Will be running an'02 800x this year, and was curious to find out what others have experienced regarding after market belts on their sleds. I have always used the oem belts, but I figure dayco or gates probably makes them for the manufacturers anyway, so I have been thinking about trying one.

Everthing i've read on here belives in staying with the oem look it up in the search type in belts and you will be amaze .We are neibors grayslake il

THe manufactors spent a lot of money setting up there clutching and they did it using the OEM belt.

THe Fact is that you will get the best performance using your oem belt unless you did a pure aftermarket clutching job.

Dayco and Gates both make good belts and i think gates makes the OEM bombardier belts and if your going to use your sled for touring then these belts will do you fine. But if you want the most stick with OEM.

:withstupid:

I agree...oem

Tried the Ultimax 2 on my mach z and I must say it SUCKED. I properly broke in the belt and after only 200 kms it blew apart. Tried to take it back to where I got it and they told me to send it in and Dayco will send me another one. Got the other one, this time it lasted almost 400 kms. Thinking that maybe there was something wrong with my clutches, I serviced them. Everything was good, including alignment. Dayco sent me another belt, this time they told me that this is the last one, they blamed it on misuse. Broke it in better than any belt that I have ever used! Not even 300 kms later, it was toast.

I was mad :cussing:

I went and bought an OEM, put over 1500 kms on it during the rest of the season and never a single problem!

Oh ya, just so you all know! While I was waiting for each belt from dayco, I was using an almost destoyed OEM belt that lasted longer than I ever expected it to!

Gates makes the OEM belt for the CK3 chassis, I don't know about the rest, I have 2000 miles on my Gates belt now, I tried a Dayco and it was ready to come apart after 200 miles, but I have also heard the same about Gates used on Cats and Polaris too,

Thanks for the input! I will be sticking with oem. :thumbsup:

Oem are great , but I remember reading a blurb in Snow tech that the dayco ultimax II was giving their testers better results in the 800 twin. If I find the article I will post it. I am going to try both this winter.

Believe it or not we tried OEM and aftermarket belts and even a few "Secret" belts and found the original equipment worked the best, but we did find that the overall length made a huge difference. Once we found a belt length that worked the best with our sled we went to every dealer and measured their belts and found the ones that we wanted. How did we find this lenght...TESTING, TESTING, TESTING!