Rear 369mm belt worn out after...

[AaronR]

... roughly 12 high-traction indoor off-road races. wtf?

Replaced the factory pulleys and belts with the new stuff about 2 weeks ago (again roughly 12 5-minute races & practice sessions), and noticed before my first qualifier tonight, the rear belt was about to be missing some teeth! The front belt looks very new. Anywho, about 9 laps into the 1st qual. tonight, the car had very little grunt.... about 1/2 the rear belt was missing its teeth when I took the body off and looked.

Replaced the rear belt in about 20 minutes of frantic wrenching and good as new.

Nothing seems to be binding in the driveline, but I will try loosening the slipper a tad more for my next event. I didn't think about doing that for the 2nd qual. tonight. Car drove very well the rest of tonight... as I took 3rd place of 6 (really only 3 of us were competitive). Winner had 20 laps in 5:03 (BJ4), 2nd place had 20/5:04 (BJ4) and I had 20/5:13.

So any feedback from anyone with the new belt and pulley setup? Not sure if setup really matters but I am running Orion Vortex 6.5/LRP TC Spec ESC with 15/87 gearing.

[xrider]

If you are missing teeth on the belt it could be that it is too loose. It can bounce on the rear top deck and catch on the edge of the carbon fiber and possibly pull some of the rubber teeth off.

[AaronR]

After I installed the two new belts and the 4 new pulleys two weeks ago, I did notice that the rear belt was more loose than the front with the settings Tamiya gives you in the install/setup sheets with the new parts. Even after replacing the rear belt last night, the two week old front belt was still tighter than the brand new rear (just by feel... lifting it up and feeling the tension)! I will try tightening it up by one 'notch' on each side. Thanks for the reply!

Next?...

[xrider]

Your right, after I upgraded all the pulleys and belts I also felt the tension was lighter than the instruction sheet they supply. I increased the rear two notches. The front seems ok for now. Good luck!

[chrispattinson]

With the new belts 369 and pulleys 36 18 37, I am running both cams with the arrow pointing down.

Over 80 x 5 minnute runs on the belts with no sign of wear, with a 4.5 brushless in.

[jimmy]

Mike west had the new stuff on his car with the supplied settings and his belts were VERY loose - mine were a bit tight. I've no wear on my belts and have done probably 30x5 min runs at least

[AaronR]

So... verdict in.... the tighter the better.

Jimmy are we (*cough* you) behind on event coverage & photos? I miss it!

[nobby]

Originally Posted by jimmy

Mike west had the new stuff on his car with the supplied settings and his belts were VERY loose - mine were a bit tight. I've no wear on my belts and have done probably 30x5 min runs at least

i'v just got mikes spare car off him and i just rebuilt it and he told me to run the belts as loose as possible.

i'm going to tighten them by one dot as the rear belt is catching the inner wishbone hanger that goes over the lower part of the belt.

first run with the 501x at the aces last weekend quallied 6th finished 5th in the A.
with westy's old car (he wasn't very happy as i beat him)

what a fantastic car i just hope it's as good outdoors as indoors.

[chrispattinson]

Its better outdoors!

[nobby]

Originally Posted by chrispattinson

Its better outdoors!

[AaronR]

UPDATE! Tightening the rear belt by 2 'notches' will destroy the belt rather quickly! Mine lasted for about five 5-minute races on high traction indoor off-road. It actually broke the inner threads, and chewed the f0k out of the 18T center pulley! Replaced the belt and pulley this morning and will try tightening the belt ONE 'notch' to see how long this will last. Live and learn, but replacing rear belts is getting quite annoying.

[Fabs]

Originally Posted by AaronR

UPDATE! Tightening the rear belt by 2 'notches' will destroy the belt rather quickly! Mine lasted for about five 5-minute races on high traction indoor off-road. It actually broke the inner threads, and chewed the f0k out of the 18T center pulley! Replaced the belt and pulley this morning and will try tightening the belt ONE 'notch' to see how long this will last. Live and learn, but replacing rear belts is getting quite annoying.

Right,

I've been using the new belts and pulleys for 3 races and I've seen nothing. I don't have the offset tensioners so I haven't put any. I tighten my belts so they're not overly tight, but not loose. I run a 4,5T brushless, and ran it yesterday at the Petit RC race on carpet, with a lot of grip.

My belts and pulleys are absolutely fine, which tells me you must be doing something wrong.

[AaronR]

Originally Posted by Fabs

Right,

I've been using the new belts and pulleys for 3 races and I've seen nothing. I don't have the offset tensioners so I haven't put any. I tighten my belts so they're not overly tight, but not loose. I run a 4,5T brushless, and ran it yesterday at the Petit RC race on carpet, with a lot of grip.

My belts and pulleys are absolutely fine, which tells me you must be doing something wrong.

Thanks for the encouragement! How tight is your slipper? I have mine on pretty much full lock to get traction (we run slick Losi Pink Tapers on our high grip dirt surface).... I may need to loosen it to ease the belt wear. Again, the front tension is what the sheets tell you with the new pulley and belts. The rear tension is one notch tighter than the sheets and that seems to have the most belt life for me.

Anyway, we had a 4 qual, 1 main race this weekend and I replaced both belts before the 5 races.... front belt, looks new... rear belt does show some wear but could last maybe 3-4 more 5-minute races.

My only other alternative is to go back to the 16T center pulley and 36T rear pulley for the rear belt drivetrain. I raced alot of races with the original belts and pulleys until they finally failed from belt wear.

P.S. Ryan Cavalieri, Chad Due, Ronnie Gardner, Joe Pillars, Josh Stough and Frank Root were our top 6 in 4WD A Main at our race this weekend! Just awesome to watch these 4WDers race!

[Fabs]

Hi Aaron,

You should set your slipper so it slips a bit off the line, but not overly so. If anything, the bigger pulleys should help with durability. I know that's hoz I've solved my belst breaking issue on the 415 (have been using 18T centre pulleys for nearly 2 years now).