Deck belt too long

[snowrider52]

The spindle pulleys are 5.5 across so I have ordered the correct size. Hoping this fixes it. Thanks for the ideas.

 

[bertsmobile1]

The spindle pulleys are 5.5 across so I have ordered the correct size. Hoping this fixes it. Thanks for the ideas.

Sounds like you are well on your way to an honary Sherlock Holms award
Smaller pulleys will work, for a while till you get some wear then there will just not be enough tension to make the belt grip
The DPO was probably using a smaller belt
I regularly fir the next sixe down belt to compensate for pulley wear till the belts end up running on the root of the V and no longer gripping
Made a good friend customer by doing just that
The brand name workshop is obliged to replace all of the pulleys which made for a $ 650 repair bill as comparred to a shorter belt + $ 20 for fitting it .
To make matters even better the shorter belt from RGS was $ 55 and the OEM one was $ 112 & the customer had been putting on a new belt every years .

 

[StarTech]

Sounds familiar to a particular 46" MTD deck here where MTD specs a 1/2 x 103 belt which perfers a 1/2 x 102 belt to work right. Even when all the pulleys are new the 103 belt is still slipping in short order.