Gates carbon fiber 8dn belt failure

[murdered141]

The gates carbon fiber 8dn belt was my absolute favorite belt to run in my viper until this past season when one blew within 400 miles and another just a short distance later between Munising and Shingleton while being easy on it to break it in before I do any wot pulls, anyhow l limped it to the truck on an old 8jp.
The next day while back home I used and abused that 8jp trying to make it blow to no avail, so it's more than likely not a clutch problem on my end, then I ordered 2 new gate's carbon fiber 8dn belts, slap one on a week later and it started to delaminate within 150 miles, I'm aware gate's had a bad batch of belt's a season or 2 ago but I figured the issue would be fixed by now, called gate's and nothing but denial, no issues with our belts, any insight on this?, did gates change the manufacturing process on these or?

 

[MrSled]

I am not fan of them. "I had to edit my post".. I see the 8JP held up, strange . Carbon is crap, I had maybe 500 miles and it started to chip off the top.

 

[MrSled]

Timken Ultimax XS825 is the hot ticket for the Sidewinders. That will be my next belt.

 

[twyztid]

Hmmm... I am running the 8JP length Gates carbon on my 15 LTX turbo and have put over 1150 miles on it and it still looks great. I am not always easy on them either.

 

[murdered141]

I am not fan of them. "I had to edit my post".. I see the 8JP held up, strange . Carbon is crap, I had maybe 500 miles and it started to chip off the top.

I used to get 700 hard miles before the gates cf would blow chunks on my turbo viper and when it did there were tons of chunks with cf needle like pieces that would prick your fingers trying to get them all out of my belly pan, not the case anymore, seems like very short corded fibers now, I'm thinking they changed the way their made.
Its a shame as that was the stickiest, gripiest, instant ski lift and arm stretching belt I've ever used.

 

[murdered141]

Hmmm... I am running the 8JP length Gates carbon on my 15 LTX turbo and have put over 1150 miles on it and it still looks great. I am not always easy on them either.

Trail riding is allot easier on belt's, I do some trail riding but mostly off trail and allot of my miles consist of hard on and off the throttle in deep snow, not to mention pulling wheelies that if it wasn't for the back bumper dragging I'd be going over.

 

[murdered141]

Timken Ultimax XS825 is the hot ticket for the Sidewinders. That will be my next belt.

I've been hearing good things about that belt also

 

[Mike P]

Gates CF belt was great for almost 4k miles. I broke it in correctly and everything seemed fine. I started to notice a black residue collecting on the clutch surfaces. When the belt failed I found chunks about 1" long that seemed to have melted when failing. The carbon fibers were all over the inside of the cover and foot board. I will not be using the Gates CF belt any more. It took a long to clean the black sticky residue off of the clutches.
I think the only reason my belt lasted so long was because I try to get rid of as much heat from under the hood as possible.

 

[hognit09]

Not sure why some are having problems with this belt, but I have over 3500 miles on the 8jp length carbon belt and still looks good and i'm not easy on it.

 

[blueironranger]

Had my 8jp length one explode boondocking a few weeks back, had 2000 miles on it. All the inner lugs separated from the carbon belt without warning. I had inspected the Gates just before the trip and didn't see any signs it was going to fail, looked great! Currently trying OEM 8DNs out since the 8jp that got me back home that ride left belt dust all over. The 8jp/8dn feel "numb" compared to the response the Gates had though! The 8dn "feels" better than the 8jp and so far is pretty clean, but I really don't like how high the belt sits out of the secondary when the deflection is set properly.

 

[Mike P]

My Gates CF belt went the same way, no warning. Looked great 200 miles earlier when I had checked it before the trip. Loved the belt response bet the residue left behind was not good.

 

[Dusty Dan]

My Gates CF belt went the same way, no warning. Looked great 200 miles earlier when I had checked it before the trip. Loved the belt response bet the residue left behind was not good.

I had one fail last week, 4 lugs came off bottom of belt. A bit over 3000 miles. I ordered another one. Previous was changed out at 4000 miles and looked great.