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Purchasing Polaris Brutus is so far a very bad decision

121K views 60 replies 29 participants last post by  geardaddy 
#1 ·
I just joined the site today, and I hate that my first post is a negative one. :mad:

I spent $34,000 on a Polaris Brutus HD that had the works. Air conditioning, sweeper, mower, forks, box blade, snow plow.

I purchased it on Jan 21, and it's been in the repair facility longer than I've owned it. I checked on Louisiana Lemon law, and I definitely meet the criteria of receiving a lemon. The air conditioning is a total joke. I was sweeping my parking lot the other day, and I swear the inside of the cab was 115 degrees F. This comes after they supposedly fixed it. I work best in lists so here are my issues with the Polaris Brutus:

1.) It's too slow. I was told at the dealership that the Brutus could reach speeds of 40mph. Mine barely goes 25mph down a paved hill. When I go up a hill it drops to about 18mph. It's so slow it's painful. I took it to the dealership, and they did something that makes it go about 23mph down a hill and 20 up a hill. They also showed me this update bulletin from Polaris that states that the Brutus is only designed to go 20mph. After showing it to me he asked me to sign it. I told him I'm not signing it because I was told the Polaris goes 40mph which was a big deciding factor in my purchasing the unit. I expect and want my Brutus to go 40mph like I was told it would. Everyone who has rode in my Brutus has verbally commented about the slowness of the vehicle. It's about as fast as a riding lawn mower, literally.

2.) The air conditioning in mine has never worked. It blows cold air when you first turn it on, but after about five minutes of run time it's blowing nothing but hot air.

3.) The Yanmar diesel engine is as loud as a tank. I recommend using earplugs to protect your hearing when operating the Brutus. Carrying on a conversation with a passenger is pointless. Forget it, don't even try.

4.) Attaching the pto shaft is nearly impossible. I'm a healthy 40 y/o male, don't smoke and drink only occasionally. I'm not in the best of shape, but I'm not couch potato either. I don't know how strong you have to be to attached the pto shaft, but I'm definitely falling short of the challenge. It is an act of congress to get the pto shaft attached. By the time I am done I have to go inside and wash all the grease off my hands. I'm usually so exhausted I don't even feel like doing what I had planned to do.

5.) The mower deck appears to be a high quality unit, but in my opinion it doesn't belong on the Brutus. When you lift the heavy mower deck expect your brutus front suspension to sag about 6 inches. When you have the pto engaged and you lift the deck all the way up expect to hear the most awful clattering you've ever heard. I don't know what it is, but it doesn't sound safe. Unless you're mowing an open pasture expect the deck to butcher your lawn with ruts and scalps. I find myself having to keep my right hand on the hydraulic lift, constantly feathering it up and down attempting to keep a fine balance between mowing my grass and ditching up my yard. If you're mowing long grass expect the pto shaft to get wrapped and overcome with weeds. Last time I used my mower deck I had to cut weeds off the pto shaft for about 30 minutes before I could reach the disconnect mechanism.

6.) The hydraulic stick in the cab is way too sensitive. If you don't watch it you'll be slamming your attachment on the ground. It's very hard to make small and finite adjustments with the hydraulic stick. It seems like it's all or nothing, with nothing in-between.

7.) I broke the shear bolt on the sweeper the first time I used it. I'm sorry, call me inexperienced or accuse me of not knowing what I'm doing, but I'm the one who spent $34,000. When I spend that much I expect my equipment to work and not be breaking. I've bought other equipment in the past like tractors and backhoes that have never broken a anything so I have that in my defense. Expect the shear pin to shear on your sweeper. Also I would like to point out that the engine is severely underpowered to run this sweeper. The only way to keep the engine running while sweeping and moving forward is to barely, just barely, have the sweeper in contact with the ground.

8.) The forks, and the hydraulics that lift them are a joke. First of all the forks are too short. Forks are for lifting pallets. The length of these forks only insert about 2/3 into a standard size pallet. Then, the lifting mechanism in the front of the Brutus is not strong enough to lift the average weight pallet. Now before anyone at Polaris tries to tell me some crap about it being unsafe to make it lift anything heavier then why did you even bother offering forks? If I ever get my Brutus back from the repair shop I think I will post a video just to shock people by showing them how my Polaris can NOT lift things that most people would expect it to lift.

