Heads up on belts...

[KE4AVB]

I am beginning to wonder if it is even worth trying. I signed up with Stens by earlier this and they are screwing up on shipping. If the items are in my area's primary warehouse things are fine; if are in a secondary warehouse they never get shipped. At the two belts I needed were in the primary warehouse and should be here tomorrow....Maybe. I sure hope Stens belts are right.

Just Monday I cancel an order for a couple Kohler aftermarket 15amp voltage regulators and a couple of the 4 pin Delta seat switches. The order was supposedly ship Wednesday last week from as secondary warehouse but UPS never received it. I ended up having to go to John Deere locally to get one I needed for Scag ZTR so it come be returned Monday. Then ordered the Stens through my Oregon Kohler parts supplier and it arrive yesterday along with my SAM conversion kit.

[hanz63]

I don't do a lot with Stens. They started me off on the high discount, but when I realized their blades and few other things were crap, I quit buying as much and now I can practically off Amazon for a cheap... I tend to make several larger orders as of late with them rather than weeklyish like in the past. Their belts are close to the best sans OEM. Thermoid came up here before- even better. Stens used to do quite well on shipping. My best guess relates to the change in their website and the back end that goes with that. Someone (who probably got canned) decided to launch a new website for OPE in the highest traffic time possible. They sent an email regarding some issues they had a short time back.
Power Distributors are good folks and have a couple of basic levels if you don't want to go whole hog. Gates belts they stock and the I can't believe it is a replacement belt OEPs.

[Arkie]

V belts:

I was buying belts from a seller on flea bay awhile back and had bought quite a few mower belts, prompt shipping, then sometime later I noticed I was receiving some belts that were not correct size, I was ordering by looking at their manufacturers part number, for example MTD part number and noticed they would have sometimes 3 different size V belts listed using the same part number. When I informed them of such by email they said they would look into their listings.

I quit buying from them and buying elsewhere with good results. Few months later I noticed they were still listed same and inquired again.
Couple weeks later I noticed they had a v belt listed that I was searching for listed correctly by size and part number and when I went to order the belt, they had blocked me as a buyer. I thought I wish I could email you guys a big THANK YOU.

The seller is UPE GROUP so keep a heads up about their v belt listings.

I've had better luck with getting a correct size in the Kevlar belts.

[hanz63]

Interesting. UPE Group has a website and sells on Amazon as well.

[KE4AVB]

Normally I would say "glad to see someone is having the same problem" but here this seems to massive. The vendors seems to be just not to trusted any more on they are selling in the aftermarket line. At one time I could trust that what I have tried in the past would be the same when I re-ordered but it now now.

Arkie, Normally buying the Kevlar belts in standard inch sizes was usually good from Sunbelt for me as well which is why I ordered them this time. But it was not to be this as all four belts were short and none of them even off by the same size. What made me mad was when two of them were the same size but one was labeled as 89" and the other as 90". Of I current don't have other than a tape measure but on these belt I had tried on the deck and when stretch around the pulleys I marked where any belt allowed the idler to stop. An variance of 4 inches from the shortest to longest is a lot. I will be buying a measuring tool as I finally found one that can go up 130" with an extension. Most only goes to 100". Most likely pricey but I now got to measure every belt received before install.

It is looking like all I can do now is try the OEMs belts and hope they are not screwed up too. I just got to explain to user why I need to put on such pricey belts.

[38racing]

i measure belts by rolling then down the handrail to the basement. i thought of getting the tool but it's not cheap. and thing is belts are sold by outside length but operate on inside. i just replaced deck belt on mtd rider. it was slipping in heavier grass. new belt was aftermarket with oem number. it was actually a bit longer outside than the original belt. but it was thicker. guessing that the original had worn on inside. new belt actually seemed a bit too loose. to point of slight vibration. but it does not slip in heavy cutting.

[KE4AVB]

The belt measuring tool should be mark in OD, ID sizes, and hopefully in effective lengths. I will once I get one in.

Curious which MTD rider? Here is I just had to put a 1/2" x 77" belt in place of the normal 77.5" belt because the belt was too loose. I actually slip the spindle pulley when the deck was engaged. It cut good now even I can still slip the pulley some under tension.

Actually it probably would have took a 68.5 68.75 but I no belts in that size. It have overload the engine any way as it had only a 13.5 in place what was on the same series 5 yrs earlier as I got basically the same mower with a 15.5 and the 77" will not even fit. They must have moved things around so the smaller engine could handle the same deck size of 38".

[KE4AVB]

Well I ordered the belt measuring and it was only 125 usd with the extension for up to 130" belts. Of course that is with my business discount at my auto parts supplier.

Now I could have got a 110" model for around 50 usd but am using belts that are over the 110" max of that tool.

[38racing]

sometimes it's not the belt. The mtd hydro I use at the church was stopping going uphill so I ordered a new belt. When I went to change it today I found that it was the idler pulley gone. The centre bolt gave just enough tension for it to run on level ground.

[KE4AVB]

Most of the Hydros I get in are of the AYP/Husqvarna type and it is common for the plastic v-idler to worn out. Some I can replace with a metal version; others I can't.