the new penn international 50 VISX!

Started by alantani, March 06, 2018, 07:27:24 AM

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steelfish

love the hybrid leaf spring dogs

"the anti-reverse system.  it's a hybrid between a leaf spring ambassadeur-style dog and a standard spring loaded dog.  as long as it's quiet and as long as the dogs don't fail, we're good. i don't see a problem. "


wondering how much time will take to see this on another manufacturers.
The Baja Guy

Dominick

Hey Alan PM me your address, I want to send you an Alan Tani wrench for a great tutorial.   :D  Dominick
Leave the gun.  Take the cannolis.

There are two things I don't like about fishing.  Getting up early in the morning and boats.  The rest of it is fun.

boon

Great tutorial, answered lots of questions I had about this reel.

Slightly disappointed to see a very very conventional design internally; when other manufacturers are doing things like thrust bearings to remove the pinion and left spool bearing side-load issues. But then again if it does the job, all good; 4 years of field testing should have told Penn if the pinion was going to fail prematurely.

I'm interested in the anti-reverse setup; do the "ears" on the dogs push the dogs back against the springs when the handle is turned forwards, rather than pulling them onto the ratchet when the handle goes backwards? If so that's a very clever design, if the "ears" fail then you will just get a ticking reel rather than losing your anti-reverse.

Also somewhat intrigued by the mixture of metric and imperial sized bearings in the reel.

Last but not least, 60lb of drag, I hope the rod (and angler) are tethered to the boat!

Robert Janssen

Quote from: boon on March 08, 2018, 12:23:53 AM

Slightly disappointed to see a very very conventional design internally; when other manufacturers are doing things like thrust bearings to remove the pinion and left spool bearing side-load issues. But then again if it does the job, all good; 4 years of field testing should have told Penn if the pinion was going to fail prematurely.

I agree. I'm sure the reel is just great, and looks fantastic. Nothing wrong there. But I'm a litte disappointed by the apparent lack of imagination. Not just here, but among other reel companies* as well. Four years of research, only to say, "Hey! Let's do the same thing everyone else does! Brilliant!"  clapclapclap

Idunno. On the other hand, it can also be interpreted as testament to the excellence of Shimano's original design in ≈1987.

Thanks for the great tutorial and photo exposé!

*i guess it applies to cars and guns and whatever all else as well.

steelfish

Quote from: Dominick on March 07, 2018, 07:22:58 PM
Hey Alan PM me your address, I want to send you an Alan Tani wrench for a great tutorial.   :D  Dominick

now thats funny  ;D ;D
The Baja Guy

TheReelShop

nice job on this and insight as well.

Shark Hunter

I just saw this one.
Very Impressive Tutorial Alan.
Nobody does it better. ;)
I have to agree with you about those gears though.
These are a set out of an Everol.
Very Beefy.
Life is Good!

CDR697

Alan, I just bought a 20 VISX.  I was going to send you a message on how to set the drag.  You kind of answered this with this tutorial on the 50.  My question was in regards to the adjustable strike setting piece.  With my 20 I plan on fishing 100 lb on it.  At what drag setting do I set this reel at full and what setting at strike?  Also, should I move that adjustable piece or just leave it at the #4 position?  Thanks.

alantani

it may need new bellevilles.  i had to switch out one.  i'm taking a look at another in a bit to see if it is still an issue.  ping me in a month and we'll see. 
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!


Reel 224

Alan: Very nice tutorial of that Penn. A customer was here to pickup three reels I had serviced and said what was the site I was on. I told him Alan Tani reel Repair, That is the guy I learned from.

Joe   
"I don't know the key to success,but the key to failure is trying to please everyone."

Rothmar2

I got my hands on a 80 VISW about a year before they were released in Australia. I found with the reel that I pre-serviced, a much better level pre-prepping from the box. The internal surfaces were given a good coating of Penn Blue, and most of the bearings (except spool) were also properly packed. There were a few screws that were dry, but generally I felt the factory prepping was pretty good.

The 80 VI (and I assume the 130) also had a removable drag cam housing from the right plate, which I thought was an excellent feature, however if the anodising on this new series is better than the VS line, could be a little unnecessary. From my experiences with many VS reels over the years, the cam recesses were a reel problem for corrosion, the anodising was not up to task for the rudimentary pre-prepping from the box these reels got, IMO. One wonders if there will be much of a market for 80 & 130 sized reels in the future, now that the IGFA has approved the braid backing and mono-topshot spool set-ups for record claims, with a few top-shot length requirements. This brings a 50 sized reel into the mix for fishing 130lb test to its limits with the drag capabilities of the modern reels out of the box. I guess time will tell, but I see the "big reel" market becoming greatly diminished over time.

I must admit, I was very disappointed to see that Penn did not go with axial, or even angular contact bearings as standard in the end plates. I think they had a real opportunity to "lead the field" by doing this. I do understand that this could have been a cost and a "replacement availability" issue, but as others have said, it showed a lack of taking a lack of real development to fix the one big issue with lever drags, in the modern context of big drags and small reels. The cranking shaft solution with the bearings, has just created further maintenance issues IMO. Have seen enough A/R and standard bearing failures in this area (AVET's) to know that this is not a great idea. Surprised reel manufacturers do not fit a lip seal on the crank shafts to try and provide an extra level of protection for these bearings. The plastic bearing seal rings just don't cut it.

Having said all that, I would still have one, particularly if the anodising is more robust than the previous line. Throw away those plastic screw collars!! I actually thought they were a nice touch, pre-greased and all! Going to risk a "forum slap" and agree to disagree with the boss on this one! :D

Squidder Bidder

Alan - thanks for the tutorial. I just bought three 50VISXs, with three or four more on the way to gear up for the NJ midshore/inshore/canyons Tuna bite. I haven't opened them up yet but I have confidence that your tutorial will steer me clear of any screw ups. Since writing the tutorial, have you had occasion to work on these after they've been fished and glean any insight into maintenance? I want to develop a maintenance routine and log for the reels moving forward.

Would you suggest stripping the Penn blue from the frame etc. and replacing with Cal's after the first year of service? Would you say replacing the spool bearings every year would be advisable as preventative maintenance? Are there any other parts or pieces that are known to fail and it would be wise to have on hand as part of a maintenance supply kit so that I can get a reel back up and running quickly in-season rather than waiting on parts shipment?

Thanks  :d

alantani

i don't recommend stripping off the old grease.  just wipe off the excess, then go in with an old toothbrush and scrub to leave a light coat of grease everywhere.  the cam definitely has to be ground down.  a 3 to 3.5 degree grind should do the trick. 

https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=35043.0
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

gary760

I have one sort of niggle with the VI series. These are by and large big game series reels designed to catch the fish of a lifetime. Why armed they manufactured with smooth sides spools to cause as little friction as possible to line being ripped off under heavy drag ( like previous penn internationals, avet trex and ex , Tiagras and Okuma Makairas. What I am saying is why have 3 line capacity grooves machined onto the sides of the spool, is it not possible that line (mono or thin braid) could get wedged in there and damaged when ripped off under heavy drag. Now I must admit many manufacturers reels have line capacity rings and I have never heard of any one having a problem with them, I cant even get my head arround the mechanics of how the line comes off and the potential for damage. But the line capacity rings on my set of Fathoms look sharp edged enough for me to sell them. Any body got any thoughts on this ( or is it just me ) how deep and sharp edged are the line capacity rings on the VI reels ?