113 hn baja special

[swill88]

I'm  building a few Tanks for him now. i hope some one can do something to help JoePol and my friend out with these desk weights they are used for now.

if they are just desk  weights now I can help them to getting rid of them selling them to me for cheap.

X2

[TomT]

Quote from: broschro on Today at 02:25:41 PM
I'm  building a few Tanks for him now. i hope some one can do something to help JoePol and my friend out with these desk weights they are used for now.

if they are just desk  weights now I can help them to getting rid of them selling them to me for cheap.

X2

X3
TomT

[Keta]

I've had 2 of these reels apart and feel they are a quality reel with some issues, and far from paper weights.  Penn will fix the problem and I'm working on it.   

[johndtuttle]

I'm  building a few Tanks for him now. i hope some one can do something to help JoePol and my friend out with these desk weights they are used for now.

I am quite sure Penn would take care of everyone involved. Even this "friend" of yours.

In a thread with 60K views with almost nothing negative in it (a testimony to the reliability of the Baja design) you are creating drama where there is not much to be found.

[foakes]

John is right.

Penn will take care of this issue -- because they are a good company, and want to have the best quality product possible for their consumers.

However, we need to remember, even when the Henze's owned Penn -- these fixes must be carefully planned, and implemented fairly and the right cure the first time. 

Any company as large as Penn or Pure Fishing, needs to do engineering, field testing, failure rate testing, material testing, explore other alternative fixes, get feedback from places like AT and others, and finally get buy-in and approval from upper management.

This is sort of like trying to do a 180 with a Carrier Battle Group -- it takes a little lead time and planning to not have a disaster occur.

Just sit tight, if you are not completely satisfied with your US or Baja -- just shelve it for a few months, use your other reels -- in a few months, Penn will have the right fix -- you can upgrade your reel -- and the world will be back on its axis once again. 

This is a fantastic reel, that offers everything we have advocated for years now -- just a little glitch needs addressing -- then it will be nearly perfect.

And, as always, we have expert folks on this site that can and will design parts to make this great reel even better.

Just my opinions...relax and enjoy the ride.

Best,

Fred

[Islandgypsy]

Well said,as usual,Fred. I have a NIB US 113 N I was planning on using for our deep water Lingcod season that opens Oct. 1st. I'll just shelve it and use other reels until this all plays out.

[Keta]

Lingcod shouldn't be a problem.

[Islandgypsy]

Lee, know you've fished a lot of Lings down here. The guy I fish with targets 500 feet and more..I'm now thinking about my two- speed Avet JX with 60# JB. Thoughts? What are you using? This will be my first go fishing Lings that deep.

[Islandgypsy]

Oops, should have posted this in another/new thread. Mods please move at your discression.

[alantani]

posts are allowed to wander a little.  it's not that big of a deal!   

[Keta]

Lee, know you've fished a lot of Lings down here. The guy I fish with targets 500 feet and more..I'm now thinking about my two- speed Avet JX with 60# JB. Thoughts? What are you using? This will be my first go fishing Lings that deep.

That deep a HX gives you a bit of a pad but the JX will work.

[Islandgypsy]

I'll bring the JX and the HX. Thanks.

[jurelometer]

From Joe's photo:



It looks to me like the ratchet is cutting right through the tip of the dogs.    Since the dogs were not mashed on the top, it is not the tilting dog problem.   The dogs are not sliding all the way into the ratchet teeth, or are sliding back out before engaging.   The teeth on the ratchet are small and pointy.  The dog springs look pretty light too.   The worn die problem at the factory mentioned by John would make the ratchet extra pointy- so this lines up. The dogs will be less likely to fully engage once they get notched. The problem will keep getting worse.

I am compelled to state that I am more sympathetic to the folks that are unhappy with the Baja Special.  Even with a cleaner die cut on the ratchet, I'm not a fan of this AR design.  The ratchet teeth are small and pointy, the ratchet sits high above the bridge plate.   The dogs float at the top of the posts, resting on a lightweight spring with practically zero lateral support.  The dog posts are supported on only one side.  My guess is that the design focused a bit too much on minimizing handle backplay and loud dog clicking, and not enough on AR reliability.  Beware of getting what you asked for

My thanks to the folks who have broken reels and posted their findings and photos. 

-J

[Alto Mare]

I agree! This issue has been going on for some time now, It's a bad design with the dogs and Penn should have a mass recall on those. Eventually all will fail.
I'm not telling them how to run their business, just my opinion.

This is a nice reel and well worth the effort on their part. We all know they know how to fix it, look at the 4/0 meal, that reel has one of the best design with the dogs.

[RowdyW]

I was going to buy one of those new USA Senators but after hearing about these problems I'm going to take apart one of my Jvariance reels & finish loading it up with whatever SS parts it doesn't have yet. All it needs yet is BP's double dog plate & SS yoke & 3 Se7vens drags. All together it probably won't cost more then the new USA Senator. I know this reel will not need a recall.   RUDY