Hey Hotrod;
Yep, that 16 HP Briggs was really digging the work till the belt let go. Went way out back and found the beltthis morning , got cracks on it in about a 12 inch area. So, belts let go, specially when the front PTO clutch rod come out, locked up the front clutch drive , smoking the belt till it bubbled! I was out ther throwing snow on it watch the hub bubble from the heat, so jsut grateful not to have had a fire. A good policy to follow is to stop the tractor when you happen to see black smoke! LOL
I got a coupla Kevlars on order, and prolee gonna try what you say from Burntime on the Napa belt.
Ever hear of that belt "flipping" during operation? I got a mild theory going that somehow the belt got sideways and ssent it out. Alignments is good, so is the spring tension.
all the best
back when I used front pto on 7010 I smoked a few gates green belts. Now I have had good luck with the TSC kevlars or 4belts4less.com kevlar but they seem thinner than the simplicity version. I took burntimes advice and went to napa A144 for the blowers and love them they are deep and look near identical to the simplicity one.