# White LT-15 breaking snowblower belts



## MarcG (Nov 24, 2007)

Now that I've got the snowblower working fine, I can't keep it working fine. The auger belt breaks when I get into a moderate snowbank. The belt felt warm, but not burning hot, when I removed it

At around $50 and a PITA to change (need to remove the two housing idler pulleys) I don't want to try again until I have some kind of plan of attack. I'm thinking that the shear bolts should break first, but even they shouldn't break in these snowbanks.

Any idea what to look for?

--Marc


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## mark777 (Jul 23, 2004)

Marc,

In my experience with belt driven equipment (and none with snowblowers) one of two things most frequently happens:

1- An impact, bounce or shift to the pulleys - caused by uneven distribution of loads will hyperextend the belts maximum strength design. And once you've located how and where the unexpected travel comes from, I'm faily certain you have eliminated the broken belt problem.

2- Although factory jigs are Crucial during fabrication, setup and installation, you’d be very surprised just how far out of alignment tensioned and idler pulleys are installed at the factory. It takes very little weld misalignment in height, lateral travel or angle to create constant stress during loads on the belt. At $50. bucks a pop, I'd do a partial tear-down and do a simple straigh edge test to see if any thing looks (right from the factory but) wrong to you.

Even well known brands and expensive implements suffer from this problem on occasion. I've done five mower deck rebuilds this year that were "Throwing Belts" or breaking them far too soon. All of them were directly related to pulley misalignment. One follower pulley had to be cut, added material installed and rewelded to correct a 5/8" deviation in height. None have come back (knock on wood )

Hope this helps.

Mark


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## MarcG (Nov 24, 2007)

Thanks, Mark. I'll check the pulley alignment. Since this is the lowest belt in the system, and everything is pretty exposed, it's entirely possible that someone hit a rock, chunk of ice, or something and knocked it out.

I don't know how to look for the problem you mentioned in #1, though. Could you elaborate a little?

I do expect belts to go bad, but not two out of three uses. Today's was a brand new belt, with maybe 1/2 hour on it.

--Marc


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## mark777 (Jul 23, 2004)

Sure Marc.

Like a shock absorber on your car, the design limitations go unnoticed until you run over something (fully compressed travel) or drop into a large pothole (fully extended travel). Your blower, other than lifting and lowering, is most probably built to operate at a rigid and fixed position…but should you impact something or travel through rougher terrain allowing the implement to flex laterally, cause end play (from side to side) or even slightly twist, it will provide the opportunity for the belt to stretch, loose travel alignment and eventually fail.

I’m suggesting that at some point of attachment to your tractor the blower produces exaggerated travel, bounce or flex causing the belt to stretch (beyond its design) and break. Clear as mud??


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## MarcG (Nov 24, 2007)

Mark, that does make sense. I'm wondering if maybe the terrain itself is a problem now. My driveway is fairly steep, so the end would present a place for the tractor to flex. I also push the snow as much as I can up a hilly lawn. I could look for weak spots where the blower carriage mounts to the chassis. But hopefully I'll see something in the pulley alignment. I think that would be easier to see.

Thanks.


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## MarcG (Nov 24, 2007)

I just realized I never got back to this subject, but I only had a chance to really test it out the other night, as that was the heaviest snow since the repair.

I had my repair guy take a look at this and he said the pulleys were way out of alignment. He was kind of surprised it worked as well as it did. He had to take the shims out of the front idler and place them on the drive pulley in the rear.

The other night I munched on some really packed snowbanks and the thing kept munching. Now bring on the next storm :tractorsm !!


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## Simpleprestige (Apr 20, 2007)

Glad to know you are back to blowin and goin. I hear in NH you guys got hit with some real nasty s**t that gave you something like 25" of snow. I may be thinking of another state. Around here we just get the lake effect and I was wishin I had a blower the other day when I realized I couldn't push the snow any farther. I need to get me one of them 59" front blowers for the JD:furious: :furious:


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## MarcG (Nov 24, 2007)

We've been hit with lots of snow since December, but they've all been 12" or less. No 25-inch'er, and I hope never to see one of those.

It *is* nice to send the snow over the bank, but your bucket doesn't do the job for you? That just looks like more fun to play with.


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## Simpleprestige (Apr 20, 2007)

The bucket sounds nice, but it can only handle so much. My drive iss about 300 yards through the woods and about 8 ft wide. there is no place to turn the tractor enough to dump it over the bank. Now I've got a tractor with a blade, a 4-wheeler with a plow, and we pay somebody to plow it for us. I would, but the windchills are -23 right now, and I don't have a fancy cab. just a carhartt.


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## MarcG (Nov 24, 2007)

I'm going to try to bump this thread for now, instead of starting a new one.

Here I am a year later and breaking belts again. The fix last year lasted the rest of the year, until I burned one out with a mushy, muddy, mess. I figured it was my fault.

But I snapped a belt again in the last storm. Now I'm wondering if the belt is too small. The specs call for a 103", and that's what I got. But this thing is a real pain to put on. I need both hands to turn the pulley to get the belt over. And this is with the tension idler spring off. The belt breaks cleanly with no tearing and no cuts anywhere else. No burning, either. I just started in a snowbank and that was it.

Would a 104" belt work? I don't think it would be too big. To put the belt on I have to remove both front idler pulleys. The last time I tried to put the belt on I tried putting one of those idlers on last, after threading the belt. But I couldn't stretch it enough. I got that pulley at least an inch away, and that was it. 

Any thoughts?

--Marc


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## Jetblack1525 (Nov 9, 2008)

What type of tractor and blower do u have?


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## MarcG (Nov 24, 2007)

It's a White MTD LT-15.


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## MarcG (Nov 24, 2007)

I just wanted to fill in my solution, in case someone in the future has similar problems.

I went with a 104" belt, 1" longer than stock. I don't know why the stock belt snaps, but it does. Someone elsewhere thought maybe the blower was assembled with hardware meant for a different model tractor. Don't know, but the 104 belt works fantastic. No snapping, no slipping, and no burning. Plus, it's much easier to slip on.

If anyone tries this, make sure you get a good Kevlar (Aramid) belt meant for outdoor products. Mine was a Rotary belt from an online guy, Casto, Inc.


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