More info on Doc's belt tensioner.

[Buckeye Chuck 54]

I ride my 2014 RT-S a lot. This last April I bought Doc's belt tensioner. It did work
very well. However the stock spring broke after a few thousand miles. Doc sent
me a new spring saying it was a thicker, better spring. But it broke as well. This
time I sent the pivot arm to him for him to check. The pivot bushing was well worn
causing the roller to run from side to side on the belt. This time Doc machined
out the pivot hole and inserted a brass fitting, with a grease fitting, a zerk. He
charged a small fee but replaced the spring and the roller under warranty. It
should be said the new spring is even stronger yet. He said all the tensioners
he sells now will have the grease fitting and stronger spring, but the brass insert
may not be needed for the occasional ryder. He is considering making it an option.
I received the roller arm back in the mail and it had a small block of wood with it.
The block is used to align the roller perfectly on the belt. Most people who have
springs break have not aligned the roller correctly, this will make sure they will.
I had over 40,000 miles on this product. The original roller bearings looked new
but the roller had some minor wear, mostly in the center. At first when I got the new
tensioner I was skeptical those bearings would last, I mean, how fast is that
roller spinning at 70 mph? And the heat? Those bearings are tough indeed.
A great product from some great people.
I don't know much about any other belt tensioners sold, just what I read on
this forum. But I think I can say the service I get from Steve and Kathy can't
be beat.
Buckeye Chuck 54
#4036
be beat.

 

[jroberts650]

I ride my 2014 RT-S a lot. This last April I bought Doc's belt tensioner. It did work
very well. However the stock spring broke after a few thousand miles. Doc sent
me a new spring saying it was a thicker, better spring. But it broke as well. This
time I sent the pivot arm to him for him to check. The pivot bushing was well worn
causing the roller to run from side to side on the belt. This time Doc machined
out the pivot hole and inserted a brass fitting, with a grease fitting, a zerk. He
charged a small fee but replaced the spring and the roller under warranty. It
should be said the new spring is even stronger yet. He said all the tensioners
he sells now will have the grease fitting and stronger spring, but the brass insert
may not be needed for the occasional ryder. He is considering making it an option.
I received the roller arm back in the mail and it had a small block of wood with it.
The block is used to align the roller perfectly on the belt. Most people who have
springs break have not aligned the roller correctly, this will make sure they will.
I had over 40,000 miles on this product. The original roller bearings looked new
but the roller had some minor wear, mostly in the center. At first when I got the new
tensioner I was skeptical those bearings would last, I mean, how fast is that
roller spinning at 70 mph? And the heat? Those bearings are tough indeed.
A great product from some great people.
I don't know much about any other belt tensioners sold, just what I read on
this forum. But I think I can say the service I get from Steve and Kathy can't
be beat.
Buckeye Chuck 54
#4036
be beat.

Hmm, I've heard from numerous people that there were never any problems with these belt tensioners. Makes me feel better that I modified my BRP idler. At what those "best and greatest" tensioners cost, it's hard to justify when they break too.

 

[007james]

I ride my 2014 RT-S a lot. This last April I bought Doc's belt tensioner. It did work
very well. However the stock spring broke after a few thousand miles. Doc sent
me a new spring saying it was a thicker, better spring. But it broke as well. This
time I sent the pivot arm to him for him to check. The pivot bushing was well worn
causing the roller to run from side to side on the belt. This time Doc machined
out the pivot hole and inserted a brass fitting, with a grease fitting, a zerk. He
charged a small fee but replaced the spring and the roller under warranty. It
should be said the new spring is even stronger yet. He said all the tensioners
he sells now will have the grease fitting and stronger spring, but the brass insert
may not be needed for the occasional ryder. He is considering making it an option.
I received the roller arm back in the mail and it had a small block of wood with it.
The block is used to align the roller perfectly on the belt. Most people who have
springs break have not aligned the roller correctly, this will make sure they will.
I had over 40,000 miles on this product. The original roller bearings looked new
but the roller had some minor wear, mostly in the center. At first when I got the new
tensioner I was skeptical those bearings would last, I mean, how fast is that
roller spinning at 70 mph? And the heat? Those bearings are tough indeed.
A great product from some great people.
I don't know much about any other belt tensioners sold, just what I read on
this forum. But I think I can say the service I get from Steve and Kathy can't
be beat.
Buckeye Chuck 54
#4036
be beat.

