TLD25 hotroding

[Swampfox]

I have a buddy that is wanting me to hot rod his TLD25s like I have done to the Penn reels. So I know nothing about them so I need help. What mods is there available to beef up and make these reels punch above their weight class. I know one major thing they need is more drag. Thank you

[boon]

I know the older ones had a canvas drag washer which could be a bit of a disappointment. You can swap that out for greased carbon fibre. A handle upgrade may be worthwhile, but don't go too big because the gears aren't the strongest in the world.
These reels have four limitations to hot-rodding them too far.
The first is the anti-reverse acts on the drive gear, instead of the pinion like virtually all modern lever drags. This means that the drag forces are not only transmitted through the gear train, but multiplied by the gearing. Yes star drags do it this way too.
The second is the fairly small pinion bearing. Because applying drag pulls the entire spool assembly towards the pinion bearing, it is under an axial load proportionate to the drag applied. This means the bearings fail really fast if you use heavy drag, and the reel is harder to wind with more drag.
Third is the brass hex inside the drag cam. If you dial in too much drag and push the drag lever forward, the cam will round out and stop working.
Last of all is the frame. They're simply not made for big drag. If you fettle the reel enough to get a load of drag out of it, you'll be in danger of breaking the foot off.

In my opinion, they're best fished as a 30-40lb reel with appropriate drag (10-14lb), which they will do reliably in factory configuration without much trouble. They just aren't overbuilt the same way the old Penns are, and the inherent limitations in the design mean there isn't much appetite for aftermarket parts for them.

[alantani]

i still have handles for these. smoothdrag.com and i both have drag washers.  those are really the only two things needed.  just change out the bellevilles to the stiffer "(())" configuration, instead of the softer "()()" configuration.  i would spool the reel with straight 50 or 60 pound mono and set the drags to 15 pounds at strike.  that should give you an easy 25 pounds of drag at full.  i would not recommend going past that.  i just don't trust the frame.  i'm afraid it will crack under too much pressure. 

[ReelClean]

Another weak point is the slot/recess for the roll pin that secures the spoolshaft in the LHS frame.  I have had 3 TLDs in the last few months that have cammed out and cut a ramp in the composite frame, new frame req'd.  Your drag will reduce and it starts to freespool/ratchet as the shaft gets pulled to the right as you move the lever.