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Posts: 171
| I have used my Tranx 400 High speed reel quite a few times since I bought it last year. I am disappointed in it's casting distance. I bought it mainly to reel in blades like Triggers and IC9's quickly. Works well for that. I was up at Lake of the Woods last week, so I took that the Tranx off the rod it was on and put it on the rod my Revo Toro Beast is on to see if it would cast as far as my Beast would. It did not, by quite a ways. Put my Beast back on it's rod, and it still would cast the blades farther and easier than the Tranx. I tried messing with the magnets on the side some last year, did not help.
Any ideas to make it cast better, or are there some longer casting reels out there with a high rate of line return that someone could recommend? Thanks |
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Posts: 1247
Location: Walker, MN | Getting the magnets right can help some...sounds like you tried that. A Daiwa ProRex, Lexa TW or Beast will cast small bucktails much easier/farther than a Tranx from my experience. |
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Posts: 72
| Revos cast much farther than any other reel. No idea why. They make a high-speed Rocket reel.
One downside of very long casts is if you have any bias in your retrieve, then line will pile up on one side of the reel. I get that with gliders, where I work the rod across my body instead of down.
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Posts: 166
Location: Alexandria, MN | It's a bit of a balance game of tension control setting with the Tranx, but I have noticed the same thing. Great, durable reel with a butter smooth retrieve, but my Lexa's tend to out-distance it on the cast.
I can throw a lure into orbit with my NACL's. |
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Posts: 2330
Location: Chisholm, MN | Yeah the beast has very nice casting distance, although I don't have trouble with the tranx. Maybe get a tune up from a reel service. |
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| Bought a Daiwa ProRex in the lower gear for bucktails this spring and casting distance is great. Adjusting for different weight baits is very easy as well. Like everything about it except the purple accents and even starting to warm to that as well. |
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Location: Hayward WI | Oil the spool brake case (silver ring) on the outer plate. I lost casting distance on one and this fixed it. Something that's needed occasionally. A drop of oil on the bearings can't hurt. |
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Posts: 1722
Location: Mt. Zion, IL | 1. There are no magnets in tranx reels…
2. Adjust the centrifugal brakes to utilize the minimum needed not to cause backlash. Reduce spool tension to only limit back and forth endplay
3. Oil all 3 spool bearings every 40 hours of use with a high quality oil like TSI-321
4. If you’re using 100 lb braid, switch to 80 and watch your distance increase 25 ft or so
5. Fill the spool to the top of the rim. Reducing the number of revolutions the spool has to make for the cast reduces friction. I don’t mean 1/8” or 1/16” from the top, I mean flush with the rim. Ask any friends of mine and they have all been educated on why I can cast so much further than them when they first came with me. |
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Posts: 171
| Thanks for the detailed advice! Will do and see what happens. I am pretty sure I have 65 lb on now. |
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Posts: 72
| I only have 1 brake switched on and that made a huge difference. |
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Posts: 3147
| how do you switch the brakes |
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Posts: 530
Location: NW WI | Take the side plate off and engage/disengage however many you want.
I don't have a tranx but I on my other centrifugal brake bass reels I have 1-3 turned on which is on the loose side. I just "thumb the spool" accordingly and with enough practice you significantly increase your distance vs having a "safe" amount of brakes turned on. |
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Posts: 36
Location: Kansas City MO | I've got 2 of them and haven't adjusted the brakes under the side cover. I can bomb those things and hardly ever have to worry about the spool. Dunno what's happening with your's. |
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Posts: 8785
| Gunk in the spool bearings? |
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Posts: 171
| Thanks for the all the tips. Filled spool WAY up and took all the brakes off except one, casts great! |
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Posts: 224
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota | I’m going to bump this back up since I have been thinking about switching all my reels back over to tranx for next season. I switched to almost all Lexas this season. The 2 TWS I have both broke after a few months of use, one the anti reverse went out and the other makes a god awful grinding noise on the cast, casts 1/3 the distance, and anti reverse is starting to break. Had one HD anti reverse break after 2 trips of throwing rubber, and my other HD just started to stop re-engaging after the cast. I have a tranx 400 and 500 that have never had a single issue with way more use than any of the lexas. Since the main thing I like about the lexas was the casting distance, I’m thinking about going with all tranx and just getting the highest end spool speed bearing kits put into them to improve casting distance. My tranx 400 is 4 years old, never had service done on it and I have absolutely beat it to death and still no issues. Does anyone have experience with upgrading tranx? I talked to spool speed and they generally get around %20 increase in casting distance for most reels with their high end kits so it should be about the same as the lexas |
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Posts: 1722
Location: Mt. Zion, IL | Get an ultrasonic cleaner, acetone, a spool pin removal tool, and TSI-301. Clean the bearings in pure acetone once removed from the reel and then submerge them in the oil for 20 seconds each. Let air dry in a clean environment.
Your bearings will be as good as new IF they are not rusted.
I have abec 11 bearings in one reel and there is no difference between the stock treated bearings and the high end $100 two bearing set.
High end bearings matter with light baits, but not so much with heavy baits. Drag exponentially increases with an underfilled spool. This makes more of an effect than any bearings ever would.
Pm me if you have questions. My 500’s will do over 3 minutes on a spin test with stock bearings. |
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Tranx 400 casting distance