[dfkrug]

You beat me to it, Rob. Not that anyone is competing. :-)
Thx for the support.

To ans your ?, my longest link is prob over 2 ft, I don't recall.
The thumb moves extra-fast when nearly closed, as the angle
betw link and thumb gets quite acute. I am not sure about what
you mean by a resting place...you mean disconnect it? If so,
no, there is none with out pulling links. I found that with the
Gen 1 thumb, I dug with it in place, too, rather than getting
off my lazy a55 and removing it. It even came off in 5 seconds. I did
find the thumb actually assists in digging. Much more so with
Gen 2, so I do not anticipate disconnecting it. I have too many
rocks here anyway.

I tried different kinds of pin retainers this time. Anything exposed on
the sides of the thumb will be destroyed, as you will find.

I did not even consider a link in the middle of my kidney link, as you did,
since mine are cast and have large concavities on their outboard sides. I
also did not want to weaken them, esp since they are cast steel.

I never considered hanging most of my linkage below the dipper as you
did, since that is where most of the "dirt action" is.

I am about to order some more toplink cyls, so I will get to try my
4th type of thumb soon.