wow some of you lot must be brutal on your poles, I switch to extreme when it came out I've had clamps upgraded with new levers and I added my own spring loaded washer, so I run a extreme 25ft with extention and a 18ft and they've been used daily since the start, they fell over from leaning on my van more times than I dare to admit, but never broken a single section I can't say much the new version as ive not used one or rich enough to splash out, i do maintenance once a year otherwise there used but not abused.