Feeling kinda ripped off on a V-Belt

[Brian Elfert]

I have a Toro commercial mower I bought used recently. The deck was missing a v-belt. Apparently the mower deck I have had very low sales so nobody makes a third party belt for it. I could only get the belt directly from Toro.

I paid $60 for the belt from Toro. For some reason, Toro included the profile and length of the belt on the part when I got it. I could have purchased the same belt for between $10 and $15 if I had known the length and profile. I willing paid the $60 so I'm not feeling totally ripped off. At least other belts do have third party replacements available.

[Mike Lassiter]

you can measure the width of the top of the pulley groove and take a string and run around the pulleys to get an idea of belt length. Might get too short depending on tensioner travel and if spring loaded but belts are typically readily available from auto supply or industrial supply depending on width. Some wide belts are more used for industrial rather than automotive (v belts)

[Jerry Bruette]

You have to be careful replacing belts on power equipment, those belts have a different type of outer coating than regular v-belts.

[Dave Lehnert]

You have to be careful replacing belts on power equipment, those belts have a different type of outer coating than regular v-belts.

What he said.
A regular belt wont last long on a mower.
You can get aftermarket belts from Amazon

[Ed Labadie]

You have to be careful replacing belts on power equipment, those belts have a different type of outer coating than regular v-belts.

Mower belts are a metric buttload stronger than regular v-belts. People complain about the price, after they shoot 3 of the cheapies into the neighbors yard, their tune changes. Belts wear out, its a fact of life, multiple failures are most often caused by worn parts on the deck itself.

FWIW, my 955 Deere has a 72" mower deck. I've replaced the belt once in 1500 hours, they simply wear out. Last one was about $120.....I don't feel it's an excessive price for how long they last.

Ed

[Brian Elfert]

The V-belt is probably Kevlar reinforced. The $10 to $15 estimate to buy the same belt would be to get a Kevlar one. The rest of the belts on the mower I can get 3rd party replacements for and they are a lot less than $60.

[Myk Rian]

Kid across the street started a mowing business with a Toro. It quit mowing 1 day before the 30 day money back guarantee. He took it back and bought an Xmark .

[Art Mann]

The mower deck drive belt broke on my Simplicity ZTR mower several years ago. I went to the dealer to buy a replacement and he didn't have it in stock but offered to special order one for me for ~$100. I told him no thanks, that I could just order one on line. He told me the same story about the special quality of OEM belts that I have just read here. Well, I ordered an after market replacement from a company called V-belt Supply and it cost me the princely sum of $15 plus shipping. That belt has now been in hard service for 4 years, which is longer than the OEM belt lasted. I simply don't believe there is anything special about OEM belts. I believe it is just a marketing ploy to get someone to buy a $15 belt for $100. Even if it were true, I can replace the belt 6 or 7 times for the price of the OEM part.

[Brian Elfert]

Kid across the street started a mowing business with a Toro. It quit mowing 1 day before the 30 day money back guarantee. He took it back and bought an Xmark .

Toro owns Exmark. Some of the Exmark and Toro models are basically the same. I don't have any problems with Toro equipment, particularly the commercial stuff. The riding mower I bought is a commercial unit from the 80s. Toro isn't the only company that charges an arm and a leg for parts. I'm grateful Toro even still has most of the parts for my unit. Toro has made hundreds of different models over the years each with a hundred or more parts. I can't imagine how many parts Toro has to manage.

I worked at a place cutting grass for six summers during high school and college. Everything we used for riding mowers were Toro commercial units. They all worked great and rarely broke down. We did get one new unit from Toro that was a lemon. Toro ended up replacing the unit with another new one after about 6 weeks. They even gave us a loaner during the swap process.

[Justin Ludwig]

I use PIX and Oregon belts ordered through Amazon. I was given a riding lawn mower several years back that wasn't treated so nice. Considering it was free, I happily took it anyway. I have maybe $200-300 worth of parts in it and $100 worth of belts.

www.jackssmallengines.com/ (http://www.jackssmallengines.com/) is a wonderful site with full schematic breakdowns of mowers. Anytime I need to order something new that I haven't replaced before, I easily find it on that website. I have my schematics saved in my favorites.

I keep waiting for my 42" Lawn Chief to die so my wife will let me buy a 60" Bad Boy (http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/bad-boyreg;-60-in-747cc-zt-elite-zero-turn-mower?cm_mmc=feed-_-Home_and_Garden_Lawn_and_Garden_Outdoor%20Power%20 Equipment_Lawn%20Mowers-_-Bad%20Boy%C2%AE-_-1073450&gdftrk=gdfV27960_a_7c2509_a_7c10868_a_7c1073450).

[Brian Elfert]

I use PIX and Oregon belts ordered through Amazon. I was given a riding lawn mower several years back that wasn't treated so nice. Considering it was free, I happily took it anyway. I have maybe $200-300 worth of parts in it and $100 worth of belts.


Neither PIX nor Oregon nor anybody else had a cross reference for this particular Toro part number. The belt was gone so I had no way to measure the old one. I didn't have much choice except to order it from Toro. I suppose I could have measured around the pulleys, but that doesn't tell me how much extra length is needed for the idler. The other three belts on this unit do have cross references so I can buy from a third party. The deck belt is about 1/2 the cost of the Toro one.

Toro provides a full PDF manual with all the parts for the mower. I have purchased most of the parts I have needed from a local power equipment dealer who can get them from Toro in just a day or two. For the most part, none of the online places would have any of these parts in stock and they would have to order them from Toro too. I save on shipping by buying locall.

[Jerome Stanek]

Kid across the street started a mowing business with a Toro. It quit mowing 1 day before the 30 day money back guarantee. He took it back and bought an Xmark .


What difference same company. We do trade shows for them

[Dave Lehnert]

Kid across the street started a mowing business with a Toro. It quit mowing 1 day before the 30 day money back guarantee. He took it back and bought an Xmark .

Agree with others, He did not do much research if he turned around and got an Exmark. Toro/Exmark same company.
Back in 2007 when I purchased my ZTR I had a Exmark dealer and Toro dealer close. At the time the Toro was built with heavier gauge steel, had more leg room, bigger pumps and cost less than the like Exmark model.