Flat belt

I need a flat belt to run a corn sheller with a Case VAC. I have never used belt driven items before. Any idea where I can find a belt and how lon should it be? Any help would be great.

Look at the swap area of some tractor shows and they turn up. Also check with any older grain elevators in your area. If all that fails you can get new ones at an industrial belting company. You want the belt long enough to keep the tractor away from the sheller and not too long that you have to have a ton of tension to keep it off the ground.

Be sure to ground the tractor, as well as what the belt is running.... Keeps static from building up.

Devin-
Try Welton Rubber Co in Madison Heights, MI...

There were a couple in the photo adds a day or two ago.

Be sure to check which way each pulley runs. Usually you have to put a twist in the belt to run any belt driven machine. The twist also helps in the belt from coming off.

mcmaster.com sells flat belting, size to your order
mcmaster.com

Good point! You can get a pretty heathy zap if you don't.

Click and Clack used that point as their weekly Puzzler on Car Talk a few years back. About how a fella took a tractor out into the field for some kind of belt work (they, of course, made a much better story of it) and sent his helper all the way back to the shed to bring him a crowbar. Helper did as told. The farmer leaned the crowbar up against the tractor and never did another thing with it. The question was "Why?"

We always used a chain piled on the ground with the ends draped over the drawbar.

Length depends on how you want to set it up. Could be as short as 10' or as long as a 100' and belts are measured by the total length of the belt, not distance between pullys, and a new endlass belt when made that listed at say 50' was a total length of 47' as three foot was used for lap so that left for a spacing between pullys counting some for diameter of pully and some droop in belt about 22' between center of pullys and if pully was 6' from front of tractor that left 16' to get to machine and if pully on machine was 4' from front of machine would leave 12' between tractor and machine and if pully was on front of tractor size of the Case and normal sheller would leave about 16' between machine and tractor. If belt pully was on rear of tractor you could if you ran a non twisted (straight) belt and sheller was a small one made a certain way then you could set things close enough for a 10' belt but not practical. Also too long that the weight of the belt is hard to stretch up is not pratical. The size of your sheller could bake a requirement for a belt as narrow as 4" if sheller pully is that narrow but more than likely the sheller pully would be a 6" pully and your tractor will have a pully for that width belt; could use a narrower belt but not a wider belt; so probably a 6" belt what you are wanting but likely a 5" would also work with the power you have. A lomger belt needs a twist to control the flapping and a single twist reverces the direction of driven pully from drive pully. On a longer belt that needs to run the driven pully the same direction as the drive pully use a double twist.

Go to U-Tube & punch up b1cow. My old A grinding feed & corn shreder.

Twist in a belt is used for two reasons, one is the rotation of the drive pulley has to match that of the driven machine and the second only applies to the old steamers which were parked as far away from the thresher as possible for fire reasons. Since the belt was so long, the old timers said the twist helped keep the wind from running the belt off the pulley. Plus the steam engine can run the drive pulley in either direction. I have heard in the past that twisted belts prevent slippage because the belt is wrapped around the pulley more, But I also heard it didn't matter as the belt has the most weighted contact at the furthest distance of the two pulleys and that is where most of the pulley to belt friction is. Some old timers if they needed a "traction agent" would use sorghum or molassas on the belt to make it sticky, but if you are grinding corn, that will just make a big mess! One thing is BE CAREFUL!!! My Grandpa got his overalls yanked off by a thresher belt when he was young. He was lucky he didn't get wrapped up in it, It just took off his clothes in a split second and left him standing there bruised up. He said they got caught in the belt lacing and he thought static charge may have pulled them into it. I ran a few things with my 10-20 IH, a sawmill, a 28" JD thresher, and a buzz saw. Make sure the pulleys on both machines are lined up straight or the belt will walk off one of the pulleys. It can mess up a good belt if it gets between the machine and the pulley and be a mess to get it back out of there. When you start the machine, be sure everyone is clear and start it very slowly and gradually build up speed to the RPM the machine needs to work right. When shutting down, slow it down gradually as well and when you get to idle speed hit the clutch and let it coast to a stop. Be careful and you will have fun doing it!

A farm and home store should have the belts and crimps. Around here, we use Buchheit's. This last fall, I ran 300 bushels of corn thru our sheller using a Allis-Chalmers WD, no problem. Just be careful, run at the slowest speed and stay away!

We ran belted machinery for years and never thought of grounding a tractor on rubber and never had a static problem, never once got shocked.

I grind corn on a JD 10 hammermill and use old roundbaler belts....could be a little longer but it gets the job done...never had a static problem....I run it with a Farmall H ...

Where are you? I have one in central Mn.