Adding drag pressure to a baitcast reel

[Phatbass54]

I have a reel with 4lb of drag pressure if I add a second drag washer from a reel rated at 7lbs, will this effectively increase the pounds of pressure? 

[Tennessee Boy]

What kind of reel are we talking about?

[F14A-B]

A baitcast reel with a max of 4 pounds of drag? I mean what company would make such a reel? 

[little giant]

Spinning or casting??

Are ya sure it's not 4kg??

[FishTank]

57 minutes ago, F14A-B said:

A baitcast reel with a max of 4 pounds of drag? I mean what company would make such a reel? 

 

It's possible.  Some older reels,  like the Daiwa Pixy, only had about 3-4lbs but replacing the drag washer closest to the main gear frame with a Carbontex one would double the attainable pressure.  

[WRB]

4 lbs of drag is about right for MH bass rods, it’s what I use.

Contact Smooth Drags for carbontex drag disk for your specific reel, about $3.

Tom

[Bigbox99]

It's also possible that the spring washers have deformed over time and you have lost the ability to apply high drag pressures.  I have a Steez LTD that did this from not using it for a few years with the drag set to a medium setting.  I now have to max the drag to get an acceptable light drag for jerkbaits.  It just needs new spring washers.  

 

Here is a fun fact: you can remove the spring washers and replace them with a stack flat washers (or one thick one) and your drag will be on or off with on being max drag pressure on lockdown. 

 

The advantage here is that most issues that stem from drags on baitcast reels that get weaker over time is from the deformation of the spring washers.  Most people don't back the drag off after every trip and experience a loss of max drag pressure over time.  If you lock down your drag you would benefit from replacing the washers with flat washers.  Some reels have even been made from the factory like this such as the Deps DR-100ZX Zillion and recently some sort of Kastking thing but you can do this with any reel.

https://jdmfishing.com/vault/deps-dr-100zx-limited-edition/

[redmeansdistortion]

4 hours ago, FishTank said:

 

It's possible.  Some older reels,  like the Daiwa Pixy, only had about 3-4lbs but replacing the drag washer closest to the main gear frame with a Carbontex one would double the attainable pressure.  

The Pixzilla drag is a kit that adds one more drag washer and an additional drag disc, increasing surface area which adds to the capacity.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Not all designs allow for thicker drag stacks. I’d start with a Carbontex upgrade. As for spring washers new ones might make a slight difference but it won’t be night and day. If you’re spooled with braid make sure it’s not slipping. 

[Phatbass54]

The reel is daiwa steam custom which only has 4 lbs of drag Iam assuming, I’m wondering if I took the carbon washer out of the Daiwa Alphas sv tw which has 7lbs and put it into this reel if it will increase it to 7

[J Francho]

You might increase it but don't think anyone can say for sure by how much. Seems like a pretty simple experiment. 

[Bigbox99]

47 minutes ago, Phatbass54 said:

The reel is daiwa steam custom which only has 4 lbs of drag Iam assuming, I’m wondering if I took the carbon washer out of the Daiwa Alphas sv tw which has 7lbs and put it into this reel if it will increase it to 7

The air stream custom is a pixy/alphas and the silver creek is a tw alphas and both platforms have the ability to increase drag.  Both are special UL stream fishing variants of their base platform.  I don't know which one you have but drag can definitely be increased to normal non UL bass fishing levels. 

[GRiver]

I never really tested my drags. I keep them pretty loose and depend on my thumb.

I should check mine and see what they are.

[Tennessee Boy]

I looked up the specs for that reel and it said the drag was 3.5KG which in Tennessee is equal to 7.7 pounds. 😊

 

It’s important to reiterate that you rarely need more than 4 pounds of drag for bass fishing.  I don't think you will be flipping heavy cover with 65 lbs braid with that reel.

[bulldog1935]

swapping drag washers is easy.  

Drag set should be 1/4 of weakest link, line or leader test, or rod max line rating.  

e.g., 10-lb leader gets 2-1/2 lbs drag set, and resin/fiber drag washers shine here.  

Three- to 4-lbs drag set for 12- to 16-lb leader is just right for carbontex.  

Any good vendor can match carbontex washers for your reel, e.g., HPR Bearings on ebay.  

My surf reels need 7- to 8-lbs drag, and get dry, blue corundum drag washers.  

[redmeansdistortion]

10 hours ago, Bigbox99 said:

The air stream custom is a pixy/alphas and the silver creek is a tw alphas and both platforms have the ability to increase drag.  Both are special UL stream fishing variants of their base platform.  I don't know which one you have but drag can definitely be increased to normal non UL bass fishing levels. 

The Alphas variants, OG Pixy aside, all have the same drag capacity of ~9lb, whether it's an Alphas 103, Alphas Ito, PX68, Alphas Finesse Custom, or Air Stream Custom.  The newer TW variants, the finesse models do in fact have a lesser drag capacity by about 3lb, but that drag is still plenty good.  7lb is more than plenty for any form of light line fishing.  The only guys around me fishing drag that high are skipping bass across the surface of the water or fishing musky, sturgeon, or trolling for Great Lakes kings.  

[Bigbox99]

1 hour ago, redmeansdistortion said:

The Alphas variants, OG Pixy aside, all have the same drag capacity of ~9lb, whether it's an Alphas 103, Alphas Ito, PX68, Alphas Finesse Custom, or Air Stream Custom.  The newer TW variants, the finesse models do in fact have a lesser drag capacity by about 3lb, but that drag is still plenty good.  7lb is more than plenty for any form of light line fishing.  The only guys around me fishing drag that high are skipping bass across the surface of the water or fishing musky, sturgeon, or trolling for Great Lakes kings.  

Max drag as tested by TT was 11.5 for the Alphas SV105.  Thats the same platform as all the other non TWS Alphas and Pixy meaning they should all reach that same max drag with the appropriate parts.  The TWS Alphas is rated for 10 lbs so I would imagine all reels on that platform should be able to reach that drag pressure with an Alphas 800 drag stack. 

 

Gears are alsp swappable between the Zillion 1000 and Alphas 800 so would wager you could potentially swap the drag stack and main gear of a Zillon 1000 into any Alphas TWS platform for up to 13 lbs of drag if someone was really compelled to do so.

[redmeansdistortion]

6 hours ago, Bigbox99 said:

Max drag as tested by TT was 11.5 for the Alphas SV105.

Keep in mind that TT often tests the drags of many reels past the manufacturer specifications.  I'm not saying that's a bad thing as it shows the true potential is often beyond what the factory says.  The fact of the matter, the part numbers on the drag stacks of all of those Alphas models is the same, so they should all measure similarly.  

[F14A-B]

8 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I looked up the specs for that reel and it said the drag was 3.5KG which in Tennessee is equal to 7.7 pounds. 😊

 

It’s important to reiterate that you rarely need more than 4 pounds of drag for bass fishing.  I don't think you will be flipping heavy cover with 65 lbs braid with that reel.

Thanks for doing the work, but that’s what I figured was up..