Skip Gundlach brought forth on stone tablets:
[snip]

Back to our enforced delay, we, of course, made the most of it. I
borrowed the marina car and went after another alternator belt,
as ours are disappearing quickly. Actually, we know several
cruisers who change their alternator belts when they change the
oil, so it's not such a big thing, other than that it's just
another cost of cruising. About a dime an hour, it works out :{))


Skip, if you are going thru alternator belts this quickly, something is
not right. Check to see that the two pulleys are in the same plane -
that is, the belt does not have to make a jog to the left or right as it
goes from one pulley to the other.

A second cause of excessive belt wear is insufficient belt tension. If
the belt is too loose, it will slip and wear quickly.

Finally, if you are trying to transfer too much power thru the belt, it
will slip even when the tension is set high enough to damage the
bearings in the alternator or water pump.

The latter cause occurs frequently when a low power alternator is
replaced with a high power one. The rest of the engine is set up for a
single belt drive, but the new alternator really should have dual belts.
It may even have a dual belt pulley on it, but since the rest of the
engine does not, only a single belt will be used. Recipe for failure.

bob
s/v Eolian
Seattle