Okuma Solterra SLX-50WII

Started by boon, July 04, 2016, 07:43:51 PM

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boon

After recently taking a good look through my Okuma Metaloid I had a bit of a discussion with Alistair Arkell from Okuma NZ during which he suggested that I, and you guys, might be interested in what's going on inside the newly revised Solterra.

I jumped at the chance – from a reel geek's perspective it's a somewhat novel line of reels in that they feature dual thrust bearings, which are a bit of a rarity – I'll go a bit more into what they're all about when I get to that part.

So here it is. The SLX-50W II is a graphite-framed 2-speed lever drag reel. The box talks about a lot of features I like to see on a reel; lots of stainless steel, double dogs, that kind of thing. Also it touts no less than 7 bearings... interesting in that a lot of reels around this size only have 4-5.
The reel is listed at 53.3oz (1511g) – I weighed it at 1504g.



At the business end there is a graphite drag lever that slides along a stainless steel quadrant. It uses a small ball bearing + spring arrangement in the lever to keep the drag lever where you put it. There is also the stainless steel "body armour" which is supposed to help stiffen the reel. The preload knob is non-ratcheting and uses the usual o-ring friction arrangement to prevent it changing. I prefer a ratcheting preload like you get on the Metaloid but this reel is built to a pricepoint and given what's inside it's not a dealbreaker. The reel comes with a large rubber T-bar handle.  



The left side plate is nothing exciting, the usual clicker knob and more of the brushed stainless steel armouring.  



Underneath it has an industrial-spec reel foot (looks and feels like cast aluminium) fixed in place with stainless hardware and nylock nuts. You can also see the additional material on the frame in this area – this is important because this is typically where large, powerful graphite lever drag reels break if pushed way beyond their limits. There's also the obvious "China" mark – a sign of the times I guess – and given the other relatively high end gear being built in China these days it's not the worst thing to find under a reel. Also note the drain holes on each side of the reel in case it takes a dunking.  



Stripping the reel starts in the obvious place – removing the drag lever and cam. The knob/cam arrangement is actually a 4-part piece with a spring and o-ring inside but the fit is so close that I was worried that forcing them apart would damage the o-ring. Lots of grease in this area as it is exposed to the elements.  



Next up is the drag quadrant.  



Followed closely by the body ring, which is held on by the same 5 stainless T-10 screws holding the side plate onto the frame.



At this point the right side plate comes away from the reel, exposing the stainless steel reinforcing ring that runs around the full circumference of the reel. Only the 20-50 size Solterras get this ring – it is designed to prevent the frame from warping, which can jam the spool under extreme pressure. The harness lugs are integrated into the rings which is a nice touch. Also visible here is the extremely heavy-duty anti-reverse ratchet. Both the spool shaft and ratchet have a good coat of grease.  



Here's a close-up view of the double stainless dogs. This dog arrangement is, in my opinion, the best silent dog-based anti-reverse around at the moment. Okuma has borrowed this more or less directly from the Makaira. It uses a plastic bush on the end of the driveshaft to pull the dogs against the ratchet when the handle is stopped – this is a much more robust system than the usual silent dog method where the dog grips the ratchet-gear with a couple of very delicate little tabs.



Removing the bracing plate and dogs reveals the drive gears. Note the low-speed pinion gear is still attached to the plate. The gears - 3.2:1 and 1.3:1 - are straight-cut heavy duty stainless steel - as a result they are a little bit noisy when fresh out of the box, particularly the high-speed gears. This has improved somewhat after spooling 1000m of line on under load and I expect it will continue to get better over time. The driveshaft spins on a brass bushing at each end.



Here's the contents of the bracing plate and most of the right side plate. The gears are nicely machined and come pretty well greased from the factory. The low speed pinion gear is supported in the plate by an enormous ball bearing – as this is such a short distance from the pinion bearing it keeps the gearing very stable.



After popping out the pinion bearing (22x10x6), we find the first (17x10x5) of the 2 thrust bearings in this reel. These are a very interesting feature as they solve one of the biggest issues conventionally designed lever drag reels suffer from. As the drag is increased the spool shaft pulls the spool sideways into the drag washer – the full load of this force is normally taken by the left spool bearing and the pinion bearing. Being normal radial ball bearings this force starts to push the inner race of the bearing sideways, which initially makes the reel feel grindy and stiff with more drag and eventually results in the collapse of (usually) the pinion bearing. A thrust bearing setup should completely resolve this, as they are specifically made to handle axial loads.



This is the disassembled driveshaft and 2-speed shifter. The driveshaft is a monster – 18mm in diameter at the widest part. The shifter is relatively simple, which should result in reliable shifting. The driveshaft nut is 14mm and reverse threaded.  