9.) The service manager at my local Polaris dealership has openly and verbally complained to me about Polaris lack of support and documentation for the Brutus product. For example, he needed to know how many pounds of coolant to charge the air conditioner with. He said he had to simply guess because there is no documentation that says how much coolant, and when he called his own Polaris support they didn't know either.

So there you go. Just so everybody doesn't think I'm a total troll I will post a few things that I find to be okay about the Brutus:

1.) The power steering is okay as long as you don't turn it all the way to the left of right. If you do it will let out a loud squeal like pickup trucks used to back in the 70's.

2.) The seat is comfortable. You can sit in this thing a long time without your butt going numb.

3.) The all wheel drive makes the vehicle be able to go pretty much every place I've tried to take it. I was pushing dirt with the box blade and the vehicle had enough forward power to dig the little bucket full of dirt.

4.) My kids like riding around in it.
 
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#3 · (Edited)
You have an idiot for a dealer. There is no way they can make bs claims to sell you a unit in the first place, then have a leg to stand on when they complain about Polaris. Nobody at Polaris has EVER seen 40 on a speedo. The diesel ranger will hit mid to upper 30's and dealers assumed incorrectly that the brutus would be the same. Based on your comments about not knowing how to properly set up the machine or attachments, it sounds like your dealer sailed you down the River.

I agree it is loud, but I knew this along with attachment limitations before I bought the machine. Did you not actually try to use the attachments that you gripe about? Did you not notice the lifting height and capacity of the attachments before you left the dealership? I knew in 20 seconds that many of the attachments wouldn't work for me. Attaching the PTO implements has never taken me longer than 30 seconds.

If the machine is too underpowered to run the sweeper, how did you break a shear pin? Suspension does not sag 6" when using the mower. If you run the hydrostatic like a silverback gorilla, it will bounce around similarly to bouncing a skid steer.

I agree on the noise, it is loud. Everything else you list is symptomatic of a shitty dealer and user error/unrealistic expectations/ failure to trial product properly before buying.
 
#4 · (Edited)
JORTS, are you associated with Polaris in any way? If not then you sure are a passionate fanboy of the Brutus. What makes me suspicious of this is because you said
"The diesel ranger will hit mid to upper 30's and dealers assumed incorrectly that the brutus would be the same."
"Nobody at Polaris has EVER seen 40 on a speedo."
How would you know if someone at Polaris has never seen 40 on a speedo? You sound like someone talking from Polaris. It would be cool if the moderator would post your ip address. It would be really interesting to find out if Polaris or someone employed by them is behind your post. I read back through your 39 posts on this forum, and there is nothing in there that proves me wrong either. You look just like a plant from the company themselves. I, for one, know that companies have people working in the reputation management and social marketing department that participate in forum discussions and try to bring internet threads to pro-company endpoint. I'm sorry, but I am highly suspicious of your motivation here. I am very interested to know if you are calling your dealers shitty idiots and your customers unrealistic silverback gorillas. Do you agree to have the moderator post your ip to this thread so I can run some tests on it and see where your post originated from?

You said that my dealer is an idiot, but you have never dealt with them. I can tell you that this is not a dealer problem. The dealer is genuinely interested in my issues and has tried very hard to resolve my issues. They have thousands of fans on their facebook page and many good reviews. If their customers heard you calling them idiots they would not like it. And trust me some of them are some big corn-fed ******** that you would not want to get tangled up with. Or maybe you would since you are strong enough to attach the pto shaft in 30 seconds and smart enough to learn all about it in 20 seconds.

I was told the Polaris Brutus could go 40mph and I read about it in more than one place. I also want to point out that the speedometer on the Polaris Brutus shows 60mph. Now I know that some vehicles cannot reach the full speed posted on the speedometer, but the Polaris Brutus cannot go even 1/2 of the posted mph. Heck why didn't Polaris use only half the speedometer since obviously my speed indicator isn't going to be spending any time in the right side of the speedometer. I think Polaris put a 60mph speedometer in the Brutus so that when customers are shopping at dealerships they will see the speedometer has a max speed of 60mph and give it a mental check mark. If the speedometer only had 30mph on the speedometer it would raise a red flag. The customer would more often than not say "this thing is too slow" and move on to something else. This is a deceptive practice and misleading to the public.

