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What makes the Carbon Fiber Belt better?
One of the main differences in the Carbon Fiber belt and other belts including the OEM belts is the lack of stringy cord when the belt blows. Don't let that phrase scare you. Very common amongst all brands of belts to blow from heat at times depending on what a person has and when they do the normal belt fibers wrap around everything causing a big mess and sometimes gets caught up in engine or transmission seals causing damage to them and leak oil out which causes a bigger mess in the clutch.
The carbon fiber belt does not do this "stringy destruction". Below is a exert from a e-mail I sent to the product manager at Gates, questions I was asking him, his answers are in red.
What is the main difference in the G Force Belt and the C12?
· The main component difference in the construction is the tensile cord move from aramid to Carbon.
I know one has carbon fiber etc but other than the lack of strings when a belt goes is there a performance or longer life difference?
· Durability is improved because one of the main failure modes is the tensile cord separating from the rubber stock as it is “stretched” under high load. Because Carbon virtually does not stretch the failure mode is less likely. This also translates into better throttle response and improved acceleration at the low end.
Also, the line of Vehicles I am more concerned about is the Polaris UTV line and Polaris has changed compounds several times.
· We use the same rubber stock in both our belts and they are both infused with aramid fibers. We don’t run different compounds for different vehicles, but the Razor belts are one of our top selling belts. The biggest thing we have found that effects our compound on different vehicles is whether or not the clutches were cleaned. The clutches need to be cleaned so the Gates compound contacts a clean sheave, not an existing belts microscope “leftovers”. When clutches are not cleaned we hear slip complaints because are belt is slipping on the existing belts rubber.
Will any of the Gates belts have different rubber compounds causing less wear or more wear, less grip or more grip etc?
· As we move forward there may be a possibility for this as we look into the next generation of GForce. Currently there is not.
Will the Carbon Fiber C12 Belt cause the clutches to wear faster?
Carbon Cord belts in our testing on the Rotax fired engine testing actually showed less wear than the Aramid (Kevlar) cord belts. Aramid is much more abrasive and wears much slower than the base rubber compound. So what you get with any aramid tensile member belt is the bulge at the cord-line which over time can wear a slight groove into the sheave faces (especially so if the vehicle has run a constant speed/load over the course of its life. With the carbon the cord wears away much like the base compound so you have a very inform (flat) side profile of the belt that sits flush with the sheave faces.
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