Lawn mower keeps going through belts

[grumpy1]

Craftsman dyt 4000 with 42 in deck (junk but got it free) had bad spindle bearing and bad bearing on pulley. Replaced all the above this year. Now it keeps going through belts. Inside (v) part keeps wearing weird and eventually fails. Everything looks right have watched it run and all seem fine. At a total loss

[Cornhusker]

Maybe you can find a diagram online?
It could be several things from a missing spring to the wrong belt or the belt routed wrong.
I had some troubles with one too, got in some thick weeds and smoked a belt. Bought a new $40+ belt and smoked that one too (I think it was about 2 inches short)
I finally had to take it to the lawn mower guy and have it fixed.

[Declan]

Check to see if a spring on the idler pulley is too short/stiff. My guess is your problem will be that. If not, try sliding you deck forward a bit to allow some slack on the belt. Belts are not as high of a quality as they once were, but whatever is going on is because you have it too tight.

[Harry Chickpea]

Agree with all of the above. My deck is hopefully going to be fixed today and ready for pickup. One of the reasons mine was going through belts was one of the spindles was whacked out of alignment BAD by a rock and it eventually failed.

[Ozarks Tom]

Mower deck belts aren't the same as your average auto parts belt. If it's not a deck belt, heavy duty reinforced, it won't last any time. I tried to go cheap, and it cost me.

[arabian knight]

Originally Posted by Ozarks Tom

Mower deck belts aren't the same as your average auto parts belt. If it's not a deck belt, heavy duty reinforced, it won't last any time. I tried to go cheap, and it cost me.

I agree 100% on that. It is foolish to go down to your local autocrats house and get one of those belts. They are not the same at all.
Order and get The Correct one for that Lawnmower. Period.
You can order such things on line no biggy, but for goodness sakes get the one that is for that deck~