All Season On One Belt??

[AdrenalineAddict]

The biggest reason I purchased a 2012 Pro was that a friend of mine rode 1,000 miles last year and never changed a belt. I was sure I wouldn't be so lucky myself but figured I'd give it a shot. I removed my belt last night at 480 miles and measured it against a new one. To my surprise it only measured .001" thinner than a brand new 321115 "UNBELIEVABLE " to say the least. We rode very hard last week for three days straight loading the crap out of the sled in 40 degree weather. The Pro performed above my expectations and the belt life is icing on the cake. How many miles can be expected under reasonably tough conditions? I've heard some of the 11's wore motor mounts and belt life suffered. I've heard they changed up the mounts a bit for 2012, looks like the motor is staying put so far.

 

[coolx2]

I got 2500 miles on my belt last season. After I put in a footwell vent to keep from kicking snow on the belt. 250 on the belt I smoked due to snow.

 

[m8sandman]

as long as your clutched right and you know how to not abuse it like not making 15 pulls on the hill in a row. also constantly barely moving your sled to get out of a tight spot, i call this "pinching it", shortens life greatly. using your mt. sled as a drag racer will also shorten your belt life. treat it right and you should easily get 2k out of one. i almost always do on any sled and i've never washed one or worried about the fabled break in period. if you abuse it you'll lose it...

 

[ApeSh*tBananas]

belt

So your saying 45 second to minute long pulls under load with every vent plugged from snow is not optimal for belt life?

 

[theultrarider]

So your saying 45 second to minute long pulls under load with every vent plugged from snow is not optimal for belt life?

Who runs vents??? I don't vent at all cuz i do too much water skipping. Have too to go to some of our best playgrounds. However, if clutched right, you dont need them. IMO vents are just a bandaid for poor clutching.

 

[Sunvang]

Just passed 1800km on my odometer the other day, and still on stock belt that was delivered on the sled when bought it. Pro Rmk that is getting alot of abuse!

 

[pura vida]

ones person abuse is another's average day. i'm pretty happy to get more than 500 miles out of one. i run quite a few vents but i'm not convinced they do a whole lot. when they are working, you probably don't need them. when you really need them they are more than likely too plugged to be useful.

pv

 

[HiWaYman92]

I've been beating the death out of mine for 1300 miles now. I'm on the second belt mainly because I wanted to try out the Arctic Cat 048. 903 miles on my original belt and it still looks like brand new. The Cat belt is working like a charm too; for 1/3 the price-although with this belt life who cares what they cost! I do have WRP vents though; my thoughts were if they helped save a belt a year they paid for themselves three times.

 

[TurboMatt]

i run quite a few vents but i'm not convinced they do a whole lot. when they are working, you probably don't need them. when you really need them they are more than likely too plugged to be useful.

pv

VERY VERY true

 

[Thatspec]

Run your fingers over the sheaves down deep in the primary at the engagement level. 115 belt will wear a groove in them faster than most. Something is going to wear, your choice belt or metal. still probably cheaper to get your sheaves machined when necessary. Blowing belts can ultimately do a lot more damage to other things...

 

[AdrenalineAddict]

It's good to hear that others are experiencing the same. I've spent the last 20 years pulling a hill 3 or 4 times, taking a break, opening my hood, looking for torn cords, trimming cords, and hoping I could make it to the truck. I can finally go out and get a solid day of riding in without even opening the side panel, much better fuel economy than the big bore with similar perfromance. I've learned the Pro is real fun to ride and holds a line through an uphill bump run better than I expected.

 

[F-Bomb]

just went over 1500 miles on my PRO 115 belt

track trim
head
clutch kit

FACTORY VENTS ONLY

Generally speaking we ride pretty hard. Hard enough that the other sleds I'm with have to stop and cool down or change belts regularly.

sled setup.... proper belt break in..... clean clutching = long belt life and consistent high performance

 

[AdrenalineAddict]

F-Bomb
Myself and a few friends are going to ride in your neck of the woods this weekend, our snow down here still leaves a little to be desired. How's the snow in the Trinities since the weather of the last couple weeks? I'm sure it's set-up a BUNCH but hey 70" of hard is much better than 30" of hard and boulders. Can we get a good ride in up Trinity Creek or are we going to be dodging rocks all weekend?