Here's a little cameo... I remembered the handle nut on my Metaloid was the same size and wondered if the Solterra T-bar handle would fit... yup, goes straight on. If anyone wants to do this conversion you'll need a washer underneath the handle arm as the threads are longer on the Metaloid – the part number for the handle assembly is 15000462.  



Next out comes the complete spool assembly and spool shaft. It's a hefty forged aluminium item – weighing in at 450g. The drag is contained within a plastic cover – it's not sealed but should do a decent job of keeping most splashes of water and miscellaneous crud out of the drag.  



Once the cover is removed the thick stainless drag plate is revealed. The drag plate spins on a bearing (16x8x5). Note the thick coat of drag grease – apparently Cal's on the plate.



Also revealed is the large woven carbon fibre "carbonite" drag washer. It has a good coat of grease on it too – it is greased on both sides to protect from water intrusion and keep the drag smooth.  



After removing the clicker gear from the end of the spool the whole spool shaft assembly slides out. There are 4 thick belleville washers in a ()() arrangement, followed by a relatively large spool bearing (22x8x7) and the second of the thrust bearings (16x8x5). The right side spool bearing is a small 16x8x5 but doesn't handle much load so this will work fine.  



The left side plate is as simple on the inside as it is on the outside – just a stainless steel clicker tongue and a large stainless wishbone spring. Worth a mention is that the clicker is very loud and adds a noticeable amount of resistance to the spool. The other reinforcing ring is visible here too.



After reassembling the reel I took it down to Steve's Fishing Shop where it got spooled with 500m of 80lb metered Daiwa J-Braid on top of a whole lot of backing. There is still room on the spool for a short top-shot or a very long wind-on leader. I would estimate with pure braid you would get 1km of 80lb on there without too much trouble. Don't forget to put the screws in for the reel clamp before spooling it or you have to remove the left side plate and pop the spool out (oops!). Here it is ready to fish.



I did notice a couple of minor fit-and-finish issues with the graphite frame; there are a couple of spots where the casting could have been more accurate or better finished, like this small difference in height between the top of the frame and the steel reinforcing ring; these are cosmetic issues only and don't affect the functionality of the reel.  



Drag testing:
Okuma rate the SLX to make 40lbs of drag at full. With a full spool I maxed it out at just under 15kg – 33lbs. That's still a hell of a lot of drag, but where did the other 7lb go? I'm guessing that Okuma, like many manufacturers, rates the drag with the spool partially full. I did the drag force calculations and you will hit 40lb of drag when the diameter of the line stacked on the spool is about 6cm – for me this would be around 200m of line out. This also means that you'll theoretically get quite a lot more than 40lb of drag as you get towards the bottom of the spool.
Importantly, even with the reel maxed out the handle felt exactly the same as it does at minimal drag – clearly the thrust bearings are doing their job well.

Final thoughts:
I like this reel. The components are heavy duty, well designed and solidly made – in fact there are a large number of parts in it that would not look out of place inside a "goldy" game fishing reel. It fills an interesting segment of the market too – a reel that is powerful and large enough to catch Marlin and Tuna in the summer but isn't so heavy that your arms will fall off if you go dropping deep for 'puka in the colder months. It sits squarely opposite 2 well-known reels from Shimano, the TLD50 LRS and the Tyrnos 50. All 3 are built for similar purposes and if you shop around they can all be purchased in the $500NZD ballpark. The Tyrnos and TLD share a nearly identical and well-proven internal design – however it is an older design these days and they suffer the exact same pinion bearing destroying issue that a lot of other lever drag reels do, especially when fished at high drag levels. On this point alone the SLX, with its modern thrust bearing design, makes the other 2 look a bit dated.

So there it is! Well done if you read this far.

foakes

Thanks for this information, Boon --

Seems to be a tremendous amount of reel for a $300 price point here in the US.

Good pics!

Be interested in some user feedback from guys like Keith, John, and Alan.

Best,

Fred
The Official, Un-Authorized Service and Restoration Center for quality vintage spinning reels.

D-A-M Quick, Penn, Mitchell, and ABU/Zebco Cardinals

--------

The first rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are. The second rule of fishing is to never forget the first rule.

"Enjoy the little things in Life — For someday, you may look back — and realize that they were the big things"
                                                     Fred O.

handi2

It looks better than some others I've seen.

It looks like it does not have a silent anti reverse as found on other Okuma's in this size. Is this correct?

Keith
OCD Reel Service & Repair
Gulf Breeze, FL

foakes

#3
Seems like it is silent, Keith --

I was hoping you had already tried one out...

