Infrared belt temperature gauge

[dirtguy]

During the break between the Silver State 300 and Vegas to Reno I ran across this gauge from Razorback Technology and was very interested in getting realtime actual belt temperature information as this is critical information in desert racing. If we can anticipate a belt failure before it happens it takes much less time to change it. I called Jorden and had him send me one to test. Since this is a new product we decided to run both belt temp gauges and mounted the Razorback right next to the old one for the Vegas to Reno.

So for 545 miles we tested this thing under the harshest conditions these things will ever see without an issue. We did not know if the silt would blind it or if it could withstand the hours and hours of heat and vibration but it came through with flying colors. We were able to determine that we were going to need to change a belt at pit 8 mile 281and did it in less than a minute.

I am not affiliated with this company other than being a happy customer but you can find out more about it at razorbacks.com

Tim Burke - crew chief #1967

 

[Kalop]

I'm a happy customer too. Works great, and guys support it and warranty it .... solid IMO.

 

[G.T.]

How did the temps compare between both gauges? Any notable differences?

 

[SGM4Life]

Great info. I am interested. Also can you post what this gauge cost is please?

Thanks

 

[dirtguy]

GT - The older style measures the temp of the air leaving the clutch cover and is slow to react both in heating up and cooling down. It tells you the temp of the environment around the belt but not what the actual belt temp is. This was certainly better than no information at all especially for clutch setup and testing different clutch cooling designs.
The new gauge gives you realtime belt temp. In the picture it shows the belt temp at 86 which was the temp inside my garage. It does take a little time to learn how to interpret the temps as the belt will heat up and cool down much quicker than I thought it would.

SGM4Life - The website lists it at $249

I saw in my original post that the web address was wrong it is razorbackusa.com

 

[G.T.]

GT - The older style measures the temp of the air leaving the clutch cover and is slow to react both in heating up and cooling down. It tells you the temp of the environment around the belt but not what the actual belt temp is. This was certainly better than no information at all especially for clutch setup and testing different clutch cooling designs.
The new gauge gives you realtime belt temp. In the picture it shows the belt temp at 86 which was the temp inside my garage. It does take a little time to learn how to interpret the temps as the belt will heat up and cool down much quicker than I thought it would.

SGM4Life - The website lists it at $249

I saw in my original post that the web address was wrong it is razorbackusa.com

Sorry I wasn't more specific with my question. I meant how do the ambient air temps compare to the actual belt temps? With two gauges installed its a great way to compare the two measuring methods in real time.

 

[Kalop]

When i installed my razorback, I didn't leave the ambient temp gauge in, so I never run both same time. But from my personal experience, 1 is accurate and 1 is not. The razorback is worth the $ difference. There was a guy on maverick forum that had BOTH ambient temp gauge and razorback, he broke his belt at dunes, the IR had 260+ temps (I forgot exact #) while the ambient gauge never went above 180F.

Here's video of how fast the belt temps climb. You won't see this with ambient temp. With actual belt temp gauge, you'll be surprised how fast the temp will actually go up / down. And the ambient temp may never change because the manufacturers got so much air flowing trying to keep everything cool.

 

[Razorback Technology]

Nice info! Thanks for posting dirtguy.