Penn Warfare 20N

[dogtagger]

Hi all, I haven't posted here in a while, but reel maintenance season is upon us and of course this is always the first place I come! This is my first attempt at a reel review/tutorial. So here we go, a look at Penn's new Warfare 20N. You can check out the schematic at Scott's Bait and Tackle https://www.mysticparts.com/Assetsimages/pennparts/schematics/war20n.pdf.


Decent looking reel, about the same size as my Fin-Nor Offshore 16L, but a bit lighter due to the graphite frame and sideplates. The reel has a gear ratio of 5.1:1.



Of course the left side plate comes off first. There are just 4 stainless screws holding it on with what looks like a stainless ring. There's a little dab of grease, but not enough. We'll fix that.



You can see the spool has a bearing here, as well as one on the right side. I'm going to leave the shields on them so I don't bugger them up. I'll lube them with reel-x. Maybe I'll pull the shields off next winter. The click ratchet is held in place by a very small c clip. Careful taking that off.



I found this little gem between the click ratchet and the bearing. I couldn't see it at first until I checked the schematic which shows a felt washer... Hmmm. Once I got this off the bearing slid right off and I oiled it.



I use a toothbrush and sometimes a q-tip to get grease into narrow places. Even though this reel has plastic side plates and frame, I rub a bit of grease over everything anyway. Don't forget to grease the ring too. You can't see in this picture, but there is a brass thrust washer that controls end play.



Once you have the bearing lubed and a light coat of grease on the frame, side plate and spool, you can go ahead and put the side plate back together. I give the screws some grease.



Moving on to the right side, the first thing you will notice is the upgraded handle Penn used on this reel. Nice touch.



As you disassemble this side, lay out everything in the order it came off. I helps putting it back together (but you already knew that right?)



This is the only way I could figure out to get oil on the handle. You can open the knob, but the oil didn't seem to go anywhere.



Here you can see the anti-reverse bearing (clutch), clutch retainer, eccentric assembly and the inside of  the right side thrust washers. Again a little dab of grease here and there. And again, I'll rub it around with my old toothbrush. The clutch is made up of 4 parts, beside the bearing you'll find the sleeve inside the bearing, the clutch housing and the clutch retainer.



I removed the sleeve and clutch, oiled both with reel-x and put the clutch back in. The sleeve goes back in later when you reassemble the side plate, since there are two "fingers" that fit into the topmost metal drag washer.



Here's the guts. Nice unified design, with double dogs! Once again you can see just a tiny smooge of grease. You can also see one of the two slots on the top metal drag washer the clutch sleeve fits into. Everything looks pretty familiar. I like the versa-drag. Nice big main gear, though the gears are brass, I think it will do what I need. Everything else in there looks like stainless.



Pull that main gear and drag assembly off, grease the drag with Cal's, and put some grease on the gear teeth while you're at it. Penn is putting an HT-100 washer under the main gear now. Nice. That gets Cal's too. I use Cal's on the ratchet and the dogs as well just so I don't contaminate the drag. This reel has two eared versa-drag washers in it.



I pulled off the bridge to see if the bushing needs grease. It can use a bit more I think.



Everything has a nice coat of grease and put back in. This is one of the critical areas to lube well with the dissimilar metals contacting.



k, got grease on everything, time to put it all back together. By the way, the ratchet lifted off very easily with the dogs.



Everything on the right side plate is greased and oiled and ready to go back. Place the main gear and drag assembly back onto the shaft, place the clutch sleeve onto the top of the drag stack with the two tabs onto the slots in the top washer. I tried having the yoke springs set on the plate, but ended up placing them on the pins over the yoke. They have to fit into the shallow holes on the plate.



Now the job is almost done. Get plenty of grease on the shaft. Another spot where dissimilar metals contact and salt water sits. I don't have a picture, but the spring washers are the standard ()() orientation.



Replace the handle parts (in order) and we have our reel back together. Now's a good time to put some grease on the reel seat. Take a close look at the reel seat, pretty small, fortunately it fits the rod I have it on.


All finished and ready for action.

Ok, that was fun. I hope this is useful to anyone thinking about buying one of these reels. I've searched the site and noticed a couple of inquiries about them.

Thanks to Alan and everyone here I look forward to tearing into my reels, even ones I've never seen before. This reel will be used on one of my bottom rods on charters, and won't likely get any mid season maintenance, so that's why I use plenty of grease in there. I don't worry about having just two drag washers either. 15 pounds of drag should be plenty. My charters don't do a lot of casting, so I'm not to worried about having a super spinning reel. I think next winter I will remove the entire clutch assembly and lube it, and maybe take the shields off the bearings. Overall I'm happy with the reel. Hard to beat it for $65.

