Well... Anything further you say in this thread means nothing to me because there is plenty of threads with guys who haven't had problems. Including the three who posted after you said this. Also, I know of two very popular gentleman who would like to get you a kit for your 175. They are out there, again making me question how much you have really tried.
Im defining "non belt blowing 850s" as the ones who are getting about 500 or more miles out of a belt. They are out there cause I have a buddy who has one. Hasn't touched it besides the foam.
I follow all the threads (SW and DooTalk) extensively and the general info i have gathered is...
Definition of "fixes": sleds that wouldn't get 500 miles out of a belt but NOW do after one of the following:
1) venting "fixes" some
2) a different belt "fixes" some
3) protecting from the clutch guard tab "fixes" some
4) a clutch kit "fixes" some
5) a combination of any of the above "fixes" some
6) some can't be "fixed", maybe when these ones blow the first one violently the second belt doesn't have a chance because it hurt something
I spoke with all the popular clutch kit guys. Maybe now that the season is over there a few out there but in the actual prime season they were all working on final calibrations and were not ready to release them. The back east guys were having a hard time even finding a 175 to work on or the snow to test it.
In between trips to Revy I spoke with roosterbuilt about getting something together to test and we just couldn't connect.
I rode with the mechanic in Revy that works with Alford and was testing things out on the 175. They were not happy enough with it to call it done last time I saw them.
The general consensus that a Softer primary spring, more weight focused on the tips, and stiffer secondary spring are very well understood. Again, I spent a lot of coin on the pro clutch tools to work the P drive and gone burnt out dealing with it when it threatened to take away epic days on the hill.
I would agree with your definition of a non belt blowing sled. Hell I'd take 300-400 miles.
Again what I'm trying to say is that belt issue is very specific to certain snow conditions. I can ride around pinned all day in 1-2 feet of snow and not hurt a belt. If thats all I rode for a week straight I would have non belt blower! But thats not what I consider deep snow.
It also makes a huge difference on how many miles guys are putting on to get to the riding zone. When your breaking trail from the parking lot and have to just hammer to gain the riding area it has a tremendous impact on the miles that belt will live vs. the guys that show up an hour later on the next day and log around 10+ miles of following tracks, or riding 20+ miles a day on groomers in some areas.
Thats great that your up to speed with the internet jockeys, the most likely user group to ride average snow in an average manner. These sleds work incredibly well for most people and I'm happy for them.
My opinion comes from talking to real life people that I see on the hill who like me are lucky enough to be able to go every day its deep and only ride when its deep (3-5ft). These people don't exist on the inter webs and your not going to see us on the weekends if its all pounded out. The general consensus from this user group is that these sleds eat belts when its deep.
People on the internets probably can't ever agree on what a "deep pow day". Too many variables. Then there is the specific quality of the snow. Denser PacNW on a 175 puts a tremendous load on the drive train. Of course riding style plays a role in belt life, but again I'm emphasizing that the belt failure rate is extreme under certain snow conditions and is compounded by a certain riding style. Given the right snow conditions I am confident I could cause a "non-belt blower" to smoke several.
There also seems to be the impression that riding around pinned WFO is what we do until a belt explodes. This is completely inaccurate. Yes there is some of this involved in breaking in a trail and there are some big mandatory climbs in some areas to get to the zones I want to ride. However from what I have seen its always on/off throttle ridding in the trees and even more specifically DOWNHILL whipped out carves that put even more hurt on the belts. Constant shifting of the clutches and constant motor movement as its loaded/unloaded put the most hurt on the belts. I seriously blow more belts going downhill when Im using the throttle to pop from one carve to the next and intentionally dive the sled as deep as I can into the next turn. Its pushing a ton of snow and the variable load on the drive train is very pronounced.
I'm glad you made your fix list. Its a very precise summary of the band aids that this thread is about.
1) Venting does very little good on deep days when they are plugged and the sled is hardly moving.
2) I have seen all the different brands of belts go up in smoke. No real trend here.
3)I made a set of custom UHMW guards that protect the belt from all possible points of contact (including under the secondary) and have analyzed the wear markes on each one. I do not believe that the belt fluttering out and hitting the clutch guard deserves the attention its getting and it did very little/nothing for me. I have seen several different versions of this "guard" on different sleds with the same results.
4) The clutch kits can help to pull some heat and slippage out of the clutches as well as gain performance. Of course someone wants to sell me one its how their business makes money. I thought it was awesome to read some very transparent posts from respected clutch gurus acknowledging that their kits do not solve some underlying issues related to belt life.
5) the box of band aids combo does not add up to a fix.
One other thing that I have seen also is that people do not take into account how different conditions are impacting there belt life before and after all the fixes. For example early season in December riding bottomless deep pow before grooming is in full effect and grenading belts. Install fixes and then go ride Revy over the holidays where there is more groomer miles and more blower snow and some more base. Bam all of sudden somewhen went 500 miles on belt and it was the band aid fixes that did it?
6) "Some sleds are just bad" So somehow Ski-doo has given me two "belt eaters" back to back? and then somehow they also made sure that all the guys I ride with on the weekdays also got the bad ones?
For the record I have only fully grenaded one belt and it was later in the season. As you can see I catch it the second a belt starts to come apart and am able to stop before it goes boom. No damage from violent explosions. This was the year of the scalp. The huge majority of the belt failures this year were from the tops getting peeled off and not fully blowing, and this is not just my sleds its the majority of people having issues. There is some good technical reading out there as why this may be the case on the 2018s and its not from hitting the belt guard.
So honestly I could not care less if you don't want to listen to what I have to say. If people don't want to acknowledge that there is a fundamental issue with theses sleds that can cause premature belt issues under certain conditions thats fine. Apparently it doesn't impact the majority of G4 owners. Im sharing real life observations and think the issues should be resolved so those truly epic days aren't ruined from scattering three belts a day.
