caroni belt failer

[ugabulldog]

I have the 1900 and everytime I use it, maybe once a year, belts break after a few hours. I keep everyting greased and have about 3/8" play in belts (width of belt looking at it from side). Here is a picture of where my adjusting bolt is on thread. If someone could please post pic where they have theirs adjusted maybe it will help me with mine. I remember seeing a picture on forum before but can't find it. Thanks

 

[leonz]

Hello ugabulldog,

Your V belts are much too loose. If you purchase a Gates V belt gauge from amazon you will always have the correct tension on your belts otherwise you chould have no more than 3/16 of an inch of slack on both belts.

The Kevlar thread V belts are much more shock resistant than the standard nylon thread V belts.

Whether you invest in the Kevlar V belts or the standard V belts you need to make sure that they have the same lot number as every batch is different and one belt of one batch and another belt of a second batch cannot be paired together as neither one will last as long as 2 of the same lot number.

 

[Oldoak]

I would also say you are running the belt too loose. And are you purchasing the same brand belt every time you break one. May be a poor quality. Try changing manufactures for the same size belt.

 

[ugabulldog]

I have been buying at NAPA buy went with cheaper this time as I got frustrated, if and when these break will try Kevlar as suggested.


After reading the long post on caroni flails, it looks like some are adjusting the tensioner spring all the way, I will definetly go tighten, maybe all the way.

 

[ddbackhoe]

I have been buying at NAPA buy went with cheaper this time as I got frustrated, if and when these break will try Kevlar as suggested.


After reading the long post on caroni flails, it looks like some are adjusting the tensioner spring all the way, I will definetly go tighten, maybe all the way.

From your picture, I have a different guess. Something else is wrong, look at all of the rubber shavings left behind. Maybe the routing or width or....

 

[skipperbrown]

I think your belts are too loose as well and you are probably pulling it too fast. If you get some slippage on your belts, they will fail very quickly. I ran my 1900 without the belt cover so I could monitor the belts better. If you start to smoke them, you are going too fast. I would try the highest quality Gates belts (matched) quite a bit snugger and see how that works for you. I could pull a brush cutter much faster than my 1900 and ended up selling it for that reason. You will also develop an 'ear' for the sound the cutter makes when you are approaching the 'smoke zone'. Good luck.

 

[houser52]

I was having the same problem last year, belts breaking right and left. Possible reasons included, mowing speed too fast, too slow, mower set too high, too low, misaligned pulleys, too much/ too little belt tension, too much grease, not enough grease, dull blades, wrong blades, wrong drum rotation, pulleys rough, pulleys dirty. Ugh! I was so frustrated that I was ready to sell the Caroni. As a last resort I decided to install 45" kevlar belts instead of 46" belts. That was almost a year ago, dozens of hours of mowing time, 20+ acres mowed and still going strong.

I recently ran over a piece of steel cable hidden in the weeds and choked the tractor down. After removing the cable from the mower I checked the belts, expecting them to be trashed. To my surprise they still looked new even though they were almost a year old.

The 45" kevlar belts solved my problem of breaking belts every few hours.

Here's a pic of the 45" belts installed. Not a lot of deflection by the idler pulley, less belt to idler contact , less back flexing of the belts and less heat could be reason the belts have lasted so much longer.