I wrote this review last year when I bought the reel new. After one season I can say the reel performed flawlessly. It never was tested on anything huge, but it worked next to other workhorses like Penn Jigmasters, Shimano TLD Stars and my Fin-Nor OFC 16. It's a nice little reel and a decent upgrade to the Jigmasters in a couple of ways. While the Warfare isn't anywhere as easy to tear down as the 500s, the double dog, anti-reverse bearings and handle are nice, as is the versa-drag. I give this reel a thumbs up.


"Edited as per Moderators to correct Scott's Bait & Tackle over to their new store name Mystic Reel Parts / www.mysticparts.com"

[foakes]

Nicely done, David --

You certainly know what you are about!

Good servicing...

Best Always,

Fred

[Alto Mare]

Very good tutorial David, with some nice detailed pics. Thanks for sharing and showing us how it's done..

Sal

[mike1010]

Nice write-up.  Thanks.

This caught my attention:  '...there are two "fingers" that fit into the topmost metal drag washer.'  What do you suppose is gained by that?

--Mike

[Tile]

My suggestion would be to search for a radio antenna to cut a pair of sleeves to go on the yoke posts. Apart from this modification, the dog security springs would also make it last longer.

[Bill B]

Great tutorial David....looks similiar to the High Speed 555GS, but the 555 does not have the ar bearing.....Bill

[handi2]

The cut outs in the top metal washer are for the clutch inner sleeve to lock into. The reel looks  mighty nice with the very common ARB and double dogs.

Thanks for sharing.

[Ron Jones]

I've been holding out on this, because of the AR bearing. The double dogs did it for me. I'll put one in my stocking.
Ron

[broschro]

My friend bought one a few weeks back . good little reel so far.

[mike1010]

The cut outs in the top metal washer are for the clutch inner sleeve to lock into. The reel looks  mighty nice with the very common ARB and double dogs.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Keith.  That much I had got, but am still trying to see the benefit of locking the sleeve to the drag washer.

Mike

[Gfish]

Yeah, now that you mention it mike, the top D. Washer's already keyed to the shaft. Dogtagger, the A.R. Sleeve's keyed to the shaft, right? Didn't see it in the pics. Isa pinion gear made a brass or s.s.? Does it look like you can put springs onto the dog assemblies?
Gfish

[dogtagger]

Thanks for the remarks guys. This was more a 'look inside' than a tutorial.

I just finished servicing the reel and everything looked great inside. I pried the cover off the handle again, and too a closer look, and as it turns out there is a screw holding the hard plastic knob to the post, so its easy to service. I kind of like the shape and noticed that most of my anglers prefer smaller handles to the large after market handles I have on some reels.

This isn't a high end reel by any means, and to be honest I appreciate reels with more bushings than bearings. But so far the reel has held up just fine even though it goes all season with nothing more than a quick rinse once in a while.

Seems like the reel is pretty tight, and I kind of like the fact that I don't have to worry about the frame and side plates corroding over the course of the season. This is one of the reasons I also use the Shimano TLD Star reels.

Here's the reel before service. The reel is covered with mackerel scales and other gurry-- mostly from my last trip. Looks like new now of course . Time will tell how well it compares to reels like the Jigmasters and TLD Stars.

[dogtagger]

Yeah, now that you mention it mike, the top D. Washer's already keyed to the shaft. Dogtagger, the A.R. Sleeve's keyed to the shaft, right? Didn't see it in the pics. Isa pinion gear made a brass or s.s.? Does it look like you can put springs onto the dog assemblies?
Gfish

The AR bearing sleeve is keyed to the top drag washer only. It is not keyed into the shaft. The top drag washer is keyed to the shaft.

Pinion is brass.

I also forgot to mention-- the pins that the dogs fit on just slip into a slot in the frame. They can fall out when you aren't paying attention. I don't know if you would be able to find a place to put springs on them. The only modifications I've done to any of my reels are 'drop in' mods.

Here's a pic of the AR sleeve;

[mike1010]

Okay, now I've got it.  With the sleeve keyed to the washer, and the washer to the shaft, the sleeve is in effect keyed to the shaft.  Thanks.

Mike

[dogtagger]

I do see one (major?) issue with the reel. The right side spool bearing appears to be permanently attached to the spool via a pin that is through the spool axil. I've made some minor efforts to push the pin out to service the bearing, but no go. If you look at the schematic there is a note (by mysticparts.com) that there is no replacement for the pin if you break or bend it. My concern would be doing damage to the spool. I haven't tried grabbing it with vise grips, and won't worry about it until the bearing needs to be replaced-- hopefully in many years.


"Edited as per Moderators to correct Scott's Bait & Tackle over to their new store name Mystic Reel Parts / www.mysticparts.com"