for lawn tractors/snow mobiles/etc. It will cost a heck of a lot less than Peg Perego's battery.

I then spliced the wires from the tractor, the red one is positive, obviously, and connected them to the battery. I then used a piece of wire to hold the new battery down. It works perfectly and literally runs an entire day before needing a recharge. And of course I use a car battery charger to charge it.

So, you'll save money and you kids will get MUCH more enjoyment!

Very Disappointed!
We have two of the Peg Perego vehicles - the Jeep Gaucho Grande and a John Deere Gator. The original batteries seemed to do okay and lasted about a year and a half (including the months of Nov-Feb when the toys weren't being used). I ordered two new batteries last year and they no longer work. I am extremely dissapointed (...) and my kids are mad that they can't ride the toys any more. It makes me sick!

I SEE OTHER PEOPLE HAVE THE SAME TROUBLE!
We bought our's and the battery lasted maybe 1 day!!! It has been sitting in our storage shed for a year now... I was going to buy another battery, but half scared to. I didn't know there was a recall....

I would rather buy a different brand!

Defective Battery
This product needs to be taken off the market. I see in the reviews other disatisfaction with it. It failed when used, which use was 30 days after delivery and Amazon.com does not have a method to return or replace with a better product. The battery that came with the toy is doing well, but please don't take Amazon's recommendation to use this as an alternate. This is the first and only time in 5 yrs. that Amazon has failed me.

Peg Perego 12 Volt rechargeable Battery
This battery stinks. We bought the John Deere Gator last year and the battery worked perfect. Less than a year later, the battery goes dead after 20 minutes and does not have the POWER (2 kids cannot ride on it now, because the battery is not powerful enough) it had when it was new. I've had power wheel batteries previously, and they lasted ALOT longer and with better charge quality than this battery. I hate the idea of shelling out another [$] for this battery!!!!!!! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

excellent
I also have the santa fe train and the additional track. I have a one year old and a three year old and both of them are able to ride it on their own. They love it. And it's pretty easy to set up and take down.

Fun and More Fun
My Granddaughter and her friends loved this toy. They only problem was not enough tracks. It would have been more fun to go a greater distance.

Santa Fe Train & Figure 8 Conversion Track
Awesome toy for my 2+ year old. I wish I was light enough to ride this thing. Gave it to him as a Christmas gift. He loves it. It took me a while to configure the figure 8, but other than that, it was a cinch to set up. Highly recommend the Santa Fe Train, as well as the track add on. Train is not flimsy. Made of good quality plastic. Best set up on harder surfaces. All in all, it's a great toy. ... Read more