Penn 160 upgrades

[Chev55gasser]

Hello guys, I made a profile a while back and never really used it. But I've been kicking around the ideas of hot rodding some of my old reels and I have a sentimental attachment to my Penn beachmaster 160. I currently have an aluminum spool and ht100 drags in it. But I was wondering if anyone offered a updated stand with a rod clamp option and some heavy duty crossbars. I think Cortez conversations offer a stand but not sure about the cross bars. Is there anything that will interchange? Maybe like from a newell kit that'll give me a once piece setup.

[Swami805]

Base and bars for a 146 squidder should work
Pro challenger made squidder bars, he might have some. He's in the vendor section here

[Chev55gasser]

Awesome thanks! As far as gear ratios and dogs go am I stuck with the 3:1 ratio and brass dog?

[jigmaster501]

I think you can get a dog for a bigger reel and file it down.

That reel is perfect for striped bass.

[Maxed Out]

 The 160 is a mid width reel. A Penn 30-66 reel seat will allow you to add a #200 chrome rod clamp. A 113h graphite rod clamp will also fit.

 A Cortez Conversions 66 width seat will allow you to put longer screws in the seat, which in turn will strengthen the reel from twisting under a load. The Cortez seat also fits the stock Penn graphite clamp. You'll just need clamp hardware from Cortez. Cortez also offers nice aluminum clamps for his custom seats.There are no bars that fit your 160, but with the minimal amount of drag range, your stock posts will work fine

[Chev55gasser]

I did a little digging on mystic reel parts and it looks like the 160 shares the same post with a 145 squidder. Which Cortez makes a crossbar for. So I went ahead and ordered everything. Way overboard for that little reel but will see how it turns out. Is there any screw recommendations that are better then the old factory Penn screws?

[Keta]

The screw pattern might not match the bars.

[Chev55gasser]

My bad guys. Cortez's cross bars will not work. They're for a jigmaster not squidder. But a newell 145 crossbars should work which there is a few sets on eBay.