For the sixth year, Rental Management asked its readers to identify their favorite rental products. Rental Management presents its Readers' Choice Awards for 1997 to six manufacturers that supply seven products to the North American rental industry.

The manufacturing companies and their Readers' Choice winning products are:

• Ditch Witch/The Charles Machine Works, Perry, Okla.: full-size trenchers and small, walk-behind trenchers.
• JI Case Corp., Racine, Wis.: backhoes.
• General Wire Spring Co., McKees Rocks, Pa.: electric drain/sewer cleaning equipment.
• Stone Construction Equipment, Honeoye, N.Y.: concrete mixers.
• Terramite Corp., Charleston, W. Va.: compact backhoes.
• David White, Germantown, Wis.: laser surveying equipment.

The 1997 Readers' Choice Award winners will receive plaques recognizing their achievement during the 42nd annual A.R.A. Convention and Rental Trade Show Feb. 16-19, 1998, in Orlando, Fla.

Readers' Choice Award winners are determined by the results of an unaided brand preference survey of readers of Rental Management. In that survey, readers were asked to write in the name of their favorite brand for each product category given. No manufacturers' names were listed in the survey. Readers' Choice winners were named in only those product categories where there was a statistically significant difference between the top vote-getter and the other brands named.

The survey was conducted last summer by Readex, Stillwater, Minn., an independent research company. Questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 735 subscribers in the United States and Canada. Data collection was halted with the receipt of 380 usable questionnaires, a 52 percent response rate.

This is the sixth year Rental Management has named Readers' Choice manufacturers based on independent research of the magazine's readers. Each year the magazine's editors compile a list of different product categories to be researched. In the 1997 study, 28 categories were tested, 11 construction/industrial products, eight general tool/homeowner and nine event/party.

"It is a strong commentary on the high quality of products being offered to the rental industry that in only eight categories was there a statistically significant difference between the favorite brand and its nearest competitors," said Fred Anderson, publisher of Rental Management.

"Even in those categories where there was a clear favorite brand, the gap between first and second place has narrowed for many types of equipment over the years Rental Management has been conducting these surveys."