TNT blower belts

Ok guys
Need your help I've got a tnt unit that is snapping blower belts like crazy. Blower isn't dragging or locking up. Belts and pulleys alinment seem ok. So I'm wondering have any of you guys ever used the green strip belt or similar type. Maybe you have a part number. The belt is a 3VX280.

Ive had mine over two years now Eddie. Ill take a look to see what I have

Give me 5 minutes and I will run out and check.....

Gates Super HC 3Vx280 is what is on mine....same as his.

I can tell you that my Butler runs Gates Tri-Power belts and they last me years without needing to change them. The ones on it now are 3 years old and look brand new.

Is the pulley groove worn or have a burr?

Once a groove wears enough, the belt will move around in the channel and shred or even jump off the pulley. My crankshaft pully on my van did that a few years ago.....brand new belts too, but the channel was worn.

Might need to find a belt that is a little wider and that sits deeper in the groove.

3vx400 on the pump the blower looks to be a generic fan belt Made In USA 1710SS 76

Thanks guys, we've been talking to Less with Judson. He agrees with me he thinks that the blower has a bearing problem. Helped my customer source a blower, he got lucky they had one in stock so I went and picked it up today. We had checked everything from alignment to bearing temperature. Customer had told Less what all had been checked he said Less was impressed with how much was done to check out the problem.
Super nice guy to talk with for my part. He even had his wife get my contact info so he could put me on his list of tech's to send people in my area for services. Wasn't expecting that. Putting the blower in tomorrow will let you know what the outcome is when I get done.

Les is one of the true industry nice guys. When I was looking at buying my used TNT, he was very generous in answering all my questions and still responds quickly to questions even though I was buying it from someone else.

The man understands customer service and was the reason that I chose the TNT that I did.

Glad you got a handle on that ACE, it is odd that the bearing temperature wasn't high if the bearing was failing and wandering in its cage. I hope it didn't stress the clutch bearing on the pump as a result.

Well here's the update, after talking with Les, he said that he would replace the blower. So we did and while we had it out we replaced the blower muffler. I put a turned down tip on it also then checked the noise level, most are around 85 dB this one tested at 79 to 80db.
He ran the unit on two jobs that night and till lunch time the next day and one of the belts broke. So it was doing better but not totally repaired. One of the other things Les said could be a issue is the engine muffler so I talked with the customer and he's going to try running a fan across the belts and see if it runs properly.
Something worth mentioning the blower muffler we took off weighed twice as much as the new one. Come to find out he is using it to strip wax floors as.

So you think the muffler is overheating and burning belts? Maybe it's the engine pulley or shaft that's causing  the problem?

New engine and new pulleys. Thinking that the muffler could be restricted inside causing the heat to radiate and cause the belts to get soft and snap. The belts are snapping clean like you cut them.

I don't think it is the muffler nor a heat problem. My butler can cook every hose and belt in the engine bay and has never busted a belt. I think it is the use of the toothed fan belt that might be the problem.

What we really want are the solid belts used by industrial equipment (air compressors, PTO units, etc.). I use those on my Butler unit and they never seem to age at all. I was going to replace them when we pulled the drive shaft, but they looked and felt like brand new belts after 3 years.

Dump those belts and upgrade.....I think I will as well on my TNT.

It wouldn't be a happy camper if I replaced an engine and blower and the fix was a 40 dollar muffler lol

Well the belts with teeth actually run cooler, but he has used the belts with out the teeth and they still broke.

Well, I am not the wrench turner that I used to be, but I have not seen belts fail like that from heat....they are rated to not age at 250 degrees. Can the muffler heat a belt over 250 degrees from 4-6 inches away with even the lightest air flow? I have measured 292 degrees in my van's engine bay on a very hot day....fan belts and Butler drive belts were fine.

Might just want to fashion an aluminum heat shield between the muffler and belts....like a chain shroud sort of thing. IF it really is the heat, that should do it.

Something just isn't adding up. Any chance there is a crack in the either the engine or blower mounting areas allowing the equipment to shift when it is running?

I went out and looked at my TNT as your problem is starting to bug me now.

I have never seen a new belt suddenly break like that unless one of three things happen:  Either the belt gets cut by a bad pulley; The Alignment is wrong; or the component is locking up temporarily.

You replaced the pulleys, blower, and motor so we can rule out the pulley and those components.  You are too good with a wrench to not see an alignment issue, so that just leaves one thing......the water pump clutch.

What if the clutch is failing and causing a temporary lock up?  The pump would not be under greater stress, but the engine sure would be.  A sudden freezing up of the water pump rotation would cause the motor to come to a sudden stop if not for the weak leak (belt) breaking.

I would skip that muffler heat problem and inspect that water pump clutch.....replace it actually as you might not be able to duplicate the condition at will.

Sorry Rob I wrote a whole big list of the things we done couldn't get this stupid phone to post it long story short this is one of the issues that Les said could be the problem

Aren't mysteries fun? Just glad it isn't mine this time.

Well here's a update on the belt issue.
The customer made it through his busy time with the school systems at the cost of let's say several belts. So he calls me back and says do you want to look at the unit again before he takes it to judson directly. I told him to bring it to me. I bought a Lazer to check out the pulley alinment. Well needless to say that was no help. He had shown me a belt that had started to break but not completely and it kind of looked like it was tearing from the side. So I'm looking at it and it hit me it was working before the engine was changed (which I did not do ). So I checked the engine to see if it was in plumb. Think of it like this if a 3 to 9 was the pulley then 6 to 12 is the engine being straight up and down then that is the issue. It's amazing what a couple of thick washers under the base of the engine can do. So far he has ran the unit for three days of hard work and no broken belts.

It is often the simple things that screw up major crap.

Glad to hear you solved it before the guy drove all the way to Judson. That would have forced me to slug someone if I drove that far to find out it was just an alignment issue.