Good quality, easily fitted with included instructions. Flo delivered promptly. Just need the clouds to go away so I can see if it improved the sky watcher mount. I have high hopes as when I stripped the original gears away from the Mount I could visually see the backlash in the gears as I rocked them back and forward.

The the pinion extractor is an essential, but if you follow the instructions and are methodical then it’s pretty straight forward. One of the instructions is to set a pulley 5.5mm away from the body so you may struggle without a digital vernier calliper but it’s easy enough if you do have one.

The belt kit from Rowan astronomy came well packaged and labeled!

The instructions were clear and thorough with detailed pictures to clarify the text.

The mount is much much quieter. The sound with the old gear train (before the timing belt upgrade) was annoying.

The 4mm gear extractor made easy work of removing the small drive gear from each motor.

I have only recently performed this upgrade and have not had much time at this scope since. But everything I
have read on the Rowan upgrade has been positive. I expect the same.

By the way, Martin at FLO was quick to answer some questions and they also had the best price.
Thanks

Very easy to install, manual is easy to follow plus there are tons of videos out there.
The slew is more quiet now, PHD tracking is way better - it's like a different mount
The Pinion Extractor should be included in this kit.

I fitted the belt mod today. Now I need the clouds and the moon to disappear. However it sounds quiet and I'm hoping my RA will smooth out a bit.

THis is a fantastic update! Very simple and functional design, very easy to mount it. The result is much less noise, and seems much smoother operation. I did not test this under the sky yet, but I feel this will also positive efect for guiding /backlash. I recommend this update for all who use HEQ5 and EQ6 mount!

//Attila

My guiding was getting steadily worse, rarely below 2 rms. after this easy upgrade I’m guiding at .6 on average.

Really pleased with the belt mod. The backlash which had started to creep into the dec axis of my HEQ5 has improved greatly as a result of fitting the belt system so that is now less than 25% of what it as (the residual backlash may well be in the worm gears rather than the motor gears which the belt mod can't fix). Guiding has become much better as measured using pHD2. One of the rollers - the replacement for the dec idler gear was a bit tricky to fit and a rubber mallet was needed to drive it home. Overall, the entire belt kit took about an hour and a half to fit and adjust. The instructions were excellent - clear and easy to follow and the kit was thoughtfully packaged with the dec and ra axis kits in separate labelled bags. The pinion extractor did the job without fuss and I would say it is a must to buy alongside the main kit.