Not sure will it fit your setup… im using mountainboard and with small wheels it is an ease to even take off the belt without removing the wheel.
it is definately stronger… Though it tends to make a little bit of noise if tension is too big or if the belt rubs against the side of the pulley…
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To be honest, the rubber belt ‘‘snapped’’ similar like in your pics you showed… so I think it was partly due to shocks received and too much tension you had on your belt… it had been running fine for let’s say 200km before it broke on these nasty ‘‘tiles’’ I was riding on
@Pedrodemio on one of your pictures i can see that the type of your belt is called HTP (High torgue power) and not HTD (High torgue drive). I don’t think it makes a difference but maybe somebody knows more.
@Okami your idler forces the belt to bend a lot in the negative direction. Could be a bit too much stress. And which wheels do you use exactly, they look interesting.
@Ackmaniac i made the reference to the wheels in the post about chinese wheels / hubs (maxid was an active participant in that thread)
Here you go;
**The price needs to be ‘‘beaten down’’ quite a lot for them to be a viable option I think, so someone should come up where to source them for cheaper (hubs itself)
Im not sure how but the previous owner somehow did come up with them.
The hub/centre seems like is taken from ‘‘mobility vehicle’’ shop, at least I found them listed there, seemed like the exact same hubs im having.
The tires itself can be easly sourced from china for the size im having… I believe it was something like 6 - 1/4.
For city use they are quite good… not too large but still manages to absorb impacts and go over uneven surfaces just fine. The tire profile is ‘‘slick’’, the tires have little grooves and there is a bit of curvature for the tire, so mostly the mid section touches the ground.
Though - they do get a bit warm while riding and I think tire swapping will be needed in future, as the drive wheel gets ‘‘beaten’’ / used up a lot more than the rest of the wheels… Im not sure how many kilometers can be made with them but so far I think I might have done about 100-150km at least.
Can report in the future when the time comes to switch the tires, as unfortunately i dont have super precise distance logging options available to determine lifetime of these tires and the pressure.
Keep us updated on how much this belts last, and nice wheel
@psychotiller i noticed that to, but couldn’t find any info, they are sold as HTD and putting a HTD side to side even with a lupe to compare the profiles i could not find a diference
@Pedrodemio So far i have already ‘lost’ 3 steel wires… due to friction I have with the pulley since my alignment and motor plate is not in the best shape.
Though the belt is still going and I think with rubber belt I would have suffered some damage already as these fabric cords does not hold the belt as good as these steel wires, I think!
Though, as it can be witnessed, the steel cords/ wires still get torn apart with friction but I think they might manage the stress better and keeps the belt ‘not as stretchy’ as rubber belt might be.
So I am quite '‘satisfied’ so far but I also see now how important it is to get proper thickness for motor plate in the first place and not mess with bendy plates.
The problem with steel is fatigue, in a belt the wires are exposed to a lot of load/unload cycles, and as you described they should be on the fatigue limited region and will rupture no matter what
i have no idea how glass fibers respond to fatigue
You are probably right. Best thing to do is minimize belt tension and maximize the size of your motor pulley. Taking a stiffer material for the belt will help with the belt tension, but not at all for the bending stress when going around a pulley.
I recently broke two belts after adding idlers. The idlers worked great, felt smooth, and didn’t wear the top of the belt really, but they were positioned to tension the slack side when accelerating, and they both broke when braking, one one day and the other broke the next day. The second belt I broke sheered in half when just braking gently.
I’ve gone back to running without idlers, as I’ve never broken a belt without idlers. I wanted to buy mounts made for idlers, but this has me worried if I’m going to be breaking belts more often.
Is it more common to break belts when setup with idlers vs no idlers, or do you guys think maybe something was wrong with my idler setup possibly? I just used 2x 608 bearings that fit my 15mm belts perfectly, roll was smooth.
Lots 9f people have had that issue, you can mitigate the issue a bit by running them super loose. This situation the reason I got away from Idlers. Proper belt tensioning FTW.
Agree with that, design your drive train with enough teeth in mesh and select a Kv accordingly
@skatardude10 if I remember correctly the gates design manual says that the minimum idler diameter for HTD5 is 30mm
And to give a feedback, my new board I’m running 14/34 15mm wide, never changed a belt so far, probably 350km or more
I believe that part is due to the larger wheel, part for not have ridden in the rain, and part by using dual drive and spreading the load between two belts
