@Brycecover @bulldog1935

On 12/25/2025 at 1:09 PM, bulldog1935 said:

@Brycecover '22 Zillion HD has brass hyperdrive gears and MagZ Boost spool.  

'21 Zillion SV TW has alloy gears and SV Boost spool.  

USM Zillion G has brass gears and SV Boost spool - I'm not sure if they're hyperdrive, but I have a '22 HD gearset arriving soon to compare.  I'll come back to this post and edit-in photo.  

My 5-yr salt Z-SV-TW is getting a brass gearset, and I'll have both G and HD new gearsets.  Down the line, my Silver Wolf will get the 2nd gearset.  G gearset, btw, has fine-toothed stainless pinion.  

I'm back, Plat and DHL delivered my '22 HD 8.5 gearset today.  Direct comparison, USM Zillion G brass gearset bought from Tackle Trap are identical to the '22 HD brass gears, including teeth profile and stainless pinion.  It's also noteworthy '21 SV TW with alloy main also came with the same stainless pinion - people on TT forum argued with me when I made this observation last fall.  (but it makes sense, because modern hard-anodize is as hard as run-in stainless).  

 

And yes, there's a smooth-operating difference between new brass HD gears and 5-years-in-salt stock alloy gears - but you can't see it by looking - yes, first photo below  is the drive cover first removed - stock gears after 5 hard salt years, 

 

then new brass gears installed and ready to put the drive cover back on.  

@bulldog1935 I did not know the HD was built with a stainless pinion nor the G model Zil. My personal opinion is Daiwa is making the best gear set on the market for these reels.. let’s put it another way, it’s money well spent. 

 

@F14A-B - not just those two, the alloy main gear in Steez SV TW, Silver Wolf and '21 Zillion SV TW is also matched with stainless pinion - no worry about 8.5 gears and pinion life.  

 

1 hour ago, bulldog1935 said:

delivered my '22 HD 8.5 gearset

How much was it? 

 

 

@Banned User

The HD gearset from Plat was $38 with parts handling charge , but DHL courier was $20, and tariff charge was 15% import duty plus $17 CN23 brokerage - no COD, I pre-paid through DHL On Demand.  

I made it worthwhile by ordering favorite JDM PE lines (on sale), also 15% import duty.  

Compare to Zillion G gearset (I got the last 8.5) from Tackle Trap at $78 + $6 first class mail.  The Plat purchase works out a little cheaper, even without my JDM PE lines offsetting the brokerage and courier charge.  

 

I have a long small-item-list order arriving from JapanTackle next week, $112 in items, and I prepaid $19 to DHL for tariff charges today - that seemed like a good deal for stuff I need and can't get here.  

 

DHL is probably better at this tariff stuff, because they're experienced with it based in Germany - also, their speed has picked up, and local delivery is better, both probably because of smaller volume,  My favorite Teamsters, UPS, has really been over-worked between CN23 and recent staff reduction.  

@Andrés Milano long time, buddy. Did you buy?