Saltiga reels

[Kevin_B]

Hi all, im Kevin. I bought a new Saltiga 4500 not long ago even though i read about the damaged ones on the net. The main reason was it was a bit lighter than the equivalent Stella, and generally it was more attractive to me 8-)
Doing a search, i found that the owner of the broken Saltigas is on this site. Hello Jonli! The last post i read from you on the subject said you have received two new reels, and was off YFT fishing. Did Daiwa ever give you a reason why the first two failed, or anything you could add? Are the new reels and your exsiting reel doing okay?
Thankyou.

[Huggy_B]

Bear in mind that JonLi was putting his reel under a fair bit of extreme pain, probably well in excess of what a "normal" punter would. 60-70kg fish rampaging on the end of 65lb braid for such a small reel!

Being a metallurgist and quickly scanning the photos, I would suggest that the stem was engineered to take X amount of force which was probably exceeded, OR it was a shrinkage defect in the die casting process which resulted in a weakened stem.

[Jonli]

Kev ,

The Saltigas were REPAIRED , meaning Daiwa just changed the die cast of the body so it is not new reels , OK ? Daiwa agent did not elaborate on what might have caused it and since then , I haven't had the chance to test it yet , tuna season is very late this year due to execcsive rain in my part of the area I fish .

Only a couple weeks ago , a Japanese expatriate angler suffered the same broken stem on his Saltiga of the same model , he used it for jigging . Not sure what breaking strain line was in his reel , just got the report from the crews of the charter boat .
I wud blame it more to drag characteristic of Saltiga which tend to be sticky until certain drag level and then just
loosen once the spool start turning .

I also wud suspect a manufacturing defect because this reel supposedly can be used up to 10 kg max. drag while most of the time I only set it at 6 kg drag and perhaps 8 kg. drag at max. , all the Saltigas in #4000/#4500 suffered the breakage exactly in the same place , across the first hole from the top where the neck of the stem is at it's thinnest .

Incidentally , the new big Saltiga ( Z6500H Dog Fight ) has those holes plugged , may be Daiwa engineers have finally recognized the weakness of the stem due to that particular hole albeit none of the big Saltigas have suffered broken stem yet , so far .

As for me , I have relegated my Saltiga Z4500 to 50 lbs duty and since then have bought a Stella 6000FA with #8000 spare spool for my 65 lbs duty . Once bitten twice shy .

JonLi .

[slyham775]

i would like to know how good will the dog fight will be and done any one own one yet so tell me about it ya cos i was thinking on buying stella but when that dogfight coms out so i double my thought about that reel so any suggest ..... other wise i will have to head back to stella reel

[Huggy_B]

Then ask someone who has bought a 6000 and upgraded to a 6500 spool to increase line capacity. Other than that, the dogfight got a black paintjob and gold inserts. Hardly anything earth shatteringly new.

[craftycarp]

Bear in mind that JonLi was putting his reel under a fair bit of extreme pain, probably well in excess of what a "normal" punter would. 60-70kg fish rampaging on the end of 65lb braid for such a small reel!

Being a metallurgist and quickly scanning the photos, I would suggest that the stem was engineered to take X amount of force which was probably exceeded, OR it was a shrinkage defect in the die casting process which resulted in a weakened stem.


How is 65 lb braid a problem if running at 10kg max drag pressure? I still don't get that? I am not saying it aint possible I am just probably missing something. The reels are designed to take 10kg drag pressure that doesn't equal 65lb. The other sugestion is that they add drag pressure by touching the spool in the video jonli aint touching the spool and I think you would be mad if you did.

Cheers

[Huggy_B]

If the drag even bound up *slightly* it would cause an enormous spike in pressure on the reel and "ping". It would be so quick and instantaneous that you wouldnt even pick it.

[Kevin_B]

Thanks for the input fellas. Jonli, i follow you now that they reused the guts of your old reels into new bodies.
Looking at the stem of a 6000 and 4500, they look very much the same in terms of thickness. I remember reading somewhere about the guys who tested the saltiga and stella drags with scales and a bike or something? Anyway, under heavy settings the saltigas drag did spike to 30kg or so! Huggys comment made me think about that. Maby the 4500s drag spikes worse than the larger models due to a smaller drag and therefore broken stems? The stems look very similar!

Has anyone tried the drag modification where the carbon washers are replaced with oiled leather? This is supposed to make the drag as smooth as the stella.

Is this the dogfight? The holes seem to be on the stem in this photo :-/
http://www.japantackle.com/Daiwa_reels/DaiwaSaltigaZ6500HDF.jpg

[slyham775]

yea it seem to be but it look trick cos it is gold .... hey i got a better picture any way ..........




oh sorry wrong picture look at the next one

[slyham775]

close look at the stem

[Huggy_B]

From an engineering point of view, those inserts into the holes will do very little at all if the holes have in fact been identified as a weak point.

[Jonli]

Kev ,

I had my properly used up drag washers of Stella 10000F changed to Carbontex drag washers in 2004 , given to me to test by Mr. Jack ( Erko ) Erskine and I find this particular drag washer is a smooth one albeit do not have as high a max. drag of the Shimano pure carbon drag washer , I can feel the difference because I have 2 spare spools for this particular reel of mine .

The drag of Saltigas tend to " spike " ( good description ) unlike the drag of the Stellas due to they only have drag washers in the " throat " of the spool while in the Stellas ( #6000 n above ) , Shimano employ TWin Disk drag system , hence the drag in
the throat of the spool can work in tandem with the drag at the back of the spool .

The stem of Z4000/Z4500 is much thinner than those of the Z6000/Z6000GT/Z6500EXP/Z6500HDF , I have not seen any big Saltigas failed in the stem but have seen the bail-arm assembly broke . This happened to a European angler .

JonLi .

[Kevin_B]

Thanks for the time guys. One question, especially directed to jonli. Just in your personal opinion, what is the maximum amount you would set the 4500 drag to?

[Jonli]

Kev ,

We had 2 off Z4500 and 1 off Z4000 , they all share the same body but different spool for Z4000 . Two of these reels broke last year and one reel still survive although I don't know for how long but nevertheless I have learned my lesson and now will use nothing higher than PE4 / 50 lbs PE line with that reel . :-?

The norm is to set the striking drag at 1/4 of the breaking strain of the line and therefore if 50 lbs is the line breaking strain , the initial drag is set at 12.5 /bs or approx. 6 kg drag , perhaps at this modest 6 kg initial drag the " spiking " of the drag does not reach the level which will break the stem of the reel . :'(

In short , I am mounting the surviving Z4500 onto a rod which is rated PE 3-5 and will use my new STL6000FA with SW8000 spool ( thanks Raef ) for my tuna popping rod . ::)

JonLi .

[Kevin_B]

Jonli, once again thanks for your time. I had an accident when i was younger and both my wrists were damaged. At the best of times, i can handle 5kg of drag, not a gram more before the pain begins. I chase kings and use 40lbs braid usually. I use this with a 7'6" Saltiga rod.
Best of luck with the YFT and hope the Stella holds together for you m8 ;)

[slyham775]

done any one got the god fight reel out there ....