Heard a guy at a gas station say his 4 wheeler eats belts in 6 months

I was getting gas last week and this older guy pulls up on a 2019 Can Am and starts complaining to his buddy about snapping drive belts every 6 months like clockwork. He said he already went through 3 belts and the dealer keeps telling him it's normal wear. I told him to check his clutch alignment and secondary clutch spring tension because that's usually the culprit on those models. He looked at me like I was speaking a different language. Made me wonder how many people just throw parts at these machines instead of actually diagnosing the problem. Anyone else run into guys who think replacing belts twice a year is standard maintenance?

2 comments

2 Comments

webb.christopher1mo ago

Read a post on a forum once where a guy was going through belts every 4 months on his Polaris RZR and it turned out his secondary clutch was seized and not moving at all because water got into the bearing. Dealer never checked it, just sold him belts. That Can Am guy probably has the same issue, dirt gets in the clutch housing and eats the belt from the inside out. I bet if he blew the clutch out with compressed air and greased the slides it'd last a couple years easy.

brian_murray1mo ago

Dealers never check the simple stuff first, do they @webb.christopher.