HXW 5/2 raptor drag

Started by Night Prowler, January 15, 2015, 12:58:12 AM

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Night Prowler

Hello all. Have been using my HXW raptor for 3 years now and it has handled most situations very well. I completely disassembled, lubed and, reassembled this reel when it was about a year old and it has been working great ever since. The only slight problem I have with this reel is that the drag curve seems to be a little aggressive. Last year I lost a 100+# tuna when I accidentally bumped the lever up 1 click too high and POW, fish gone. I am using 80# braid backing with a top shot of 60# mono. I use this setup for trolling, bottom fishing, chunking, and live baiting here in Hawaii and love the light weight of this set up but again, a little too aggressive drag curve. My question. What would be the best way to slightly tune the curve? I have not tried to grease the drag washers with Cals grease or adjust the Belleville spring orientation yet. The curve has been like that ever since it was new. I am hoping someone has experience with tuning so that I can take some of the time and guesswork out of it. Large tuna are starting to show around Kauai already and I would like to be ready. I do not normally use this reel for big tuna but thought that if one did bight it, I could still land it ( sometimes gotta tempt the fish with the small, wimpy, setup. He he he. ) Any input from this forum would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Tightlines667

You could contact Avet and have rhem send you the less agressive, more linear, 'Sailfish Cam' if available.  Or follow Mr. Tani's instructions for modifying the existing cam to suit your needs.  This includes carefully, and evenly filing down the cam to reduce the ramp up.  Remember you can not easily add metsl back after it is removed.  Search the other threads for his instructions on the matter.
Hope springs eternal
for the consumate fishermen.

alantani

i'd be curious to grab a scale and see what the percentage differences in drag pressure are when the lever is in different positions.  :-\
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

Night Prowler

Sorry Alan. I do not own a drag scale. I will look around for one or someone who has one so I can get that data for you.

alantani

usually the cam flattens out over time.  it's just funny that it would jump like that.  any chance you had loose spectra that dug into itself?  sometimes that wil happen and the line will pop!
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

Night Prowler

Hey Alan you might be right. I was not the person on the rod when it happened and that was really the first time we were into the backing that deep. We were trolling for ahi but I had this rig out short for aku and like I said, the bully tried to pick on the wimpy setup. He he he. Maybe my partner choked on that one but I would still like to flatten the curve just a hair for 60. On the other hand, I have some Momoi 80 I should stick on there for this season. With the Calstar rod I have this reel on, this is a very powerful setup and it would probably work better with the 80. It just looks small and wimpy. ;D

Night Prowler

Update. Just got an email from Scott at Avet tech support. He said that he would recommend trying a " South Florida cam " to make the drag curve less aggressive. He also said that I can adjust the Belleville spring setup but I would have to remove a spacer and add more springs to take up the added space. There would be a lot of trial and error involved with the spring modification to get it just right so he recommended to try the cam first. I will order the cam and after I install it, I will report on how it performs. Tight lines.

Keta

Quote from: alantani on January 15, 2015, 02:30:44 AM
i'd be curious to grab a scale and see what the percentage differences in drag pressure are when the lever is in different positions.  :-\

I have a HX Raptor, I'll play with it and post the results.
Hi, my name is Lee and I have a fishing gear problem.

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SoCalAngler

Here is a post I did a while back. It was not about a HX Raptor but about my trials with a JX two speed.

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=7246.0

Night Prowler

Thanks So Cal. This is exactly what I am talking about when I say the curve is a little aggressive. I was hoping that Avet had the fix but unless they have made modifications to the SF cam, it seems like the problem with pushing past strike will get worse with the SF cam. I will still order one to see if they made newer modifications to to the cam or, if it is still the same, I will try to lightly file the cam like Alan said. The slower ramp up below strike would be a nice improvement though. Thanks for putting up the link to your post which was very informational. Thanks to Alan too. Great web site.