[Izzy]

Ed - sorry to take band width to discuss an issue that is not directly tied to your question - but I have to stand up and make a comment or two.

Joe - I think youve had some issues with PMD - I have had no problems at all with PMD or with Wedico - the 966 hasn't missed a beat - at all. and frankly you are only one of three peolpe I know with one that has had 'real' issues that I know of. Calm and sedated had some issues - but they were fairly resolved (first issue loader had some tweaks that were resolved in the 3rd batch and buyers had to ask for the upgrade parts if they were having issues - really no different than auto repair bullitiens - you never know about them until you have issues.) PFB had issues with his loader - blew out the coupler ring and the drive shafts - The coupler ring got super hard and brittle (material issue) and the drive shafts are still a weak link in my mind.

But - I do not know of anybody else in the world who expects a 1/16 mdoel of a real loader to assist in digging their basement logging as many hours as you do. Impressive as **** yes, but down right biased. **** your rock crusher is made of 1/4 plate steel - in 1:1 that would be 14" thick. why didn't you use 22ga - because you know it would fail and not hold up.

So my point is - take a little consideration of the abuse and **** that you put your models through before you bash a product that has failed you.

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Ed - best wishes in your search for a model

As for PMD - he has responded to my needs rather appropriately. But then again I don't buy that many fo these highly expensive largge models. I do know others who have issues and it seems to me that the core issue is that RIC does not stock many replacement parts.

BTW - these models represent