Hi longfellow! If you haven't heard of a broken trunion mounting, you are in another world. Had three go down near me in the last four years. Closest deere dealer has several of the now 900+$ castings on hand. They do break and are not strong enough. And lube happens in less than ten hours too, so that certainly is not the problem. final gears are not falling apart because someone "did something wrong". two rebuilds were in less than fifty hours of running and were completely covered by repair warranty of the dealer who did the first one. It was poor materials in the gears. If you haven't had this you will, drain your finals and see if something other than oil comes out. So I guess this is why I want to dump the whole setup for something I can glue under the thing that won't fall apart similar to the 9000 series finals which give no trouble and everyone constantly overloads them with a large bin extension (which I don't have at all). I really like this machine, it has been paid for about twelve out of the fourteen years I have owned it, and it is just about the right size for my op anyhow. Thanks for the reply. (ps- stay the he** out from under that thing while it is running and especially when someone else is at the controls.. you have everything to lose and nothing to gain.) GS