Zillion HLC

[FueKha]

Want to know what ur thoughts are on this reel thinking about purching one.

[Nitroman77]

what are you going to use it for?
I LOVE the 2 I have now and I would Def. get another if it crossed my path..SUPER smooth reel and holds plenty of line..

[FueKha]

I throw traps and cranks alot i've have the us zillions and they cast great hows does this reel compare to the others

[Gulfcoastwader]

I have seen Nitroman now and humph earlier both say the HLC's are SUPER smooth reels

What is it exactly that makes it so smooth? Am I missing anything below? I have a 6.3: 1 Zillion that I have now:

1. totally broken down, cleaned and cleaned bearings and used Rocket Fuel to relube them up
2. Upgraded the spool bearings to Abec 7 ceramic orange seals and used Rocket Fuel
3. Installed an HLC spool; and in HLC spool I removed stock bearing and added a Abec 7 ceramic orange seal w Rocket Fuel
4. upgraded levelwind from bushing to bearing
5. installed carbontex drag
6. about to add a 4-bearing handle
7. used light Shimano shop grease on gears and idle gears

This modified monster is SUPER-smooth

I assuming now it is as smooth as a $500+ HLC but since I have never handled a HLC I do not know for sure

Is the list above lacking something the HLC has??

Thanks

[lvang24]

what are you going to use it for?
I LOVE the 2 I have now and I would Def. get another if it crossed my path..SUPER smooth reel and holds plenty of line..

great looking zillions!

[arbogastjunkie]

I have two HLCs and think they are awesome reels!

[spencerinstl]

I have seen Nitroman now and humph earlier both say the HLC's are SUPER smooth reels

What is it exactly that makes it so smooth? Am I missing anything below? I have a 6.3: 1 Zillion that I have now:

1. totally broken down, cleaned and cleaned bearings and used Rocket Fuel to relube them up
2. Upgraded the spool bearings to Abec 7 ceramic orange seals and used Rocket Fuel
3. Installed an HLC spool; and in HLC spool I removed stock bearing and added a Abec 7 ceramic orange seal w Rocket Fuel
4. upgraded levelwind from bushing to bearing
5. installed carbontex drag
6. about to add a 4-bearing handle
7. used light Shimano shop grease on gears and idle gears

This modified monster is SUPER-smooth

I assuming now it is as smooth as a $500+ HLC but since I have never handled a HLC I do not know for sure

Is the list above lacking something the HLC has??

Thanks

That 4-bearing handle you are about to add will make it smoother. I added 50th Zillion 4 bearings handles to my 3 zillions and it has definitely made them smoother.

[humph005]

I can put my ear up to my HLC and hear ZERO gear noise while under load. I can't say that about any other reel I've ever tried.

Mine actually has a U.S. gearset in it, because I dropped my original JDM pinion gear on a concrete floor the first week I had the reel!

I've had 2 US 6.3:1 Zillions, and one felt just like my HLC, but the other was slightly less smooth. A lot of times polishing/sanding the outside of the pinion gear where it rides in the lower pinion support bearing can make a big difference in noise and feel.

The HLC is an amazing reel. I always get jealous when I see Takahiro Omori and his boat full of them!!!!!!

[aussiebasser]

Very, very smooth reel, and you can make them pretty.


Only thing wrong with them is the handle.

[wjgrnp]

It's the lightest zillion at 205 g

[Somerdink]

I just got one and I want a other super awesome reel I have mine spooled with 50lb stren super braid and im going to use as a swim jig/ jig reel

[jvelth74]

Hi,

Anybody have casting with old HLC, is that HLC Magforce very special? (Yes, much stronger spring of course, but anything else?) Should it still behave somehow normal? My feels is like that there is virtually no Magforce at all.

I purchased one old HLC Zillion from Ebay. It was good price because there is one big scratch. But when reel arrived I found it was much better condition than I was been thinking. By looking it looks almost scratchless with the exception of that one big scratch which was clearly visible in pictures in Ebay. I’m really happy with my purchase.

I rolled reel in my home and tested drag and all the functions of reel. It feels mechanically very good. Feel is one of the best I have been tested. Despite of that this is used reel. Made in Japan is amazing. (Or anywhere where are high standards of manufacturing, but most of good reels are Made in Japan. And also it’s true that Made in Thailand Daiwa’s are not that bad…)

I’m (or I was) thinking to use this reel for seatrout fishing from shore in freezing situations and spool it with mono. (Because in sub zero weather braided line in baitcasting reel is more problematic than mono.) For test the reel I spooled it with 0.40 mm Sufix Synegry (because I have it big spool for trolling.) Rod for test was Daiwa Whisker WH902MHB-AS, which is a little heavy but in my opinion otherwise very good rod and it casts very well seatrout lures with Tatula CT Type-r which is spooled with braided line. I casted 30 g and 40 g weights with HLC Zillion. First I casted short and cautiously. Wow – one of worst bird nest that I have seen for years. Almost unsolved but just cleared that. Second one cast about 30 m and braking with thumb all the way. Still I got loose circuits of line on spool for ~10 meters. What the heck… I added speed to rod and tried to cast as long as I could, but I couldn’t cast longer than I can cast with Tatula. But Tatula is extremely easy to cast. And Zillion is extremely hard to cast. Zillion needs to be thumb controlled all the way of cast. If I total release thumb when cast is flown for ~50 m I get immediately bad bird nest…Amazing. This is maybe hardest reel to cast that I have tried. And I have tried to cast traditional Ambassadeur without any centrifugal breake (or magnetic brake) and removen Level Wind and bearings cleaned by aceton… And there is wery little effect on adjusting Magforce in HLC Zillion. But there is effect so it’s not total broken. But I have a doubt of should this HLC Magforce be like this? I have tested that inductor moves when I pull it by fingers. But when I tried casting it feels like inductor never moves. Would there be problem with weights inside spool? I have never opened Magforce-Z. But now it seems a time for this. Maybe I try to change inductor spring from HLC to Tatula and other way round. Because in Tatula I have been felt that inductor stays out too long (and limit casting performance) and now I felt that in HLC inductor doesn’t move at all :-) HLC is clearly much used reel because it spools bearings rolling performance are not even near to my best reels. But I dropped a drop of Rocket Oil to these before test casts and that made them better rolling.

Still I’m not disappointed to my purchase. It’s nice reel in a bookcase. And maybe I practice to cast it in someday. Or do someone has comments how to overhaul this reel if it sounds not working as should?

[surge]

This spool needs higher RPM for the inductor to extend but one thing you could check is to remove the side plate, turn brakes to the max and see if the notches on the brake rings align. If not then the bigger ring has come loose and needs to be glued back on.

[BigG]

Must have a Zillion HLC, love mine, also have a HLC spool in a CC. They're the bomb!

[jvelth74]

Thanks. I checked that brake rings – those are OK and those moves as should. Probably I just have issue with this thick and stiff (0.40 mm) line which was just spooled to reel. In fact I don’t have casted many times with any mono / baitcaster combination for 20 years. Maybe this reel would behave better with braid because those are familiar for me. In any case loose rounds conducting to really deep are because of stiff mono that which wants to be loosen by itself. But still I’m not sure that is this HLC Zillion’s Magforce working correctly. But when I have inspiration I check inside the spool what’s there. And if I don’t find something is broken, then I’m thinking to try some bizarre swaps like weaker spring to HLC and stronger spring to Tatula. And also rotors seems interchangeable. Hah, HLC Zillion without HLC parts!