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Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck?
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I'm about the change out the cracked deck of my Sole F80 treadmill - Sole sent me a replacement deck for free (lifetime deck warrantee on their units, nice!) and a gel lubricant, but there are zero written instructions from Sole on how to actually replace the deck, step by step.

I did watch pretty much every Youtube video I could find on treadmill deck replacement, and I think I've got a good sense of what I generally have to do.

The thing is that every video does a "belt-deck" combo replacement, whereas my belt is totally fine and I just need to replace the deck. I was hoping not to even have to mess with removing the rollers on my unit (which you have to do replace the belt) and just loosen the treadmill belt enough to unscrew the deck and then slide it out without removing the belt or rollers.

If anyone has done this, and could clarify whether this is possible, would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

(The guy who called me from Sole to get my deck replacement going did say I could call him for any installation questions, but I figured I'd ask here first given that it's the wknd.)

Thx
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I swapped my deck out this past winter without replacing the belt. It went fine. Just follow the videos but don't take the belt off the machine. My deck slid right in. You may still have to realign the belt, but if you're replacing the deck, making that adjustment should be a breeze. Good luck.
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [Ktri] [ In reply to ]
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Did you just leave the rollers on?
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I have replaced the decks 3 times in about 7 years on 2 different Nordic Track mills.

My wife and I both run long distance ( marathons and 70.3 and a 140.6 for me this year) AND we live in Northern Maine where we use a treadmill 4 to 6 months a year.

Between the two of us the treadmill gets between 50 to 70 miles per week from November till some time in April when it warms up.

Just my 2 cents based on experience....

The walking/running track may look fine BUT I guarantee that is is stretched and "out of square"

It will be harder to adjust and center with the old track than with a new one.

While you have it apart you may a well change the running track, AND the motor drive belt.

It isn't that much more work and it won't cost you that much for the drive belt and a running track.

The company may even give it to you for free like Nordic Track did for me (3 times no less)
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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I did mine a couple weeks ago, the side rails come off, then the hood and the plastic on the back, loosen up the belt and unto the rollers, undo the drive belt from the front roller then set the rollers aside and the deck can be lifted out using the belt as a handle. Maybe do a new walking belt and wax once you have it all apart, don't over tighten the belt.

It took less than an hour
Last edited by: jroden: Jun 13, 15 18:05
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Done it. It's not that bad.

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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Done it as well and took about an hour. No instructions, just followed a YouTube video. If I can do it, anyone can. - although I had two leftover screws......no problems though. Good luck
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [gnewton] [ In reply to ]
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Ok, I just managed to do it. It did go pretty much as the videos suggested, but it was still a near-royal pain in the rear. Seriously, I'd consider paying the $150 for someone to come do it for me next time if I have to do it again. Nothing particular hard, but just a lot of annoying screws and bolts to remove and put back on, unwieldy deck to manage, and then had to retighten the belt and recenter it. Learned a bunch about treadmill frames in the process, though!
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
I'm about the change out the cracked deck of my Sole F80 treadmill - Sole sent me a replacement deck for free (lifetime deck warrantee on their units, nice!)


That's good news to me - my F80 deck just cracked at 3.5 years in and between 4,000 and 5,000 miles. I was expecting to have to shell out for a replacement since I'm now out of extended warranty on it.
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Yep, this almost perfectly matched my experience. And EVERY bolt/screw was overtorqued. I have to think there's some clever tricks for these.

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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [mwalsh5757] [ In reply to ]
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Were you able to get a replacement deck from Sole? My F80 is 8 years old at this point, but the deck has been in great condition until last week when it cracked so now I'm in the same predicament.
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [MSUtri] [ In reply to ]
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I was able to, but it was a rather annoying series of events.

I called Sole and they asked me where I got my treadmill. When I told them Sears the guy cut me off right away and said "then you'll have to go back to Sears for the replacement, there's nothing I can do for you". I thought about pressing him on the fact that it's Sole providing me warranty coverage for that part, not Sears, but I didn't.

So I called Sears and said I was wanting to get a warranty part for my treadmill, but they wouldn't play ball until I'd shelled out $95 for a service call. I told them I didn't want a service call, I just wanted the part so I could self-install it. Well, that wasn't going to happen. So a couple of weeks later the Sears repair guy showed up and said, "What you have there is a cracked treadmill deck". Well, duh! And $95 lighter of pocket I agreed to him ordering the part and having it shipped to me, on the premise that he would come back and install it later for yet another $95. Well once the part arrived I cancelled the installation appointment and installed the deck myself this last weekend. It took a month to arrive because they were apparently back ordered, but fortunately I was able to continue using my treadmill during that time by moving as far forward on the deck as I could, to an undamaged section, and slowing my pace some.

One thing I noticed is that the decks are cheap MDF. I've seen that before on much cheaper treadmills, but I would have thought a treadmill with the Sole price point would surely have used plywood. That was a bit of a disappointment, if I'm honest. I also noted that with a small design change they could probably reduce the number of warranty replacements they'd have to ship quite substantially - under the treadmill deck are 4 rectangular steel bars that give the deck support across it's width. My treadmill cracked between the middle 2 of these bars, and I suspect that's sort of the same area most people would see the issue occur. If they tied these 2 bars together with another length of steel bar that ran lengthwise between them it would give additional support to that particular section of deck at not too much cost at all. That's what I'd do anyhow, and probably will if I should ever have the treadmill that far apart again.

What I've done instead for now is mark the side rails with colored tape at the points where those steel bar supports are and am training myself to footfall on the section of deck I know is directly supported by them. Seems to be working really well in that the front bar is about where I'd want it to be for comfortable running. If anyone wants those measurements, from the back of the deck there is a bar at 22.75 inches and one at 37.5 inches (measurements are both on center, more or less).
Last edited by: mwalsh5757: Jun 28, 17 13:17
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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [mwalsh5757] [ In reply to ]
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What a runaround, that sucks. I had a much better experience.

I had the original sales receipt, I just never registered the product. So I e-mailed Sole copies of the S/N and Sales Receipt and they sent me a warranty replacement in 3 days, free of charge. I was able to replace it in less than an hour. It was a pretty simple job. I even called Sole in the middle of it to ask a tech support question and got a real person within a few minutes on the phone, it was great.


Here's the deck I replaced. I think the culprit was my damp basement combined with the cheap MDF deck. The MDF probably absorbed some of the moisture in the air and lost some stiffness.


Here's the replacement in the box (I just thought the message was funny). Maybe just don't fucking damage it in shipping, eh?

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Re: Has anyone changed out their treadmill deck? [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
Ok, I just managed to do it. It did go pretty much as the videos suggested, but it was still a near-royal pain in the rear. Seriously, I'd consider paying the $150 for someone to come do it for me next time if I have to do it again. Nothing particular hard, but just a lot of annoying screws and bolts to remove and put back on, unwieldy deck to manage, and then had to retighten the belt and recenter it. Learned a bunch about treadmill frames in the process, though!

I'm about to install my 3rd deck (2nd act of replacing). I'm thrown off by the stupid metal rails that are at the top of the deck-I'm guessing for some type of alignment? I don't understand why those aren't marked or pre-drilled for us. Or, better yet, come with the metal bracket already installed.

I also hate balancing the deck, the rails and the belt to get it on. So frustrating. Glad I got mine within a week, but it seems that the belts are getting crappy. I'm on my 3rd belt as well, and they apparently are making them thinner now, so they fall apart easier. It was confirmed by guy on phone (thinner material), plus by an installer who came to my house to help assess something. He's actually one of the guys on youtube (Fitness Technology I think).

Fingers crossed this goes well!
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