Some of the American tackle reel seats are described with 'cushioned' reel seats. What exactly is that? Thin aluminum over foam/fabric? What for?

Steven,
The cushioned reel seat has several advantages over a reel seat that is just plain metal and therefore has direct metal to metal contact between the reel and the reel seat. The reel will tend to deform the plastic cushion a little so that the reel fits better, tighter, in the reel seat and the plastic cushion also, because it avoids direct metal to metal contact, helps to prevent electrolysis between the reel and the reel seat if they are different metals, particularly in salt water.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2005 09:18PM by Emory Harry.

Years ago, I always had used the all-metal hooded, or un-cushioned, reel seats because of the looks. I liked the unaltered look of the all-metal hoods. I slowly switched to the cushioned seats and now, I like the looks of them better than the un-cushioned ones. Go figure...

The reels do fit nicer in the cushioned reel seats as Emory said in his post.

Putter
Williston, ND

They also fit tighter and don't loosen up. All around better seats.

If you use the old style reels the feet on them were alot thicker and you would have to use the uncushioned kind of reel seats, you should always have your customer or friend bring the reel to your place to see if it fits snuggly in the reel seat you pick out for your customer or friend.

Neal's Fishing Products

Neal,
I have seen the problem that you are referring to and I think that your suggestion about getting the actual reel that the customer will be using is a good one but I think that I would tend, on most rods, to go up one size of reel seat before I would use a non-cushioned reel seat if an older reel did not fit.
I know that we used the non-cushioned reel seats for a lot of years and thought that they were fine but now I think that the cushioned reel seats have several advantages and the additional cost is small.

I'm confused. Are you saying the 'cushioned' reel seats run smaller/tighter?

Steven,
On most of the reel seats from Batson, Pac Bay, and Fuji the cushion is a plastic insert that is added to the non-cushioned reel seat so the answer to your question is yes. The cavity or hole that the foot of the reel goes into is a little smaller on a cushioned reel seat.

You all have to understand that the new reels feet are alot more thinner as they are trying to get them as light as possiable so the fisherman can feel relaxed at the end of a day of fishing. So in making the feet thinner the components manufactures had to put the cushion in on the reel seats so the reels would fit tighter.

Neal's Fishing Products