Tecnofish DragForce 30 SS - Italian for Heavy Spinning/Jigging/Popping

[Mr.Grinta]

Hello,
I hope that this review will enable us to look very closely a very well known Italian Reel, fairly expensive and addressed to the heaviest disciplines of fishing and toughest conditions in salt water. We talk about Tecnofish DragForce 30SS. The Tecnofish states that it is a 100% Italian. The DragForce 30SS Spinning reel is for heavy spinning, heavy Jigging, Tuna Popping, etc..
Watching him well we realize that this reel is incredibly similar to the famous Trabucco Exceed Spin 5000, but I talk more about it later.
I must add that comparing this reel with many other well-knowned reels I have noticed many similarities. But getting back to the product.
The few words that the producer Tecnofish spends to describe this product are:

SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGY:
Lightweight, corrosion resistant TITAN graphite construction;
Brass Pinion Gear;
Internal Ball Trip;
Superior Line Lay.

SMOOTE PERFORMANCE:
Balancing System;
Selective silent anti reverse system;
"EVEN FLOW" Chrome plated line roller;
Hight Quality felt washer;
High Speed 5.5:1 gear Ratio.

Line   Capacity meters
0.30   500
0.35   360
0.40   280

Box and Unboxed product:

the box is made of cardboard, with colors and written little sad and little fascinating. Inside the box we find only a very light neoprene cover. Cover that compels us to remove the crank every time the reel needs to be covered.


In the box there is no instruction manual, there is no schematics and there is no list of parts. As you can see from the picture the schematic and parts sheet list are badly printed inside the box (I have never seen such a thing).


The reel looks very nice and had elegant shapes. Entirely made of metal. Powerful, robust and very smooth, but at the same time very light. The abbreviation 30SS should indicate a clutch of 30lbs. (13.6 kg), but in Italy it is said that it can delivery 20Kg of drag. We will see about it later during the tests at sea the true value of the drag pressure. It's all machined from solid aluminum. At first glance it seems that there is no moulded piece. The blue and silver colors are very beautiful. The baile wirte is made of titanium and the wire runs very well. The knob of handle is spherical aluminum lovely and very comfortable. The body is made of aluminum with air holes for cooling during the most demanding efforts (in Italy it is used for spinning the Bluefin Tuna).






The sound of the buzzer is not very strong but nice to hear. The drag seems very progressive and it do not stops even at full lock. The drag start-up is soft and smoothly, and it's smoothly during the whole clamping curve. The wire is wound in a spiral-crossed mode to prevent the braid can slip in the coils preceding and create problems during the development. The antireverse system is permanent and seem very strong.
Overall it looks like a great product, beautiful, strong, lightweight and very very technical, with excellent performance.
The Tecnofish sells about 170 € for size 5000 about $232.
A rapid look to the parts:



Power handle, bail wire, line oller and reverse block lever:
The power handle is made all of alluminium the knob is nice and suitable.
The articulated joint are good but can not be disassemble; this is a bad choice in my opinion.


We remove the brake thread, regreased all the joints with blu grease and put Anticorrosion-X on the crank hub.


The bail wire, line oller and reverse block lever are all in metal; Seem a good and strong system; the grease of factory seem silicon based and not many:


...after grease and Anticorrosion-X treatment:




Spool and Drag System:
The spool is all aluminum without bearings. It turns on a brass sleeve which lies on the axis of oscillation. (other choice that I perhaps do not agree)
The ring that looks carbon fiber is just molded plastic (still a minus sign).
The knob to tighten the drag is provided with a gasket that block and protects the drag from salt water.


But there is a nice surprise: while the manufacturer says that the drag washers are in felt, when I dismounted I realized that instead the drag washer were in carbontex! A curious thing is that this drag has been mounted badly (with incorrect order) with the last and the second-last carbon disk attached together! And another bad choice was to wet washers with oil (you can see in the second and third image below).


Of course I reassembled the drag washers in the right order and making sure that each disk was between two steel plates...with PTFE based grease.


Rotor, oscilling axescilling slider axe, clatter, right cheek:
Removin the rotor allows us to see its back, the  the clatter and the bearing in which the oscillating axle passes.
Between the bearing and the axe there is a brass threaded sleeve done very well.


Once you have removed the right cheek you get to see the inside of the reel.
The main axis of the main gear on which is screwed directly to the crank position is governed by a bearing done very well, without shield and of good quality.
The cheek is made of aluminum and is molded chemically to resist the salt.
In addition there is a further portion of the cheek that can be removed allowing you to remove the circle of "carbon" (actually molded plastic).


The internal gears was greased with transparent greas (silicon based?), not many.
The main gear engages the axis of the crank through a brass bushing very well done.


Now let's go to looking forward and to keep a close view of pignon and main gear. The pignon is perfect and make of good brass, the main gear very weel builded is builded of steel (I like this choise):


Still a closer view:


What remains over the pinion and main gear, all very well mounted and product with excellent metals (I like).
...unfortunately there was little grease and it was with silicone (I don't like this choice).



Now let's see the swing/oscillating axe with the rotation system and the roller bearing.
Everything pretty much perfect. High-quality bearings, high quality Mechanical Fitted tolerances and excellent materials (In my opinion perfect!)


Now CorrosionX and Marine Blu Grease....





And now...the last thing, that thing of which I am particularly proud: my great friend Italo Busi, also known as IMC-Rods.
Italo was several times world champion of construction of fishing rods for drifting to bluefin tuna,
Italian champion of fishing Bluefin tuna in drifting,
several times finalist to world championship of drifting to bluefin tuna.
Thanks to Italo for give me the known this reels and Rods and thanks again to him I can see and study the most sophisticated equipment in the world.
THANK YOU ITALO!

and ... thanks to you all of the attention.

Mr. Grinta


to be continued...

[Alto Mare]

Looking good so far Leonard, looking forward to see the guts. Thanks for sharing.

[alantani]

very nice.  beautiful photography!!!!

[Ron Jones]

Looking good so far Leonard, looking forward to see the guts. Thanks for sharing.

And that is one reason I don't use a lot of spinners. All those parts gone through and we STILL haven't gotten to the guts.
I hope your real gives you everything you want, looks great.

Ron

[Alto Mare]

Leonard, I was waiting to see the gears and now I'm a little disappointed. The main gear appears to be cast aluminum, is that correct?

[Mr.Grinta]

Leonard, I was waiting to see the gears and now I'm a little disappointed. The main gear appears to be cast aluminum, is that correct?

Hi Alto Mare,
this do not worries me, as you can see the main gear was builded in good strong steel.
Now I want test the reel some months and with worriors Fishs 
Many Thanks for your words!

leonard