You say that I must be operating the hydraulics like a silverback gorilla. Indeed the Polaris Brutus makes me feel like a silverback gorilla operating it. My other machinery has hydraulic systems that make me feel like a pro operating it. I spent $34,000 on the Polaris Brutus. Why can't it have smooth enough hydraulics to make me feel like a pro instead of a silverback gorilla?

My commentary about the suspension sagging 6" is not up for debate because it is a fact, not opinion. If you wish to call me on the fact I will post a youtube video and establish such. I am highly suspicious I am defending my point against someone associated with Polaris.

I don't know where you are going with the shear pin / sweeper issue. A shear pin is nothing indicative of engine power or sweeper quality. The engine does not have enough power to run the sweeper. The shear pin broke , and I included that because it was an annoyance. I just bought this stuff and it is brand new. I expect to be using it, not fixing it. The engine doesn't have enough power to effectively run the sweeper. The shear pin is either under-sized or it is protecting a sweeper whose internals are undersized - one or the other. The end result is the same - an undersized and ineffective sweeper.

Before I discuss this with you any further I am going to need feel comfortable that you are not associated with Polaris because at this point all indicators are saying that you are. At this point I'm considering taking this whole discussion to a more neutral platform that you cannot interfere like youtube. There I can moderate you if you try to call dealers shitty idiots or customers unrealistic silverback gorillas.
 
#5 ·
I'm not reading all that. You seem to just be pissed off and angry. That's a "you" problem. I know what these machines do because I researched the heck out of them and talked to probably 6 local dealers about the machines. Not one of them ever said it went 40 mph. That's the standard Ranger diesel. I talked to Polaris people at expos, and not one of them ever claimed it went 40. They were all (dealers and reps) very clear about that. Perhaps my "everyone" comment was too broad of a brushstroke- it was "everyone" that I talked to.

It looks like you were 1) sold a bill of goods by a dealer that was inaccurate and /or misleading and 2) didn't conduct even a basic test of the equipment before you bought it. If you think that your poor decision or inability to properly vet a piece of equipment makes me a Polaris shill, then you are a bigger troll than I originally thought. For the record: My experience hasn't been perfect either- I broke crappy snowblower pins early and had a problem with a pintle lever. Heck, after my Fusion snowmobile experience with Polaris, they are lucky to have any of my money.

You write whatever narrative you want, I just find humor in the fact that 90% of your "problems" could have been identified at the dealership before you ever took possession of it.

It's a 24 HP machine. What did you expect?
 
#6 ·
Oh and I have zero to do with Polaris. I find a tremendous amount of humor and think it's quite telling that you read through all my posts like some hyper defensive teenage school girl, and make accusations because I called you out on your trolling.

Do you work for Kawasaki or John Deere? Maybe Kubota? I see a pattern in your posts after all....

Stay angry and blather on. People can make their own decisions about how silly your complaints are.
 
#8 ·
JORTS anybody can look at your past 39 posts and see that you participate in the threads only to bring them to a positive endpoint. Post #6442 even reveals your bashing of another brand in favor of the Polaris product.

JORTS are you going to give the moderator permission so I can look at your ip address? You didn't answer the question about posting your ip.

Read everything I've wrote, and anyone can see that my rant is directed specifically at the Polaris Brutus product. I took special care not to broaden the complaint into Polaris in general because I do not know their other products. I also took special care not to mention any other brands because I knew that doing so would lessen the credibility of my post. I hope that the community reading this will take that into consideration. I knew I'd most likely attract a fanboy or a company catfish like you when I wrote it so trust me I'm not sitting here in shock or anything.

I'm sticking to my story. JORTS is a catfish unless I am proved otherwise. If I am proved otherwise I'll reduce your status down to fanatical fanboy. All 41 posts of yours on this forum lack credibility.
 
#12 ·
I have zero need to prove anything. Categorize me however you like. I do not get spun up over silly things, let alone Internet forums. I am a BIG fan of all made in USA products, especially those like Polaris, Toro and Cat that employ fellow Minnesotans. If that makes me a fanatical fanboy, I'm perfectly ok with that.

