Today while driving through the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee, I lost power steering, the water temperature shot up and the alternator quit charging. I pulled over on the shoulder as far as I could and stopped and shut down the coach. Before even getting out of the the coach I figured I lost the fan belts. A complete set of fan belts are included in the emergency parts kit I put together when we bought the coach 6 years ago.

Luckily the 3208 has a side radiator and when you open the engine compartment the fan belts are right in front of you and very easy to access. There are four (4) fan belts but actually they are in pairs so only two (2) different belts. Three (3) of the fan belts were gone and the fourth was just barely hanging on. If you have A/C that is a fifth belt. The inside pair go around the crankshaft, water pump, and hydraulic pump. The outside pair go around the air compressor, water pump, and alternator. As you can see the water pump has a four (4) groove pulley.

Here is a picture of the belt arrangement.



Belts were replaced and we were back on the road in about 20 minutes!!!!

If you other CAT owners out there want to carry extra belts here are the part numbers and you need 2 of each.



Nick

Wow! And we were just talking yesterday about the spares you carry.

Lesson learned!

Lou

If you use the Napa belts you will be changing them, frequently! I went through four sets on a 1500 mile trip including a visit to CAT who put on another set, and they failed in 80 miles. Gillig has a proprietary set of belts for the 3208 because of the extra long run and the tendency for the belts to flap, even when very tight. I received a set of four three years ago and have never had another incident. The Gillig belts are stronger and have greater stiffness so they do not oscillate while turning. I advise you to get the set from Gillig and not CAT or the local Auto Parts stores. Lesson learned!

It depends - nevertheless, I prefer Goodyear Gatorback belts (which I get from Amazon).

On my Ford diesel van, NAPA Gold belts lasted 12 years. The alternator belt which flopped the worst, failed at 80K miles. I had procrastinated on replacing them.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom and Julie:
If you use the Napa belts you will be changing them, frequently!

I learned a while back that NAPA has two grades of belts.

Our truck ate a belt while Susan was shopping. She limped to a station, where they put in a new NAPA belt. Coupla months later, belt squealed. Turns out NAPA has two grades of belts. One US and one imported. The station charged her for the US NAPA Gold number and price, but put on the cheapie NAPA import. I turned over paperwork to the Auto Club, and they removed them from the recommended list. I sent the station CCs of all the correspondence, just so they would learn from the experience.

Later, I bought a wheel bearing, and NAPA asked me if I wanted Chinese or not. Manager told me NAPA offers lower quality to compete price-wise with the chains.

I always buy their top line stuff and am happy so far.

I get the NAPA Gold belts (and filters, too - made by Wix). My local NAPA store doesn't stock the cheaper lines.

Most of the pros use the top line like Gold as it is on their labor nickel if they have to go back and replace a part under warranty. After retirement I worked briefly for NAPA and had the opportunity to lay down side by side the different parts from bottom to top grade and there is a huge difference in look and feel.

Tom Taylor

quote:

Why contribute to NAPA's CEO? You can get Wix filters at filter1.com shipped right to you and shipping is free with a minimum order. The prices are less usually than NAPA.

I get wholesale price - I used to play golf with the former owner, and I'm still in the computer.

No one locally carries Gatorback belts, so I go to my favorite online car parts store, Amazon.

AAA members get 10% off at NAPA.

I get all of my filters during Napa's Gold Filter sale in the spring. Well worth doing.

there was something posted here a while back about NAPA giving a discount to members of some trucker's organization. I got the idea that the organization was not hard to join.

Perhaps a better searcher than I could find it.

I think this it is Bill. I have one and saved about 40% on another set of belts today.

NAPA Discount

Nick

I have the card and asked if i could use it during the sale. They said no, but i could use it instead of getting the sale price. Checked and found out that the sale prices were less than i could get the filters for using the card.

The belts pictured earlier are NAPA's premium line. They are manufactured by Gates Rubber Co.

I don't know the price per belt before the discount but the total was $97.00. After the discount it was $57.90 plus tax.

crankshaft-water pump-hydraulic pump
25-9740 31/64 x 74 3/8 net price $17.82 each

water pump-alternator-air compressor
AX64 1/2 x 66 net price $11.13 each

Nick