Thanks for the reply regarding your experience. As you can see this thread is almost 2 years old now and I have already purchased the ho-pac. I went with the Allied 800C. While I appreciate your comments (and agree with support being a major consideration) I didn't like the narrow width and extra length (when compared to other brands) of the CVP-16. I also preferred the greater impact energy of the Allied and I didn't have much confidence in the quality of the CAT unit. I thought that it was a rebranded unit (from who knows where) and they had the same unit matched to almost all of their minis even though they were of several different smaller weight classes. I would have saved a couple thousand $ had I went with the Cat unit but the odd plate size, the fact that it wasn't (in my opinion) big enough for my 305.5, and the fact that Allied is also a well supported brand (with a long history as well), led me to buy the Allied.