sidewinder shredding belts need a fix

my ridding bud has a sidewinder and he has shredded 2 belts in 320 miles and on the 3ed! im a turbo 2smoker guy and don't know a lot about these 4strokes but that seems like a lot of belts in a short time? he treats his sled a lot nicer than I treat mine we run about the same HP and I have 500 miles on the stock belt. he has broke both belts in properly and has never WOTed his flipper for more than short bursts where I pin mine to the bar and feather it to not roll it over backwards! im hoping for some advice on what we can do to get the belts in check!
1:is this normal or do ya think the aliment is off?
2:what's a good vent kit for the panels/sled?
3:what clutch kits are all of you using {I would say he rides 60% mountain/snow and 40% trail} he doesn't want the sled to be clutched to hot for the trails but would not mind a bit more in the hills/trees. we live in Alaska and ride from 0-6000 ft. any input would be appreciated!
on a side note WOW these 4strokes have came a long way in a short time its a fun nimble/agile sled with a long liner power-ban just loads of fun!!
any who thanks in advance for the help.

being the sled has 320 miles on it I would guess the rollers are good but I will check them out before I assume their to be good thanks for the advice motorbreath I will let you know what they look like.

well sled just got out of the dealership {northern power sports in fairbanks} and they said nothing is wrong and all is within speck so he might need to take a trip to anchorage but we are going to check it over and look for a few problems that others have hade...flat rollers/helix not making contact on all ramps and the spring being set in the 3/3 position after that we are thinking of grabbing some dulton clutch parts and venting the cowling to expel the heat. seems like if you keep this stock sled on the trails the clutching is working out good but many are having problems after studding the track or boon docking/powder riding. seems to me that the extra load on the track is causing the excess heat on the clutches do to a improper shifting quality. most have said that springs and rollers are a min. that needs dun but all say that the whole shebang is worth every cent! witch is something I have to be true in the 2stroke world also!! ill let you all know what we find when we check the sled out and what we find as a solution as we start to tweak on the clutches!

yep 8secolds that's where I have ben looking cant seam to find a kit that all agree on {and most are trail/drag riders/racers as we do a lot of boon docking} but got the names of a handful of people who put together kits and we are going to call them up and see what each suggest and why. dulton seems to be a very prominent/popular maker of most of the clutch components but they don't set kits up they just make the parts for a individual to test and tune but it seems that most use their parts in their kits. they make upwards of 30 different helix{strait/2stage/progressive/reversed} because of the overwhelming opinion's of what's working the best for what condition! it turns out that these 4strokers are super picky on the clutch component's VS. riding style VS. train it seems to be more of all or nothing deal... what comes in the sled seems to work great on trail with a non studded track. people are studding the track and going from 1200-1500km {don't know what that is in miles} on a belt to 400-500km on the same stock belt. to say the least this has ben a fun venture with my buddy to figure out what's going to work for our riding style. on a side note we are looking for some custom vents or vent kits and it seems to be a bit limited! we want something functional but we are hoping for something that looks nicer than what we have ran across if any one knows of a maker we would appreciate it!
thanks again for all the suggestions from the SW crew!!!

well after reading hundreds of posts and several forms I compiled a short list of to-dos on the sidewinder
#1- check the rollers for flat spots/wear replace accordingly
#2- check driven clutch for coil bind on the spring this can be reminded by shimming 0.60 washers under the helix {you will need to dock one side of the washer/shim to allow it to seat against the helix} they also make helixes with deeper cups or springs with thinner coils to prevent this! after market
#3- check the offset on the clutches it should be pushed to the far limits that Yamaha sets {61 mm off set or as close to it as you can get with the Yamaha spacers, some say just a little over is ok 61.4}
#4- check the helix to make sure that all 3 ramps are making contact on the rollers this can be reminded by sanding with 220 on the ramps that are hitting until all 3 touch and then polishing the ramps with 400 then 600 or by a new helix { not a stock as they seem to be of a lesser quality than Yamaha owners are accustom to or that you need} I would also suggest replacing rollers prior to the sanding do to the fact that if a roller is worn more than the next do to improper contact you might inadvertently not sand enough off that ramp and find when the roller's are replaced that you need to do it again!
#5- venting! its no surprise if you look at the sled that it lacks venting in all arrears! the clutches are blocked off from most incoming air but the EX-venting on the clutches is minimal at best also. mo-flow seems to be the only making a full kit!
#6- this is still up to debate as half have dun it and half have not! the 8DN belt swap! the 8DN is a touch longer than the 8JP and made of stronger and harder compounds. it is less prone to blowing/creating dust and can with stand more heat/abuse! the down side is that it can wear in to the face of the clutches quicker than the 8JP do to the harder compounds and you can expect to loose 3-4 mile per hour on top end do to the slightly bigger circumference. set deflection accordingly to the belt that you use! witch brings us to the last...
#7- belt deflection. if you choose to use the 8JP the proper setting is 0.5-1.5 mm sticking out of the driven clutch if you choose to use the 8DN they say you should let the max be the minimum on it or just a touch more IE. the 1.5 mm should be a minimum to help compensate for the size difference between the two belts.


we are planning on just getting the after-market kits to remedy these problems {looking at thunder products and a few others} but until we figure out witch kit is best suited to our riding style we have preformed all of these home remedies all easy quick and inexpensive! we have not got out on these fixes yet do to the -20/-30 temps and just not being excited to go out in them but if they are any thing but great I will post and let you know what we thought.
just posted this to try to save the next guy the huge hassle that I went through to figure out the problems on these newly designed clutches and components! good luck with the new sidewinder!

I know what your saying/thinking about the weights niner but these SW give a constant HP regardless of elevation and if you have 200 hp at 10000ft and 200hp at 1000ft the clutching should be a constant as the hp is to.
so far the thunder kit is working out a lot better than stock even though we don't have the RPMs set right it is pulling harder than stock, the clutch temps are great as we can hold the clutches after several long WOT runs and theirs no more belt build up from top to bottom of the clutches they are just squeaky clean. ill let you all know what the final results are on the kit when we are dun tuning it in...hopping this Friday on the tune and a ride on Saturday for testing!