Reels of the Past and Some Still Here > PENN REELS

CHINA MADE Penn Senator 113H2 compared to U.S. Made

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Wompus Cat:
Ok PENN is having a lot of their Reels Made in China now and one of their Hugely Popular Old Standard Reels the
4/0 Senator which through the years have gone through slight modifications such as scenery on the side plates ,different spools  one piece three piece Stainless ,Chromed Brass, and even  a Bullet Proof Aluminum one . Different Spring configurations for the A/R Dog, Muti pieced Frames and Cross Bars , Graphite Frames without brass Insrts ,Graphite Frames With Brass inserts, Some aluminum Frames !! .Many Different Handles , Brass Gears,SS Gears as well as some of the Guts. Drag Disks . JUST to name a few subtle changes over the year.

  One of the latest is the 113 H2 which is manufactured in CHINA.
In the past a Huge amount of our Goods were Made over seas to save money in production costs and just were not the same Quality as Good Ol' American Made and I was one of the Guys who totally agreed  and with Just Cause I might add
However I recently bought 2 of these and tore in to one to compare .
 On a scale of 1 to 10 and 10 Being Muy Bueno I have to give these Reels a 5  ( Nuttin /gets a 10 in my Book except some Purdy Young Voluptuous Thing in a String Bikini  ;D
Some pix. and side by side comparisons to come ( Reel Pix. Not Voluptuous Young Things as there are other sites for that )

Wompus Cat:
Update to this thread as after Carefull examination of side by side scrutiny along with pix to back it up the Reel is in my opinion  a
    POORLY COPIED VERSION OF A FORMERLY GREAT DESIGN 




To back up my statement I found the One piece Graphite Frame only has 3 screws of the 5  on each side to hold it together where the early version has 7 of its Eight making it weak as comparison  to the older Version . At a glance it LOOKS LIKE there are Four into the Frame however it is cleverly cut out to allow a Cross Bar to fit down in a U-Shaped  Groove whereas the older has direct contact to Frame on 7 of each side with one Cross Bar at the Top

New Version with only 3 contact points and a optical illusin of more ....lol



Old Version with 7 Contact Points

 


The Spool while looking like a finely built aluminum one like the Earlier Version seems much lighter although I did NOT weight it  I did measure the Width and found it to be nearly 2 MM shorter and the business End of the Shaft only protrudes about Halfway through the Bearing which is just stuck in the plastic end of the newly shaped Sideplate where the older version has the shaft protruding at least a Millimeter or More and then goes in the Steel Cap inserted in the Sidplate.

Here is the Short Shaft on the China  Reel and the shaft lacks a lot being even half waf in the Bearing . (Can't be Good after a few Trips and a Few  big Fish .)



OLD SPOOL With Bearing



I can only see some major Fubars down the Road with the 2 above mentioned  BOO BOO's



Then there are issues in the  Newly Shaped Drivers Side Sideplate .It just Feels cheap .....lol all I can say and when looking at it closely I found 2 maybe three Surface Cracks around the gear housing .

It is difficult to get Good pix  but you can see one  of the Cracks here






Side by side  you notice some differences like the handles and their respective retainers ,No end bearing Cap , revamped Gear Housing ,and only 5 Screws . The plates ,Spool ,and guts seem to interchange but with some noted differences as follows

 



They have removed much of the artsy work usually found on the old Reliable Versions making it in my opinion Look Like a Cheap ass Copy of the other.
 
OLD VERSION with the Classical Jumping Fish



And the new improved  Different looking  Fish and  Lettering




 A few other discrepancies I won't mess with right now but may add later such as the Price I got these for then the Letter from a part Supplier I buy from FROM PENN threatening DEALERS (NOT ME) I am just a parts Buyer and part Time Reel Enthusiast and Tinkerer  that DEALERS needed to adhere to a corporate PRICING policy standard not discounting the Reels and parts ( will find that Letter and post it later too.  )

So to me China is making these things so CHEAP and in such quantities that a Dealer could sell them even Cheaper than I paid which was nearly Half of the price Marked on the Box is all I can say.

To sum up what I think is these new ones while appealing will just not be around the 60  Plus Years the old ones have been and of course time will tell .

 

Wompus Cat:
On a Good/Bad Scenario  .
The China Made Penn 113 Sleeve Fitment to Bridge Plate has addition space .
Good as the Originals after time seem to rub against the plate and need to be filed down to keep from grabbing .   
  Bad in that it has a gap allowing debris to get under it .....lol
Here is one that has been  used a while and  shows  some corrosion on the Spool Frame,and posts . The Screws don't seem to have same quality coating as well.

Gap on Sleeve



Corrosion on Screws (Poor Plating)

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