I have the old Tensioner with out the brass pivot insert or zerk grease fitting. My original spring broke right away, and was replaced under waurentee. ( i had to install. ) That spring now has about 10,000 miles on it, so if Doc. since uses even a thicker, stronger spring, it appears mine is due to break again. My roller IS moving side to side on the belt, so that indicates the pivot bushing on the aluminum arm must be worn. It looks like i will need to do the same as you have done, sooner or later. Is the Grease zerk fitting accessable to grease with out needing to remove the Tupperware panels? Can you access it from the bottom with out jacking up the Spyder? Thanks.
007James

 

[Roadster Renovations]

I have the old Tensioner with out the brass pivot insert or zerk grease fitting. My original spring broke right away, and was replaced under waurentee. ( i had to install. ) That spring now has about 10,000 miles on it, so if Doc. since uses even a thicker, stronger spring, it appears mine is due to break again. My roller IS moving side to side on the belt, so that indicates the pivot bushing on the aluminum arm must be worn. It looks like i will need to do the same as you have done, sooner or later. Is the Grease zerk fitting accessable to grease with out needing to remove the Tupperware panels? Can you access it from the bottom with out jacking up the Spyder? Thanks.
007James

The grease fitting is on the top (only place available) and requires tupperwear removal. If you have play in the arm, you need to send it to us for an upgrade. To install the oil impregnated brass insert, the grease fitting, and the pivot seal is $65, plus shipping. We will determine the condition of the roller and bearings and the spring and replace as needed. With the bushing upgrade I expect the Vibration Damper to outlast any Spyder it is installed on, regardless of miles.

Also, if you sell your Spyder and get another one (RT to F3 or vice versa) we can convert the VD to it also.

 

[jroberts650]

The grease fitting is on the top (only place available) and requires tupperwear removal. If you have play in the arm, you need to send it to us for an upgrade. To install the oil impregnated brass insert, the grease fitting, and the pivot seal is $65, plus shipping. We will determine the condition of the roller and bearings and the spring and replace as needed. With the bushing upgrade I expect the Vibration Damper to outlast any Spyder it is installed on, regardless of miles.

Also, if you sell your Spyder and get another one (RT to F3 or vice versa) we can convert the VD to it also.

Seems like these higher priced tensioners require maintenance and replacements that cost the consumer even more money even thought they are 5 times more expensive than the BRP version. :shocked:

 

[Roadster Renovations]

Seems like these higher priced tensioners require maintenance and replacements that cost the consumer even more money even thought they are 5 times more expensive than the BRP version. :shocked:

I feel I need to clarify a few things here. First of all, if we are to assume that each person that has purchased one of our kits has ridden at least 5,000 miles in this last year, that would exceed 2.5 million total miles. Out of that 2.5 million miles, we have yet to have a roller or bearing failure. Not one single one. I think I am being very conservative on that 5,000 mile average. I'm betting it is double that if not more. The more economical BRP unit you speak of has had dozens or roller failures that damaged the drive belts and not only stranded the ryders, but required a expensive belt replacement. If they were unlucky enough to have installed the BRP kit themselves, or used an adapter for their RT's, they were out of pocket on the belt replacement. If BRP had installed their idler kit (F3 only) and it failed, the parts including belt were covered. Many people elected to remove the BRP units rather than get stranded out on the road. You get what you pay for. If you go cheap it may bite you in the end.

We did have some initial spring failures which did not interfere with the Spyder operation or cause any damage at all. We have since upgraded the spring several times to stop those. Every single person that gave us a valid email that we were able to verify their purchase and a picture of the broken spring, were given a replacement spring at no cost to them. To date there have been probably 20-30 total. The spring diameter was based on the BRP unit (which their springs have been breaking also).

The reason for our adding a grease fitting and sealing the pivot point of the Damper was due to finding that the BRP units were getting grit in the pivot point and causing them to lock up in the upright position, which caused them to not work at all. By sealing ours from that happening we have yet to have one of our Dampers freeze up. In fact, even the ones without the seal or grease fitting have not seized up. The grease fitting was added to help with annual maintenance. A short squirt of grease is much better than removing the unit and greasing it by hand. Are either of these upgrades mandatory? Absolutely not. If you wish to have that done, we will be happy to do that for you. Cost is about $35. Some people have elected to not do so and that is up to them.

As far as sleeving the arm, to date we have only done 3 of them. The first one I did was from a ryder out of Indianapolis that did not get the roller aligned properly. The spring broke due to excessive arm side to side play in 30 days. We have since come up with an alignment block that is pretty much goof proof and very easy to use to solve the alignment issue. Since I installed his myself 7-8 months ago, I not heard back of any problems from him. Same thing with the second one. Do I think that any of the other kits will need the sleeve upgrade? That is hard to say. There are many factors involved; roller-belt alignment, belt tension and alignment, how well the belt maintains it's position relative to the rear sprocket, what type of ryding is done mostly, low speed or interstate, etc, etc.. The important factor here is that if it is needed we have a fix for it rather than having to replace the entire unit.

You get what you pay for. I prefer to not take a chance out on the road. I hope I have explained why changes were made in our Vibration Damper to make it a better product for you. As always you can PM us here or send an email to: [email protected]. You can get to our new website here: https://www.roadsterrenovations.info/

 

[old Timer]

The quality of a product far outlasts the short term pain of it being perhaps more expensive.

 

[Peteoz]

Seems like these higher priced tensioners require maintenance and replacements that cost the consumer even more money even thought they are 5 times more expensive than the BRP version. :shocked:

I am more than happy to pay extra for a product that works well. It’s called “total cost of ownership”. Doc used the same springs as BRP to start, and they were the ones that were breaking.....so Doc immediately replaced them with a stronger spring, for free. You get what you pay for, and I am more than happy to pay 3 times the price for a product that lasts at least 3 times as long

Pete