Just put in an order for a Newell P322 and I have heard that their bearings and drags are not the best but they cast great. Is there any upgrades for the drag washers and/or bearings?

Thanks,

I own a few Newells and so far all I've done is after a years use is change out the stock drags to the Penn HT-100's.

You should use the Penn 500 size and I prefer to grease them for smoothness with a good quality drag grease. I should add here that when you grease drags you will loose a bit of drag off the top end but the rest will be butter smooth with no chatter.

Bearings are not a problem with these reels, or at least they have not been with my reels but you can get ABEC5 or ABEC7 quality replacement bearings and put them in if it makes you feel good. (I think Mark carres them but if he doesn't you can get them from Bocca bearings)

Stainless Steel bearings 1/8" x 3/8" x 5/32" or more precisely 0.125" x 0.375" x 0.156" I recall these are good in all Newells up to the 400 series.

Some people like to replace the handles but I've never bothered as I know how to crank on a reel not use it like a boat winch so I've never broken one.

They are great reels when used within thier design pramaters and in the hands of a decent jig tosser are hard to beat for distance.

I should warn you if you see a gray haired old fart with a T90 deckhand special jig stick with a Newell 332 on it don't challenge him to a jig tossing contest for beer.

Try the carboxtex drags. They are the exact size for Newell even the thickness is correct.

I have them in all 4 of my Newells and they work great. Use cals grease if you like grease drags. I think Chark has them both.

AD

I know better than to challenge the old jig tossers. No poker or casting bets on the boat for me. I was at the Coronado's last spring and watched the guys with Newells do their thing. I have to get my own jig casting set up now. Carbontex sounds like a great idea. I put them in my Saltist and they were great. Thanks for the ideas!
Chad

I agree with the carbontex being good washers, I also have used the smoothies and they work well too.

A nice addition is the new T Bar handle CharkBait sells for Newell reels. I bought two and really like them.