" Who would want a noisy, hot, $1250, hydraulic setup that takes up several square feet of space."

Nothing against the auto-Drive but my P/W hydraulic unit must be a one of a kind unit.

It does NOT run hot even after hours of constant use and it is NOT noisy even though it is sitting under the bench uncovered. The best feature about the hyd unit is I can move the loader in any direction and vary the speed with the foot pedal as soon as I see fit to do so. The hyd cylinder can be set in three different speed settings.

You must have a one-of-a-kind unit. I have seen guys put them in insulated boxes (Whiz uses a printer enclosure). I ran across one guy that put the power unit on the floor level below his loading room (he loaded in a loft above a garage) to get away from the noise.

You do not have to constantly shift your foot from forward to reverse with the AUTO-DRIVE. If you want precise control and the ability to back up get the joystick control.

Jim Skeel
P/W Dealer/Distributor

AUTO-DRIVES will go up $50.00 in February.

Jim Skeel
P/W Dealer/Distributor

Just for your information, My PW hydraulic unit is not that noisy and does not get hot either. It is ironic that you are so concerned about the noise of a piece of equipment that makes ammo that goes Bang!

Had a blue PW hydro unit back in the mid `90`s. Horribly noisey, was stolen out of a storage unit, don`t miss it a bit but sure would like the loader back. I seem to remember Spolar ??? had a hydro unit that was a whole lot quiter.

Actually, this is not quite true about why P/W stopped selling the hydraulic units, and I'll repeat the actual facts again.

I sold 2:1 hydros versus electrics, particularly when the first electrics had only a toggle handle. And, in fact I was the person who got P/W to start making the electric drive. I'd been at the factory a couple of times, after I had convinced Jim Benn inventer of the original Mec Auto-Drive to think about making it suitable for the P/W.

I shipped to Jim over in Johnstown, IA a brand new 800 Plus and we both gave it some thought about making a slightly larger platform for the Plus to sit on.

He got that done and started to make the P/W version and asked me to be the go-to guy in selling the P/W version for him. The first ones required BOTH buttons to be pressed simultaneously in order to operate. He felt this was a safety issue. I totally disagreed with this. So, I contacted several of the buyers to contact Jim and ask him to eliminate this inconvenience. Jim discussed this with me and his liability attorney. He them offered at no charge an upgrade EPROM and instructions on the fix.

I then machined a collar that would work for the Spolar on the lathe at my shop and shipped it to Jim to start offering the Auto-Drive for the Spolar. He did and we sold some.

Long story, short: Jim sold the business to Mec shortly thereafter. Mec's engineering department told me personally that they would be offering the drives for the P/W and Spolar, but we all know that didn't happen.

During this process, I shipped my Jim Been gifted Auto-Drive to P/W to look over and it was then that they decided to begin design on their version of the electric drive.

The REASON P/W stopped the hydraulic was NOT because the electric drive was selling 2:1, becasue it was not! The reason is because the hydraulics were costing too much to produce, like nearly $1000 each, and retailing for $1,250. Spencer Hydraulics made them for P/W. I was working with Spencer to continue to offer them, but at that time the costs had risen to my cost of $1,100 PLUS this did not include the two metal plates, aluminum blocks, nor stub shaft. I would have had to sell them for over $1,500 or more each and would have had to invest about $12,000 to $14,000 up front.

If you pencil that out, that would not have been a smart financial move, so I dropped that plan.

I never had a customer ever want to return a hydraulic unit, but in the beginning I had quite a few guys return the electric drives because they didn't like them. I sold two this week, and now most everyone likes them, but I still prefer the hydraulic. I place the motor and pump in an old, large dot-matrix printer enclosure, the one with the convoluted foam and fan, and reload to my heart's content with the TV going.

Whiz White
S&W Supply Company

Couple of addendums:
1. Electric Drive are 3 weeks out, so delivery should be the third week of February.
2. No qualms about the old all-blue noisey units, but the blue-black units were the most current ones, and I'd buy about every one I could get my hands on. In fact, I had Tawnia find the very last new hydro and they shipped it to me today, well yesterday, as it's now after midnight.

AUTO-DRIVES went up $50.00 this month.

The Joystick control version is $850.00
The Foot control version is $900.00

The above prices are for a Ponsness/Warren loader.
The versions for the Spolar Gold loader are $50.00 more.

Send me your shipping address for a quote with the shipping.

Jim Skeel
P/W Dealer/Distributor