Changing the belt on our vacuum cleaner

Have you ever noticed how some things that should be simple are often quite difficult? Take for instance the routine task of putting a new belt on our vacuum cleaner. You would think that after all these years the vacuum cleaner manufacturers would have devised a quick and easy way to change the belt, but apparently they have not…
 
We have one of those stand-up “bagless” vacuums, and the belt broke this afternoon while Cheria was cleaning up the perpetual mess of dog hair that Houdini loves to create. She pulled out a spare belt and we got to work replacing the broken one, and what should be a fast, easy task turned into a long, drawn out event.
 
First, I had to figure out exactly which screws to remove from the bottom of the unit – then I had to remove them. Next, I had to pull the roller off and cut about 20 pounds of dog hair that had become wrapped around it.
 
Now came the hard part: Cheria had to hold the vacuum upside down while I struggled with all my might to first squeeze the belt under the drive shaft that was located deep within the bowels of the contraption, and then I had to pull hard on the roller in order to stretch the new belt enough to maneuver the roller supports into their slots. Talk about an ordeal!
 
I’m not a mechanical engineer mind you, but it seems to me that the process should go something like this:
 
1 – Stand vacuum on its “head”.
 
2 – Turn locking lever to allow the trap door covering the roller and belt assembly to pop open.
 
3 – Turn another lever to release the roller from its mount.
 
4 – Slip the new belt over the easily accessible drive shaft and the other end over the roller.
 
5 – Place the roller back in the mount and reverse the lever to tighten the belt.
 
6 – Close the trap door.
 
Pretty simple, huh? Of course the devil is in the details as they say, but surely one of Royal’s highly paid engineers can come up with a plan that works a lot faster and easier than the one they have right now. In the meantime, I’ll just say “Houdini, enough already with the shedding!”