How to identify your Lawn & Garden Vee Belt

Lawn & Garden (L&G) Vee Belts are a special class of drive belt for self-propelled & ride-on mowers. They are a ‘slip and grip’ solution for clutching or high-shock drives in garden & lawn maintenance machinery. L&G vee belts have a body of high temperature rubber with Kevlar® cords and a highly wear resistant double cotton cover. Industrial vee belts are a ‘no slip and all grip’ solution for drives with no shock loads and cannot be used for clutching operations. They have lower temperature rubber with glass fibre cords and a single fabric cover. If they slip they generate heat which embrittles the rubber and leads to premature belt failure. Beltingonline does not recommend industrial belts for L&G machines unless they are OEM fitment and very light duty.

L&G belts are identified by their section and outside length in inches. The section details are in the table below and the outside length is measured with a soft tape or thin string, not an expanding steel tape. It’s important to realise that vee belts are friction drives and as we know friction wears things away. You could have a 4L belt that is 10mm wide due to wear, if so, check the gap at the top of the pulleys for confirmation. For a 4L belt it should be around 13mm.

Please note with US Ref belts (3L,4L,5L)  the length refers to the outside length in inches. If you have a Euro Ref belt (Z,A,B) then the imperial length refers to the inside length in inches which you cannot measure accurately. If you have a Euro Ref metric belt with the length in mm then divide that by 25.4.

To convert from Euro Ref to US Ref use the table below

Aftermarket L&G belts come in one inch increments so if you have a part inch length then choose the nearest shorter or longer belt.  L&G machines normally have a wide range of belt adjustment except for small walk-behind mowers where the length can be critical.