Daiwa's new ATD

[stella fella]

Does anyone know exactly what Daiwa's new Automatic Tournament Drag is and how it's supposed to work?

[shole01]

best explanation is off Daiwa's website

ATD or Automatic Tournament Drag is a new introduction into the Daiwa spinning reels. The biggest issue with many drag systems is that they are not smooth at the beginning of the drag and do not adjust to suit line distance or a fish slowing down. ATD rectifies this issue. As an example ATD works like this, at the beginning of a strike the drag starts smoothly, then increase to its pre-set drag rating, as the fish swims further away and begins to slow down, line pressure increases thus increasing drag and line breakage is a high possibility. The ATD system recognizes this and automatically decreases the drag to compensate for the added pressure. As an example, if a drag is set at 7kg, at the beginning of the strike for a brief moment it will be 1kg then increases to 7kg, as the fish swims say to 250m (this equates to approx. 3kg of extra line drag, depending on line thickness) the drag will decrease to 4kg, thus avoiding line breakage.

http://www.daiwafishing.com.au/2015-exist/

[tchoklat]

yeah and the little man inside the reel sees the fish skooting off and adjusts the drag to suit! Advertising malarky.

[boris]

Sounds like the drag knob doesn't stay done up to me!

Honestly no idea how it happens but I'd be keen to see the mechanics behind it.

[chopperdog]

Smooth start up is a good theory. The rest sounds unnecessary.

I'm keen to see the mechanics too. And a copy of the Daiwa service departments revenue projections for the next 5 yrs

[stella fella]

Originally Posted by shole01

best explanation is off Daiwa's website

ATD or Automatic Tournament Drag is a new introduction into the Daiwa spinning reels. The biggest issue with many drag systems is that they are not smooth at the beginning of the drag and do not adjust to suit line distance or a fish slowing down. ATD rectifies this issue. As an example ATD works like this, at the beginning of a strike the drag starts smoothly, then increase to its pre-set drag rating, as the fish swims further away and begins to slow down, line pressure increases thus increasing drag and line breakage is a high possibility. The ATD system recognizes this and automatically decreases the drag to compensate for the added pressure. As an example, if a drag is set at 7kg, at the beginning of the strike for a brief moment it will be 1kg then increases to 7kg, as the fish swims say to 250m (this equates to approx. 3kg of extra line drag, depending on line thickness) the drag will decrease to 4kg, thus avoiding line breakage.

http://www.daiwafishing.com.au/2015-exist/

Yeah, I've read that. They have only told us what it supposedly does, not what it is or how it does it.

[scott1987]

What about when you need max drag from the start such as when fishing for mangrove jacks? I don't see it being that useful. Only possibly in certain situations

[Sloth]

The way I read the example is that the drag ramps up to full drag as any normal drag would (and shouldn't concern those fishing around structure etc).

The magic seems to be that once a certain amount of line is out or the rate of line going out slows that it reduces the drag setting.

Seems only pertinent to fish that pull a lot of string ... the suggestion being if there is 250m of line out then that is an additional 3kg of pressure on the line,

So all in all my understanding is that ATD, whatever it is, only kicks in when the fish slows or a lot of line out .... it doesn't affect the initial strike and fight.

Daiwa marketing fail on trying to tell people what it is though

[Sloth]

The only other reference is this:

"There is also a new Automatic Tournament Drag (ATD) system, compared by Daiwa to an automatic transmission that works at the specific force intended."

I guess then its a mechanism by which if you set x kg of drag then the reel ensures that its not exceeded by adjusting to line pressure.

[bjspinner]

It sounds like it could be like a torque converter the faster it pulls the more torque on the drag, as there is no way that the reel can sense how much line is off the spool.

Another sealed component we cannot service ourselves....

[matt jorg]

I can't see any real benefit? I can't say Id need a reel to adjust its drag for me.

[M4tt]

Originally Posted by chopperdog

Smooth start up is a good theory. The rest sounds unnecessary.

+1

Originally Posted by matt jorg

I can't see any real benefit? I can't say Id need a reel to adjust its drag for me.

Agreed. The initial "strike" phase drag adjustment sounds pretty decent though, the rest is trivial nonsense. Marketing 101.