I know that my personal experience at north of 715 hours on my HDPTO has been mostly enjoyable with a few problems along the way which I shared with the forum. My personal product experience differs so greatly from yours that I stand by my original assessment.
 
#9 ·
I'm with you denns25. I've noticed you haven't received much follow-up. Good luck with the Lemon Law. When I tried, Polaris contacted my attorney general and told them that the machine was "WORKING AS DESIGNED. " Sorry about your luck, you should have tried it out at the dealership better .Ha Ha!! I'm like you, I like a lot of features about the Brutus. But there are a lot of bad ones. Was told over and over how the hydrostat was suppose to work and it doesn't work like I was told. Mine wont pull a load of wood on a trailer. All I hear is the Swash plate needs adjusted. It has been checked a total of 4 times and I'm told its correct. Im just hoping some people will post real videos, not just Polaris posting theirs. Then maybe they can recall these machines. I honestly believe they could become a BIG seller if they would admit their faults and fix them. Keep after them, I hope you get yours fixed.
 
#10 ·
BrutusWV, thank you for reading. I hope you haven't had as much trouble as me. Your remark about the Polaris Brutus not having enough power to pull a load of wood on a trailer. That's something I haven't had time to check, but I'm sure it won't be long until I'm let down about that too.

After no support from Polaris my dealership spent their own money and put my polaris brutus in a shop that specializes in air conditioning. At this point it looks like the air conditioning might be fixed.

I hate to enact lemon law because I gotta pay the lawyer and all that stuff. I'm sure that Polaris will also say my machine is "Working As Designed" as well. Too bad the whole design is nothing but a big blunder.

Maybe we can make a whole YouTube video series about all the things that our Polaris Brutus can't do! hahahaah.
 
#13 ·
Denns25,
I see you haven't got much help, so here goes.

I agree with your #3.) The Yanmar diesel engine is as loud as a tank.
It sure is, and I'm not sure why as my last compact tractor and my current subcompact are quite. One with a 35hp and the other is 22.5 hp, both diesels.

On your #4.) Attaching the pto shaft is nearly impossible.
I'm sure you already tried this, but just in case, when removing the PTO you have to wrap your fingers around the collar at the end of the shaft and pull it back just a little to release it, when putting it on you have to pull back the collar also so it will start sliding on, sometimes you have to twist it from side to side to line up the splines, but you should not have to exert much force to get it on, it should slide on with no effort. If it still takes a lot of force, look in the shaft end, there should be some little balls that move out of the way when you pull the collar back, you might have to push them in with your finger. Try cleaning the old grease out of there and off the Brutus PTO shaft, after they are clean coat them with some new grease and see it works better. Sometimes they get gunked up and don't work good.
On #6.) The hydraulic stick in the cab is way too sensitive.
I totally agree on that one. My old compact tractor was like that, but my new subcompact works good, I have seen some hydraulic equipment with an adjustment so you can set it like you want it. Otherwise a hydraulic shop might be able to put in a restricter to help some.
On the slow thing, I tried out a Bobcat 3650 yesterday and it would only do 22 mph down hill, but supposedly Polaris or Bobcat can make them go 30mph.

Good luck.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Couple of things. I own one. Mine has gotten up to 40mph, but it took about 1 mile to do so. These are not speed machines. They have a purpose, work.

The front hydro's lift up to 900lbs if I'm not mistaken. Mine has lifted up a Z930R (zero turn lawn mower with front weights, I believe close to 700lbs in front weight)

A hydrostatic system, hills do kill the speed. But again, these were not made to do 60mph down the road. These were built for torque. Mine has pulled cut down trees that were 45/50 ft tall. Tons of weight.

I wouldn't buy the forks for this machine. It doesn't lift high enough for starters. I have the bucket attachment and blower attachment. The blower attachment I have ate through an 8ft 2X2 (hidden snow) and I didn't even realize it. Check your attachments, some came shipped with the wrong shear pins. They should be 8's in most of them. My blower came shipped with 5's. Sheared them just blowing snow.

Here is the deal I have found with the Brutus line up. Not many dealers sell them, the ones that do, are under educated unfortunately on the product. Took me 3 dealers before finding one that knew their heads from a hole in the wall.

