The mounting options for the SmarTouch 1000 mention a plastic skid. What is it, and what purpose does it serve?

It's supposed to 'REPRESENT'... a slide under a dead spa one size fits all kinda thing. Say you've got 3 hoses. One suction hose, one discharge hose, and a blower hose. The skid mount option basically puts everything mounted so that you just put the package under the spa, hook up the 3 hoses, power, air controls (or digital topside in this case), and poof you're in business. However I always recommend against such an option. More than half the time, the plastic skids assembled arrive with broken (insert random name of component here) parts - mainly because UPS is horrible at handling large packages like this - (we've come to think they use our boxes for football practice). While the idea is a good one, getting an assembly like this to your house perfectly intact (as we build it), is a crap shoot. You'd best be served by saving the money, and ordering without the skid ASSEMBLED. Btw, the skid is nothing more than a plastic platform used to mount the pump, control and blower on. If you can deal with 3 separate pieces, then that's the best way to go - and forget skid shipping, or the plastic mounting base - unless you really need and can use one. Here's what a full skid mount looks like with the AP-4/SB-1000 spa control: http://spapartsnet.com/Spa-Packs-Contro... 1_2_1.html Hope this helps.

Thanks, that does help a lot. I've decided to order the SmarTouch 1000, and I'll skip the plastic skid.