Drag Washers

[Flex]

Interesting stuff,

Obviously you can run either, dry or wet with carbonex depending on what characteristics you want.

I wonder if dry would give you a slightly less smooth start-up but more overall drag. And wet the opposite? easier start-up but less drag

[Scott nthQld]

Flex, the old cargbon drag I pulled out of the saltist was very smooth....too smooth in fact. I had the trouble where once the drag got started it was very easy for the fish to continue back to its hidey hole, I was continually having to thumb the spool to turn fish, even the not so big ones.

I have noticed that with the un greased carbontex, besides the increase in drag, that start up drag tends to be a little higher than what you set it at (say its set to 5kg, you need about 6-7kg to get it going) but once its starts, its still relatively smooth (not as smooth as the old greased carbon drag), but it maintains the full drag pressure the whole time and the need to thumb the spool is now almost non existent.

I should mention that I tested the drag out, the stock drag was good for just under 10kg, about 8kg usable, the new carbontex drag though, is now good for 18kg, 15 of which is usable. Not the most scientifically method was used for testing though, just used some weights from the bench.

[tunaticer]

Are Carbonex drag washers available for $150 reels like Okumas, Shimano Aeros or BTR baitrunners? I have looked at Jack Erskines site and he does not list anything for the lesser reels.

[ffejsmada]

I tried to get carbontex washers for my stradics but Jack didn't do them.

One way to find out if he does washers for a particular reel..........ring the man!

[try to fish]

try the guru.............alan tani!!!

[reggy]

Are Carbonex drag washers available for $150 reels like Okumas, Shimano Aeros or BTR baitrunners? I have looked at Jack Erskines site and he does not list anything for the lesser reels.

If you measure the inside and outside dimensions of the washers you need, Jack will cut to size for you.

[whiteman]

Yeah a bloke who has been doing it for over 30 years and is Townsville Shimano Gold Class Sefvice agent sure doesn't know what he's talking about........

Read about it all you like, I'd much rather take the word of someone with PRACTICAL experience than text book know it all syndrome

That explains why the Carbon drag in my new Shimano Tyrnos is greased out of the box? A bloke with 30+ years of experience usually does have a wealth of knowledge but in this case he must be ignoring the specs of Shimano. It seems Shimano used to put these things in dry but not any more. All of my Carbontex/greased overheads perform faultlessly in very tough conditions. That is my "reel" world experience. Let others try both dry and wet and see what they come up with. I know what gives my reels the best performance.

[GPB]

An add
"Upgrade your drag with Jack Erskines carbontex drag washers - "SIMPLY THE FINEST"
The new generation carbon fiber produces the perfect combination of unrivaled stopping power , silky smoothness and outstanding consistency.
Carbontex drags may be used dry or very lightly greased. Cals UniversalReel & Drag Grease is recommended

The Townsville tech is the only one I have heard of that believes in the NO grease principal.
'Grease it up Baby'

[Scott nthQld]

That explains why the Carbon drag in my new Shimano Tyrnos is greased out of the box? A bloke with 30+ years of experience usually does have a wealth of knowledge but in this case he must be ignoring the specs of Shimano. It seems Shimano used to put these things in dry but not any more. All of my Carbontex/greased overheads perform faultlessly in very tough conditions. That is my "reel" world experience. Let others try both dry and wet and see what they come up with. I know what gives my reels the best performance.

Wrong again knucklehead.

Carbon and Carbontex might be similar in material, but both are a different style compared to one another.

If you have the mechanical apptitude, pull the carbon washers out of your tyrnos, and put them side by side with a set of Erskine Carbontex.

I certainly wouldn't know, especially since not 2 months ago I had a set of carbon washers out of a saltist, sitting next to the new set of erskine carbotex washers, but it looked to me that AS I DESCRIBED EARLIER, the carbontex washers are covered in ridges, and it is these ridges that provide the resistance to provide the drag on your reel. The standard carbon washers are a flat plane, and hence the entire surface area provides resistance for the drag. Therefore the flat planed carbon washers have a larger surface area than the carbontex washers in order to provide drag, greasing the ridges on a carbontex washer, will take away all or most of the benefit of using them (ie the reason you bought them....to get MORE drag pressure), so much so than you could end up with even less drag pressure than you started, depending on how much grease you put on them, so you might as well be throwing your $50 or whatever down the drain, which i suspect you probably already have done....several times.

Have your 'reel' (HAHA FUNNY BTW ) world experience and use all the puns you like, still doesn't hide the fact that you are getting your info from what some other knucklehead wrote on the net and your taking it as gospel, either way, i went with what i did, because hell, just or the fun of it, I got some REAL WORLD advice from someone in the business.

When you realise how ignorant you're being and hit your head on something do an extra....just for me.

[whiteman]

Thanks for the compliments. The washer in my tyrnos is exactly the same as the ones I got from Jack E. I don't experience any "drag lag" and this is what I want 'cause I set my drags correctly. To each their own. Maybe others can learn from both of us.

[Stroadman]

As soon as someone has a differing opinion to yourself Scotty, you get all nasty and narky dont'ya? No need for it pal, take a pill, chill out, calm down, you'll bust a vein matey!
You could both be right you know!

Cheers Heretic.

[GPB]

From the Nomad 'Knucklehead' site .

"Carbontex can be installed dry OR with a VERY LIGHT coating of Cal's Universal Reel and Drag grease. We reccomend the use of grease. This is the only grease we recommend. It can be used on the drags and everywhere else in the reel grease is desired. All old grease should be cleaned out of the reel before re-greasing with Cal's grease. A VERY LIGHT coating of Cal's grease on the Carbontex is recommended if you are likely to get your reels very wet, it will help waterproof the drag system. Very light means you should be able to leave a finger print in the grease on the surface of the drag. When it comes to drags more grease is NOT better!"

PS: I think the Willy Mason thing is catching on in Townsville already

[banshee]

I can only think that Cal's grease has had a serious revamp/upgrade because the stuff I received was absolutely the worst drag grease I've ever used.I stupidly tried it on a couple of customers reels when we couldn't access our two regular brands only to have the reels find their way back in the hands of unhappy people.I am managing to get through it by useing it on heavey main gears but it will be a cold day in hell before it finds it's way back into another drag stack.I've used this grease on everything bar the carbontex so maybe that is it's forte but to be honest I can't see the point in adding lube to a product that 'bleeds' off and retains due to the raised checkered pattern one of the best lubricants on the planet.

[whiteman]

More info please banshee .... your pot of Cals looks the same as what I use although the packaging is different as it looks a lot older. I only use it on my carbon fibre drags and can't fault it. Contrary to what others assume above I've done a lot of research on this stuff before I got on board including a visit to Jack E. I tested it on a TLD15 and was very impressed before upgrading 3 other TLDs.
I don't know what Shimano uses on my Tyrnos ex factory but it looks like Cals or a similar compound but I'm not about to get it chemically analysed.
Why did customers return their reels? What is your regular grease? Any good info will be appreciated by a lot of us.

[Strewth]

X 2

I've been using Cal's grease on my baitcasters with Carbontex for a few years with excellent results. Only use a smidgin. Might lose a (slight) bit of max drag capacity, but the startup is super smooth with no ratcheting.