I was fishing with my XH St Croix and Shimano Tranx 300 Throwing big rip bait for striper at pyramid lake California. Cold morning and could not fish without my gloves, Made the first cast and boom, here no drag at all. Like it doesn't meant to be anything such drag in fishing reel, Makestory short I changed my set up and back home, try it and it has drag like mother. I hear the same thing about a YouTube had the same issue with tranx 300.

Anyone around know what is the problem with tranx reels? is it because of cold weather? or a bad batch?

Using braid? Could be slipping on the spool.

53 minutes ago, Dirtyeggroll said:

Using braid? Could be slipping on the spool.

using braid, but iy is not slipping, right after later same day at home it was perfect.

Put me down for $2 on braid slipping, and another $2 on whatever team Brady is QBing for next year.

sounds like your line was slipping on the spool. I fished a 400A Tranx for musky a lot last season and was perfect. very strong drag too. now if i could only catch my first musky hahahaha

21 minutes ago, Hulkster said:

sounds like your line was slipping on the spool. I fished a 400A Tranx for musky a lot last season and was perfect. very strong drag too. now if i could only catch my first musky hahahaha

no guy, believe me please it wasn't line slipping.

On 3/1/2021 at 7:47 AM, ATA said:

no guy, believe me please it wasn't line slipping.

 

Well, the last 10 or 20 similar posts by other members have ALL turned out to

be line slippage. I suggest using a VERY small piece of electrical tape to attach

the line to spool. Otherwise, return  the reel.

If it was as cold as you say then my guess is the braid was "hard" and the spool was slipping, when you got home the braid had relaxed because it warmed up and it was fine. I have used a piece of electrical tape for years and never had slipping issues.

2 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

If it was as cold as you say then my guess is the braid was "hard" and the spool was slipping, when you got home the braid had relaxed because it warmed up and it was fine. I have used a piece of electrical tape for years and never had slipping issues.

me too, I use electrical tape and never had issue with any other set ups for years

Place reel in freezer for an hour then try to spin handle backwards. My bet is it spins backwards.

 

Culprit with these things is usually grease freezing/becoming to stiff in the AR bearing. Braid slippage tends to be fairly noticeable.

Try cleaning with CLP BreakFree, good lubricant that works in freezing or hot  temperatures.

Tom 

5 hours ago, garroyo130 said:

Place reel in freezer for an hour then try to spin handle backwards. My bet is it spins backwards.

 

Culprit with these things is usually grease freezing/becoming to stiff in the AR bearing. Braid slippage tends to be fairly noticeable.

This, or it could be that oil migrated somewhere it shouldn't have been.

 

Twice now, I've had a reel do that to me.  Where it had no drag, and even though I tightened the drag down, it still wouldn't engage on me.  Though both times, I loosed the drag all the way, and then retightened it, and it fixed the problem.  

There's nothing in the drag system that would fail here, causing the drag to work intermittently.  It sounds like failing all the other answers, the spool release is not engaging the spool pin.  I've worked on reels that were gummed up and would stick.  Sometimes fiddling with the drag adjustment, or just smacking the top of the reel with your hand gets it to engage.  The permanent solution is to have it serviced, and set up for cold weather use.

I'm going with braid slipping but general rule of thumb.....  clean it, check the drag washers, and use Cal's Purple Grease on them in cold weather but as things heat up Tan works better.  Also, if you have pressure on the drag star, there isn't anything that can stop the drag from applying to the spool.   It either works or it doesn't.  

I had the same problem with two of my reels both were fine in summer when it was hot out but when it got cold max drag I can see the spool free rolling when I pull the line. I've heard if you leave you drag on tight it'll effect it in some way in the gears inside. Opened it up and cleaned it, worked fine till it got cold out or even the ac in the vehicle caused it to loosing up.

Interesting, Coz I taught mine was fixed, But now I am thinking I never use mine in cold weather anymore. Going to give it a try.

Contact Dan Isaac at ReelEx. Dan is the top Shimano Tech for the west coast.

Tom

On 3/1/2021 at 3:54 PM, J Francho said:

There's nothing in the drag system that would fail here, causing the drag to work intermittently.  It sounds like failing all the other answers, the spool release is not engaging the spool pin.  I've worked on reels that were gummed up and would stick.  Sometimes fiddling with the drag adjustment, or just smacking the top of the reel with your hand gets it to engage.  The permanent solution is to have it serviced, and set up for cold weather use.

? 

On 3/1/2021 at 8:47 AM, ATA said:

no guy, believe me please it wasn't line slipping.

I'm having the exact same problem. I can tell it's not line slippage since the spool doesn't move when I reel, but when I pull the line it does.

2 hours ago, Stiper Man said:

I'm having the exact same problem. I can tell it's not line slippage since the spool doesn't move when I reel, but when I pull the line it does.

 

Place reel in freezer for an hour then try to spin handle backwards. My bet is it spins backwards.

 

Culprit with these things is usually grease freezing/becoming to stiff in the AR bearing. Braid slippage tends to be fairly noticeable.