TOPIC:

Was wondering if anyone using traxstech rod holders had any difficulty getting them to move when they were new? Getting them out of their locked verticals position and re-locked into whatever angle I want them seems to be real difficult for an expensive rod holder. I don’t think of myself as weak and I have the ban these pretty hard with my palms numerous times to get them to pop open. I don’t see anything for adjustment.... is there something I’m missing or does anyone have any tips? Also, these are the twist and turn non- ratchet model

From my experience, the key is knowing exactly where to grab the holder to shift it out of its lock easily. Remember, its guided along a shaft, so if your grabbing it too high, your putting a bending force on it that makes it difficult to slide out to rotate. There is a sweet spot. Think about trying to pull a dipsy rod out of a holder with the fish on and what you have to do to get the rod out. To a certain extent, same thing.

I struggled with mine on the riggers on my stratos til I figured it out. I also lubed my shafts of the holders with dry silicone spray which helped a bit.

Also for the vertical movement if you have it, you can lift up and rotate counterclockwise to loosen spring tension. This seemed to ease the force required on it. Whether that is accurate or placebo effect I dont know, but seemed to help for me.

If no luck - call traxtech and they will guide you to success Im sure.

Yea I'm definitely grabbing them correct. I'll try spraying them with some silicone spray and see if that makes it tolerable. It's almost like there is too much friction because they don't even want to "close" back up once I have them at the proper angle. I almost have to beat them to death to get them back in as well as out. I'll play around for another week or so in the garage trying to work them and I'll call Traxstech if needed. Thanks for the info though bud just didn't know if they were suppose to be that tough and eventually broke in or not.

The ones on the downriggers take a little getting used to but I just tap them with the bottom of my palm while I adjust with my opposite hand. I agree, for $1500 each, I think they could have designed better.

Dont quote me because every holder is different -but it seemed to me that rotating the holder counter clockwise had the effect of loosening the spring tension. It sounds to me though like the friction is too much on the shafts - lubing them will help.

I have the same problem with my Traxstech RH-3 holders. Gotta bang them pretty good to pop them in and out of lock. I've gotten used to it but, if I were to do it again, I'd go with the Canon dual axis rod holders. They're simple, one-handed operation. If you come up with a way to make the traxstech holders easier to deal with, I'd definitely be interested in hearing about it.

In as far as simplicity is concerned it is hard to beat the Bert's rodholders. True one handed operation just grab the rod above the reel and sharply lift or pull up and holder ratchets up to allow easy rod removal.

frisbee3557 wrote:

I have the same problem with my Traxstech RH-3 holders. Gotta bang them pretty good to pop them in and out of lock. I've gotten used to it but, if I were to do it again, I'd go with the Canon dual axis rod holders. They're simple, one-handed operation. If you come up with a way to make the traxstech holders easier to deal with, I'd definitely be interested in hearing about it.

Following on Jeff's comment about spraying them down with silicone helped a lot. Also, I found that working the allen screw while the rod holder is in the unlocked position and work both the rod holder up and down and slowly adjust the allen head till you feel the resistance change worked really well. You still have to bang them but not nearly as hard. All I know is winter fishing is going to suck when I can't feel my hands as it is and I have to palm smack them.