The AC in my Brutus makes me cold. It's intense. The heat is even worse, crazy hot. Sounds like you might have some problems that need to be fixed but the dealer you are using might not be up to snuff on their Brutus knowledge.

Regarding # 4. The front neck of the PTO shaft needs to be compressed when attaching it.
Regarding # 9. I agree. This is something Polaris does need to work on a bit. I have spoken to Polaris tech support and those guys do know their stuff. I would recommend you having your dealer have Dealer Support get in contact with you. Those guys do know their stuff.
 
#17 ·
denns25, sorry to hear you are not liking your Brutus. I love mine. But my dealer also did give me the low down before I bought it. I also did test drive it. Not my on my property, but my property is pretty flat.

I'll buy some attachments from you if you are getting rid of it. :D
 
#18 ·
Slug with wheels

I just got a Brutus diesel host. It has a top speed of 10mph in high and low gear on flat concrete. On a 10 precent grade it drops to 1mph. When I make a sharp turn it drops to 2mph. The engine rpms are about 3500 at 10mph or 1mph. It has no power, my mower has more pulling power and a higher top speed. The dealer had one of there mechanics look at it and they claim it's working fine. I had a friend who works on hydrostatic drives take a look and he thinks the pump is defective or not adjusted correctly. I'm going to give the dealer another day to wake up:mad:. Iowa has a lemon law, looks like I may need to use it.
 
#19 ·
I just got a Brutus diesel host. It has a top speed of 10mph in high and low gear on flat concrete. On a 10 precent grade it drops to 1mph. When I make a sharp turn it drops to 2mph. The engine rpms are about 3500 at 10mph or 1mph. It has no power, my mower has more pulling power and a higher top speed. The dealer had one of there mechanics look at it and they claim it's working fine. I had a friend who works on hydrostatic drives take a look and he thinks the pump is defective or not adjusted correctly. I'm going to give the dealer another day to wake up:mad:. Iowa has a lemon law, looks like I may need to use it.
^not good. Not sure which dealer, but I would RUN away. I spoke to a couple dealers in IA that did not impress me before I bought my unit.

Bottom line, the machine when set-up correctly should perform much better than that. While not a fast machine, it will pull a house down in low gear. Good luck getting it fixed.
 
#20 ·
Update to my Brutus problems. The Dealer has the Brutus and ran it through a bunch of tests. The dealer has checked to make sure the Brutus is adjusted according to Polaris's specs. Polaris claims everything is working fine, based on the tests the dealer ran for them. The Brutus still only goes 1 mph up a 10% grade with the engine running 3700 rpm. The hydrostatic drive is not coupling the engine torque to the wheels.
Does anyone on this forum have a Brutus purchased in the last year that can go 30 mph and travel up a 15% grade with power to tow or plow? Did Polaris make a change in 2013 to turn the Brutus into a Wimpus?
I'm going to ask for a full refund from the dealer on Monday, the machine does not meet it's advertised specs and is not capable of performing any work other than being used as a golf cart.
 
#21 ·
Working as Designed

To BrutusWV and denns25, from a legal stand point, the Brutus has to meet it's advertised specs. It doesn't matter what the design is capable of, so "Working as Designed" is BS. If the design does not meet the specs, they need to change the design and recall the units in the field. I own a manufacturing company and I've had to replace/recall units that the design was not capable of meeting the advertised specs. It happens all the time, ask GM about there key switch design. It works as designed but there spending billions to do a recall.
 
#22 ·
Recalls are for safety, that's not the issue here. Based on your comments, the machine is not working properly - there's no question about that. I'm just surprised Polaris is saying the machine is working to spec when they had my dealer swapping parts and adjusting my machine when it worked better than yours comparatively to start with. I'd make sure the dealer is actually contacting Polaris and not just saying they are. Stranger things have happened.

FYI: some of the early units had "swash plate" adjustment issues that robbed a ton of power. There were adjustments recommended by Polaris for the dealers to apply, then a couple months ago Polaris came out with a completely new "command lever" that works to better apply power to the ground. I'd double check that this command lever has been installed and properly adjusted. Good luck.
 