 

[F-Bomb]

I don't really ride there much...only once so far this year (a few weeks ago) and it was SKINNY and super dangerous with everything sliding to the dirt. One of my buddies rode last week and it was totally awesome and they couldn't go anywhere. I think they got four or five new feet at that point. I'd say it's game on.

I'll let you know tomorrow night if everything goes correctly!

 

[Rocketboy]

Don't you think some of the belt stuff as to do with the dual angle of the clutch sheaves? Isn't that the point of having Carls recut them?

 

[AdrenalineAddict]

Mine haven't been re-cut, just scuffed up a bit.

 

[F-Bomb]

Nope because my clutch sheaves are BONE STOCK.

Just as I posted. I see with my stuff that there is a direct correlation between the track, gear ratio, and the clutch kit. I've been putting all kinds of various secondary springs in just to mess around. Little bitty initial spring variances on the secondary are dramatically effecting heat results. We have found three or four setups that I would call good and ONE that is great. I'm continuing to do more testing between 163 and 155 setups just to see how much that track variation is effecting things. Right now it doesn't look like much! Which was surprising! Another interesting situation is that the rider mass or how much fuel you carry at the point of testing isn't really making a big difference in the results. Too me that is exciting because on the great setup you get a bunch more versatility for both changing conditions and altitudes. On one setup we are just simply adding and subtracting gram weights for alt and it seems to remain very consistent.

 

[Pro-8250]

just went over 1500 miles on my PRO 115 belt

track trim
head
clutch kit

FACTORY VENTS ONLY

Generally speaking we ride pretty hard. Hard enough that the other sleds I'm with have to stop and cool down or change belts regularly.

sled setup.... proper belt break in..... clean clutching = long belt life and consistent high performance

About the same amount of miles. Original stock belt.

 

[Mountain800]

Nope because my clutch sheaves are BONE STOCK.

Just as I posted. I see with my stuff that there is a direct correlation between the track, gear ratio, and the clutch kit. I've been putting all kinds of various secondary springs in just to mess around. Little bitty initial spring variances on the secondary are dramatically effecting heat results. We have found three or four setups that I would call good and ONE that is great. I'm continuing to do more testing between 163 and 155 setups just to see how much that track variation is effecting things. Right now it doesn't look like much! Which was surprising! Another interesting situation is that the rider mass or how much fuel you carry at the point of testing isn't really making a big difference in the results. Too me that is exciting because on the great setup you get a bunch more versatility for both changing conditions and altitudes. On one setup we are just simply adding and subtracting gram weights for alt and it seems to remain very consistent.

As it seems that you found the magic setup...is it possible for you to let us all know some details about your clutching? I would love cool clutches and long beltlife so please share, ofcourse I understand if its secret as I see there is much time and testing on such a good clutchsetup... I am riding 0-3000, MDS Weights now at 74 grams, blue/white primary, stock sec spring with carls helix, 8250-8100 rpm, some fluctation on rpms but I think its closer to a good setup than stock... Thanks...

 

[F-Bomb]

adrenalineaddict...just returned from a modest tour of the Trinities today. Helping a buddy who just bought a 12 PRO the ends and outs of sledding. Nice first buggy eh? WOW Well I'm all busted up plus now I think my throttle arm wrist is broken (awesome) so we took it pretty basic just working around the lakes up to big roaring. Really good riding in any ravine or gully...anything wind exposed or that's had sun was iffy. All the climbs are sliding and just plain scary. Some nuts have been hitting them but they all have sluffs. (ten plus pretty good slides that have happened within a few days) Several weeks ago it was the worst natural slide activity I've ever seen in my 30,000 miles of mountain riding. I think it's still very worrisome and I encourage you guys to really use caution! It snowed about four inches while we were there and was getting black and socking in at 330.