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Gates belt vs factory

89sandman

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I haven't bought a factory belt in over 10 years... But then I'm smart enough to know how to take care of a belt ;)
 

summ8rmk

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I think all of them were very close back in the day. Not sure what has changed if anything in the aftermarket belts.

 
M
Mar 18, 2011
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Looking to save a few bucks in preparation for the upcoming sled trip. Anyone use the Gates belt instead of factory? Are they as good as stock?

Uh since textron take over belts are cheap. Run an 046 & giver. Oh add an x-1 kit while your at it. Won't believe the throttle response
 

Coldfinger

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I dont know but I was just looking around yesterday. The oem 046 is $71 and I saw two gates belts. The less expensive one is $52 on rockauto.com and the more expensive is like $67. IIRC, Oreilly Auto was around $80 but not sure which gates belt it was. I had heard years ago that if a gates fails they are really good about replacing under warranty but I dont have personal experience with a gates or if the warranty rumors are true now or if they ever were.
 
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MI1M600EFI

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I just bought two Gates 39G4455 belts off ebay for 55.84 each shipped. I run a Dayco on the wife's little 440, but I've had a Gates on my M8 for a few winters with no problems. Not much riding last winter though...

I found other reviews that also said they held up fine. One guy said he blew one right away and picked up the pieces and bagged them and sent it back and they sent him a new belt, but that was several years ago. I don't know if they still do that or not, but if so, make sure you pick up the pieces if you blow one early! :)

I've only blown one belt, and it was a factory belt, but it probably had ~2000 miles on it, since I had just bought the sled used. Usually my belts just get thin enough that the sled starts bogging off idle, and I replace them. I could probably adjust the secondary for proper deflection and keep going, but I'm lazy, and cleaning up the mess of a blown belt is not my idea of a good time...
 
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Mjunkie

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No experience with gates but I tried a couple dayco’s once and will never buy them again. The taper was different, so they slipped bad off an idle. I talked to the rep and he acted like I was crazy and just said I could pay the fee/shipping and they’d give me new ones (but they’d be exactly like the ones I sent in). This was their equivalent of the 036. Sorry about the vent, I’m still bitter


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