[kenny]

[Get the belts tight if you hear a noise coming from the front then the belts are too tight.]

Generally the belts will whine if they are too tight (mine did)-- I'm sure I'd not trust doing it by feel -- especially if I didn't know what the 'feel' was!

As a last resort you could snug them up and then imediately take it to a mechanic for the tension check; but, by the time you did that you'd hav ethe tension tool half paid for.