Drag upgrade on Diawa Zillion - required?

[goodoo]

I've had a Zillion (HLA I think) for a couple of years now, mainly for heavy bass work and chasing flattie and cod in the brisbane River. I run 20lb braid and about approx. 3kg drag (set with spring scales) and drag has always been silky smooth.

I'm planning a trip to Monduran and looking to use the same reel with 30lb braid and 5/6 kg. Done some testing over the last week and I find that it's very difficult to get 5kg of drag and impossible to get silky smooth drag over 3.5 kg.

Is this to be expected? Am I asking too much of the reel? Would upgrading the drag washers to a set from Erskine's make any difference to: (a) more drag; and ( smoother drag?

I must admit that I have the same problems with an old Abu 6600G ... brilliant drag up until about 3 to 4kg of drag pressure, then very poor after that.

as always, any advice is very welcome ...

[shortie]

In my opinion any erskine drag upgrade to worth while.

I recently services a very old reel of mine and simply used erskine drag grease in it.

The drag came up nice and smooth with that alone.

It would be worth your while

[noname]

i don't know much about these sort of reels at all... but i do know about drag pressures, i think what your asking of the reel might be a bit much 4-5.5 kilo is a bloody lot even though it does not sound much,a bit of pressure on the gears as well, as for upgrades, i have never got them done to my reels, so i wouldn't have a clue there,but it sounds like a good excuse to buy a new toy to play with:laugh:

best of lukk with it

robbo

[toadievoluzion]

a set of erskine drag washers would be nice since ur reel's been used a lot. BTW even the stock drag on daiwa baitcasters r not perfect on high settings.

[goodoo]

thanks guys ... sounds like I am asking too much of the reel and taht I should get the drag upgrade. I'll give it a go. However, I'm left wondering how much drag guys using Curado 200's or other regular barra reels with 30 or 40lb braids are using? Are they actually only applying 3 or 4kgs and the extra line strength is just a security thing? You guys who fish for barra regularly, any advice?

Javi