Thank you very much for reply. I bought a 1/2" X 88" from Discount Auto and its working great as the drive belt. I don't know what brand it is and threw away the container. I read somewhere that mower belts have to be wrapped. I don't really know what that means, so hope the belt I bought holds up. I had no idea that belt length was so critical. A 95" belt is too tight for the deck belt and won't even let the mower engine turn over and I read some reviews and found that a 96" belt keeps coming off. Bottom line for my mower is its 95.5" only. Again reading reviews I found that lots of LT2000 owners had trouble with the 95" belt being too tight for the mower to function. My aggravation with this whole issue it the amount of time and effort that went into what should have been a simple 90 minute job. I'm sure that lots of Lt2000 owners ordered the P/N 140294 drive belt listed in the owners manual and on the mower data plate and found it to be an 84 inch belt rather that the 87.5" needed. FLCoyote
Standard belts have several problems when used on mowers
1) they are designed to be tensioned and work at that tension and not get shock loads as happens in mower belts
That is why mower belts use Kevlar reinforcing strands.
2) they are designed to drive all the time and not slip so when they get warm they get sticky somewhat like your car tyres.
Mower belts are designed to slip when you clutch and do not get sticky when hot and are wrapped to aid clutching when hot.
3) Std V belts are not designed to run a serpentine path and will tend to crack when made to run backwards around a pulley.
All the after market mower parts companies do lines of after market belts both in exact OEM specs and standard sizes.
Most of them work well enough with the exception of MTD made machines with variable speed pulleys where only the MTD belts work properly.
As for your particular belt, how long it lasts will depend totally on you, how you use the mower & what you mow.
Just be aware that it might not clutch properly when hot.
When the clutch pedal starts to pulsate then the belt is on its way out so some time in the near future you should get your hands on the appropriate type of belt
Gates also do a line of mower belts sold as Green Power and some of the belts resold by the after market companies are sourced from Gates.
Usually the after market belt will be 1/2 to 2/3 the price of a mower branded belt ( down here it is 1/3 due to franchise gouging ) .