Shimano Vanford handle failure

[NKlamerus]

I bought a 4000 Vanford to replace my ~8? Year old Stradic Ci4+ 4000

On my 2nd trip, and 5th fish ever on it, the handle stripped right out of the body.

I set the hook and got the fish about halfway back to the boat, all the sudden the handle was loose, figured maybe the antireverse failed or I accidently reeled backwards and it unscrewed. Needless to say it was going the right direction, and I lost the fish

I bought it at Sportsmans Warehouse in Roseburg on June 5th, probably the last they have had in the state of Oregon since then, all their stores are completely sold out at the moment.

The one I bought was the floor model, it had been out for 3 days, and I do remember thinking something was odd with the handle, I actually asked some friends of mine in Florida to compare it to theirs, I had the feeling it wasn't screwing in all the way. I still had the photo in my messages

They (the Portland Location sportsmans warehouse) took it back for a full refund with no issues. I keep 100% of the packaging, paperwork, box, etc... For all my reels.

Yesterday I called about a dozen shops and was able to find some in stock at Fisherman's Marine and Outdoor in Portland and made the round trip drive from Eugene to pick it up.

Going to spool it up with the same braid and I guess be more lenient with it.

 

[bass]

Dang. In general I like Shimano, Daiwa and ABU reels. I have had issues with several Okuma spinning reels (love their rods).

Did you get the same reel? I assume the handle was cross-threaded at manufacture. I would make sure that the new reel does not have the same issue.. I like the design of the cheaper reels where the spindle has a square cross-section to handle the load and goes all the way through the body. Probably is a bit heavier but that design (most spinning reels) is rock solid and pretty much indestructible.

 

[NKlamerus]

Dang. In general I like Shimano, Daiwa and ABU reels. I have had issues with several Okuma spinning reels (love their rods).

Did you get the same reel? I assume the handle was cross-threaded at manufacture. I would make sure that the new reel does not have the same issue.. I like the design of the cheaper reels where the spindle has a square cross-section to handle the load and goes all the way through the body. Probably is a bit heavier but that design (most spinning reels) is rock solid and pretty much indestructible.

I did buy another of the same model

More than likely whoever assembled it to be displayed at Sportsmans Warehouse cross threaded it, but I definitely agree the square shaft is a much stronger attachment, I think the main downside is little bit of play between the square shaft in the housing, you could probably feel it on higher end reels, whereas threads have no backlash at all once tightened

What's odd to me is that with the handle on the left side, only the outer threads are used

But if the handle is installed on the right side, the internal and external (I believe) threads are used.

I think Asia predominantly uses reels with the handle on the right? Not sure.

My charter buddies say it's a pretty even 50/50 split for them.

 

[bass]

Interesting. I did notice the two-level threading on the handle and I wondered what that was for. You are probably right about the extra play but for me that is a fair trade off for the durability. I have no idea what handle side is most popular in Japan.

I did learn a new term this year. JDM. Japanese Domestic Market. I bought a new baitcaster this year and the rod was JDM (primarily made to be sold in Japan). The rod line (models) are not heavily advertised or sold in the states. It just happened to sound like the perfect ML baitcast rod for smallmouth (and happily I am thrilled over the moon with it).

 

[Snopro]

JDM tackle is a serious rabbit hole. I've been waiting on my favorite JDM site (Digitaka!) to stock a reel. They keep teasing me by occasionally having the correct ratio in stock but the wrong handle side.

 

[NKlamerus]

Definitely a whole new world

There's some seriously cool YouTube vids of "jdm" stores, which are just tackle shops in Japan lol

 

[DOKF]

That is an odd design for reversible cranks. It looks like the inner threads are for one side, while the outer threads are for the other direction. It should be impossible to engage both left handed and right handed threads at the same time.

From a machining point of view, it would also be extremely difficult to have two different diameter threads line up exactly and engage simultaneously.

No wonder they were cross threaded.

Every reversible spinning reel I've ever used had a square shaft to drive the mechanism with a lock screw unaffected (mostly) by the crank rotation.