I love how the house smells when baking v belts on the oven. Make sure it doesn't dry out, I suggest brining it. Seriously, baking the belt a while is probably your best bet. Sounds like a bad design if they have a tensioner pulley and it doesn't allow the proper belt to simply slip on.
As much as it appears the belt you have is short, I would say 1/2" longer will work just fine. Is it possible that the tensioner is not fully backed off? Don't get your finger pinched here...
Oem belt? Ive never had issues with oe parts. And they arent very expensive. 25 bucks or so. If my customers can do it, surely you can
I believe it was 22 bucks on ebay, oem part. Went to the dealer yesterday, they looked it up and it is the correct part. Got a 1/2" x 40" belt at TSC this morning, still tight, but managed to get it on...cleared leaves for around 5 hours today, worked great.
stuckinthemuck...I think the difference was a true 1/2" although it is difficult to see in a circumference