Walking belt getting grooves worn in it?
Hi guys, sorry if this has been answered a million times but I've searched quite a bit on this forum and I'm either missing unfamiliar terminology in my wording or this is not normal. I have been using a Fitness Gear 820T to run about 2.5 or so miles daily since May of this year and have enjoyed using it to get into shape but am running into a problem with small grooves being worn in the exact center of the belt that are causing it to shred at the impact point.
I just replaced the walking belt yesterday and started using it today thinking that it was simply a new belt that was needed, but I noticed today partway through my run that the same grooves are forming in the same place and I'm at a loss. A couple of things came to my mind:
1) I tend to run VERY close to the front of the deck and usually my sneakers gently scuff the motor cover. Not sure if this is the correct way of using the treadmill or not but I watch TV while I work out and I'm pretty short so staying that close to the front allows me to see my Ipad better. When I noticed today that the grooves were forming again, I started running towards the back middle of the treadmill but it's not as cushy to my feet as the front of the treadmill was, I'm guessing probably due to the shocks or the spring system? Anyway, enough rambling about that - could this be causing my problem? Am I causing too much stress to the spring/shocks? Is this causing some part of the bottom of the treadmill to rub up against the walking belt, causing stress marks that eventually will shred it? Will me continuing to run back farther away from the motor help the belt not get worn out so quickly? I'm 5'4" and around 128 pounds so I don't think it could be too much weight causing the problem.
2) I'm pretty positive that the grooves are being caused by the metal round "lift" bar under the treadmill that controls the height of the incline. If that is the case, what do I do to fix this? Can I fix it? If so, how do I adjust it?
That's all I have really. I'm pretty much at a loss and completely clueless when it comes to this sort of thing because I'm not very mechanically savvy and I kind of thought that replacing the belt with a new one would be my quick fix and make the problem go away and was pretty upset this afternoon when I noticed the same issue is happening to the new belt as it did to the old one. Any advise is appreciated and if anyone has a resource for a website/article/youtube video that would help me that would be even better. Thanks guys!
I just replaced the walking belt yesterday and started using it today thinking that it was simply a new belt that was needed, but I noticed today partway through my run that the same grooves are forming in the same place and I'm at a loss. A couple of things came to my mind:
1) I tend to run VERY close to the front of the deck and usually my sneakers gently scuff the motor cover. Not sure if this is the correct way of using the treadmill or not but I watch TV while I work out and I'm pretty short so staying that close to the front allows me to see my Ipad better. When I noticed today that the grooves were forming again, I started running towards the back middle of the treadmill but it's not as cushy to my feet as the front of the treadmill was, I'm guessing probably due to the shocks or the spring system? Anyway, enough rambling about that - could this be causing my problem? Am I causing too much stress to the spring/shocks? Is this causing some part of the bottom of the treadmill to rub up against the walking belt, causing stress marks that eventually will shred it? Will me continuing to run back farther away from the motor help the belt not get worn out so quickly? I'm 5'4" and around 128 pounds so I don't think it could be too much weight causing the problem.
2) I'm pretty positive that the grooves are being caused by the metal round "lift" bar under the treadmill that controls the height of the incline. If that is the case, what do I do to fix this? Can I fix it? If so, how do I adjust it?
That's all I have really. I'm pretty much at a loss and completely clueless when it comes to this sort of thing because I'm not very mechanically savvy and I kind of thought that replacing the belt with a new one would be my quick fix and make the problem go away and was pretty upset this afternoon when I noticed the same issue is happening to the new belt as it did to the old one. Any advise is appreciated and if anyone has a resource for a website/article/youtube video that would help me that would be even better. Thanks guys!
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