Saltiga Hyper

[Jeri]

Hi,

Recently we have had a number of Saltiga Hyper 50 HKP reels in for 'fix' and or service.

The first reel was a bit of a query, as the 36mm ID main gear had 32mm Carbontex washers in place, and obviously a huge gap around the outside of the washers – and for a reel that was used for wading and surf casting – had its own 'water cooled' drag, but not very good. Changed that one to a set of proper washers, only to find that the next reel – a pair from the same client had a different problem.

It seems that the Saltiga Hyper is built standard in the factory with the first 'keyed' washer tight in the bottom of the main gear? Checking for schematics on the web was a fruitless exercise, as I never found one. That said, the woven carbon washers from the factory are also not 'full', as they have a very large centre hole in them, basically only a band on the outside diameter? Changed that one up to full diameter Carbontex, and suddenly both reels had huge drag performance, though the obvious issue was inserting another washer below the bottom 'keyed' metal washer.

Next day, we had another of the same reels come in, brand new in the box, and only needing a pre-fishing check over. Obviously I stripped it down to really check what should and should not be in this reel, and found that the carbon washers do indeed have a large central hole, and there is no carbon washer below the bottom 'keyed' metal washer. All very strange, as this reel only has 4 carbon washers, while earlier models of the Saltiga 50 have 5 carbon and 4 metal washers.

The end result was that with adding the extra carbon washer, considerably enhanced the power of the drag, though did need the use of slightly thinner washers. The standard Saltiga Carbontex washers are too small (32mm diameter), while the Carbontex washers for a Saltist are dead right (36mm diameter), though thinner, and allow the extra drag washer to be accommodated without need for re-shimming the handle shaft.

An interesting challenge and exercise, but one that came out good in the end with a very positive result for the clients – extra drag potential.

Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri

[Porthos]

There seems to be a history of the oversized inner hole. I recently did service on a Daiwa Sealine 30H and 50H where both had this anomaly with the inner diameter. It was even more odd since the top surface of the eared metal washers was level with the top of the main gears--making the last drag washer and last keyed washer sit outside the main gear. I didn't particularly like the play that that last drag washer had around the gear sleeve. The Penn HT-100's I used to replace the Daiwa factory ones were either spot on or slightly enlarged to fit tightly around the gear sleeve with no play.

My suspicion is that it was a matter of economics; since the outer diameter was "right," Daiwa could use a SINGLE production line of drag washers for multiple reels even though the inner diameters were different. The loss in drag performance was not enough to detract from any promised (if any) max drag too stop marketing and shipments. Those of us in the know can utilize the potential of this intention "slop" Daiwa built in to our advantage--not a bad outcome at the end of the day as you have discovered.

Tight lines!