Project From EmptyNester - Belt "guide" for hovercraft

[EmptyNester]

(This doesn't count for the contest since I already have a project in this category, but here it is anyway.)

I haven't gotten the hovercraft's drive fan belt working totally yet. With a design speed of 50 - 55 mph, I've only been up to 17 mph. Which is in fact scarier than you'd think when you're trying to learn to fly the thing and be a test pilot at the same time

I've had lots of issues with the belt coming off. To try to address this, I added a piece of HDPE to hold the belt in and act as guide.



On the last test I had a lot of problems. One was that the belt actually turned inside out on the drive pulley. I was surprised it even stayed on. The HDPE didn't help, it just burnt through. That piece of HDPE doesn't have more than 30 minutes of run time with the wear shown in the picture.

Turns out that I had an issue with the idler pulleys. They were binding in the track. When they tightened up, I got the impression the belt was tight, but it was actually just the pulley binding. I've fixed that, but I'm still concerned about the belt twisting due to flapping. I thought using something to dampen the flapping might help.

I finally came up with a simple solution that I hope will work.

I used a piece of 2" x 1/8" bar and a 2" long piece of conduit. (I am careful about ventilation when welding conduit.) I MIG welded the conduit to the bar and plan on mounting that on the inside wall to reduce the belt flapping as it approaches the drive pulley.



I haven't mounted it to try it yet, but picture below shows how it would mount.

Any thoughts on how this will work? It seems like it shouldn't be dangerous, but I'm not sure how effective it will be.



Given the quick cold snap, I may not be able to test it again until spring.