Best,

Fred


Quote from Boon:

This dog arrangement is, in my opinion, the best silent dog-based anti-reverse around at the moment. Okuma has borrowed this more or less directly from the Makaira. It uses a plastic bush on the end of the driveshaft to pull the dogs against the ratchet when the handle is stopped – this is a much more robust system than the usual silent dog method where the dog grips the ratchet-gear with a couple of very delicate little tabs
The Official, Un-Authorized Service and Restoration Center for quality vintage spinning reels.

D-A-M Quick, Penn, Mitchell, and ABU/Zebco Cardinals

--------

The first rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are. The second rule of fishing is to never forget the first rule.

"Enjoy the little things in Life — For someday, you may look back — and realize that they were the big things"
                                                     Fred O.

boon

Correct, the dogs are effectively un-sprung, the parts that could be referred to as the dog springs are in actuality more like dog-actuators off the driveshaft.

ijlal

Quote from: boon on July 05, 2016, 12:50:40 AM
Correct, the dogs are effectively un-sprung, the parts that could be referred to as the dog springs are in actuality more like dog-actuators off the driveshaft.

Hi Boon,

Did you get to use this reel against some tough adversaries? I am considering buying one but not sure how strong the graphite frame is. I intend using 80# with drag in the range of 20-25#

Thanks.
I live 'fishing'!

boon

I'm ashamed to say I've barely had a chance to fish with it.
I recently caught a fairly large Yellowtail Kingfish with it though and it performed flawlessly, fishing 100lb braid with an 80lb topshot, drag would have been around 20lb and the reel didn't miss a beat.

ijlal

Quote from: boon on February 13, 2017, 11:37:39 PM
I'm ashamed to say I've barely had a chance to fish with it.
I recently caught a fairly large Yellowtail Kingfish with it though and it performed flawlessly, fishing 100lb braid with an 80lb topshot, drag would have been around 20lb and the reel didn't miss a beat.

Thank you!
I live 'fishing'!

steelfish

awesome write up, thanks buddy for taking the time to do it.

I will get the smaller bro of this beasty reel, a solterra SLX10, this size is perfect to handle everything on my local waters and extremely light.



The Baja Guy

handi2

Since this post is nearly 2 years old has anyone fished this reel?

I do see the dog and spring arrangement where when reeling the dogs are held back and are silent. I was looking for the plastic ring on the spool like the other older ones.

It is a very good entry level trolling reel that would handle any Gulf of Mexico migratory fish. With one exception being our Gulf Bluefin spawn where over 800lb catches have been seen in March thru June.

A fisherman that targets these fish was in the shop just yesterday getting ready for the spawn. Last year he and others had their 80 wides spooled by some big Tuna. He has 130's for this season.

In the spring Memorial Day tournament a young girl caught one at 845lbs from a chair.

Keith
OCD Reel Service & Repair
Gulf Breeze, FL

Gobi King

I am looking for a light 2 speed for grandma, I think I will pick up a SLX 20 II for her, the low gear will be nice for her to reel in those lake michigan cow cohos (we call em hogs).

I would be interested on some feedback too on the new improved reel,

Good to hear that it will handle bigger fish,  ;D
Shibs - aka The Gobi King
Fichigan

boon

Quote from: handi2 on January 22, 2018, 05:41:19 PM
Since this post is nearly 2 years old has anyone fished this reel?

As above, I fished it for Yellowtail Kingfish, which in these parts get reasonably large. Only caught one on it in the time I was fishing and it absolutely knocked the fish over, but it wasn't a huge specimen and was completely outgunned (SLX50W, 100lb braid/topshot, Shimano bent-butt standup rod).

I thought it was pretty good - it has become more smooth over time as the gears have bedded in a little, the drag performance is excellent - absolutely on par with my other game reels.

I don't fish it much these days as it's main duties have been taken over by a Talica 25 setup, which is a bit lighter and still has the capacity and power for most fish we catch around here. Mind you the Talica combo probably cost twice what the Okuma setup did - as a value proposition it's hard to beat.

ijlal

The handle assembly looks very much similar to the Titus Gold handle in design (except for the grip.) Can someone tell me if it would be interchangeable?

Cheers.
Ijlal
I live 'fishing'!

boon

Quote from: ijlal on December 11, 2018, 09:42:54 AM
The handle assembly looks very much similar to the Titus Gold handle in design (except for the grip.) Can someone tell me if it would be interchangeable?

Cheers.
Ijlal

It appears to assemble the same way, but there is no real way of knowing if the thread on the end of the drive shaft is the same on both reels. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was the same though.

Maybe find a nice friendly shop with a 50W in stock and ask if you can try it?

alantani

i don't know how i missed this post for so long.  very nice work.
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!