#23 ·
My 2015 Bobcat 3650 was delivered today. The salesman delivered it. We took it out in my flat pasture. After about 100 yards, my salesman said I do not have to buy it. After doing some research tonight, I am going to keep it & have my dealer contact Bobcat & the Polaris factory that makes them & demand that the "command lever" that fixes lots if not all of these problems be installed at the factory. If not, I will file a class action lawsuit against Polaris & Bobcat with more than enough proof that they have willingly sold these machines, even though the fix is very simple.
 
#24 ·
2015 Bobcat 3650 and "command lever"

I have the 2014, and while it slows down considerably on my (steep) hill, it does climb the hill, and is pretty zippy on a level grade.

My 2015 Bobcat 3650 ... I am going to keep it & have my dealer contact Bobcat & the Polaris factory that makes them & demand that the "command lever" that fixes lots if not all of these problems be installed at the factory.
Please do followup, post to let us know if the command lever fix actually corrects your issue.

It would be pretty messed up if they are still having this issue with newly produced 2015 models.
 
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#25 ·
I'm a current Toolcat owner which is what the Brutus is loosely based on and next month I'll be the owner of a 15' HD PTO HVAC...

I've spent several days reading all the positives and negatives and 2 recurring complaints I just do not understand are IT'S TOO LOUD AND IT'S TOO SLOW!

Did folks with these complaints not start this machine up before stroking a $35,000 check? Did they think it would get quieter after they owned it?

Several years ago I passed on a Diesel Cub Cadet with the Yamar in just 5 Short seconds after I started it because it was too loud!

And "if" I had purchased it? There is NO WAY you'd ever hear me EVER complain publicly about how loud the machine was for fear of someone asking...WELL WHY THE HECK DID YOU BUT IT!

And did these folks not thoroughly test drive the Brutus or their Bobcat 3600's to find out that it would only travel at X mph?

The Brutus like the Toolcat was made more for WORK than play...My Toolcat only goes 18.2mph in high range and I'm thrilled because 18mph is fast when working!

It too only goes up a steep hill at 4-6mph and I have a turbo and 56hp but everything else it does is so amazing...

I also don't get the mower complaints through 2-3ft of weeds??? ITS A FINISHING MOWER not a Brushcutter! Of course its going to bog when its not being used as designed...

These complaints remind me of the "empty" ride complaints I read of my 09' F450? Why on earth would anyone purchase a 9,000lb pickup that can haul over 6,000lbs and complain about the "empty" ride???

An F450 wasn't designed to haul a bag of groceries, and rides pretty dang good with 2 pallets of sod in the back!

I totally appreciate complaints of weak sheer pins on attachments complaints about weak ac, dealer service, (or lack thereof) but can we stop complaining about things we should have discovered in the first 30 sec of a test drive? Or complaining of things the Brutus wasn't made to do?
 
#27 ·
Jimslick I'm very glad to hear that...
Jim I live in South Texas, I'm having the dealer in MN. tint all my window's including the front window to help the ac as much as possible. How does your ac perform on a really hot day? I can hang meat in my Toolcat in 100 degree weather...I certainly hope the Brutus can maintain at least 20 degrees cooler than the outside temperature...
 
#30 ·
I purchased '13 Brutus for light farm work last year for my wife. It now has 26 hours on it, which is up from the 20 hours showing at purchase. My wife won't use it because it is so increadibly slow. It requires downshift to low on any slope, and then creeps up hill slow enough to be overtaken by old ladies walking. Turning stops it in its tracks, as does any towing load. Totally worthless !!!
Dealer acts like they have never heard of the problem! Please keep me posted of any class action or rather, include me !!!
 
#32 ·
cbc,
I had the same problem with my Bobcat dealer, claimed mine didn't need the fix, I printed off some of the slow on hill problems from here that got fixed. After I told them about the field repair, they talked to their field rep, and the part got ordered, after replacing the part they have to adjust the hydrostatic drive system. It went from top speed of 25 mph and 3 mph up a steep hill to top speed of 30 mph and 10 mph up the same steep hill.
There is no excuse for your dealer acting like they don't know about this 3 year old problem, tell them to get off their butt and call the field rep. If that doesn't work go above the rep. Print off some threads from here and take them with you. All the advertising lititure for both Polaris and Bobcat state lots of power and 30 mph top speed, and it will do it when adjusted right. Don't listen to anyone giving you BS about this being a slow work machine, it will cruise all day at 25 mph and hit 30 mph on the level.
 
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